GEOL1302 Exam 2 Review

What is energy?

• Ability to do work.

• Power created by outside sources.

• Amount of work that it took to do something.

Why can radiation waves be referred to as electromagnetic?

• Because they are made up of electric and magnetic particles.
• Because they are produced by electromagnetic devices.
• Because they can be detected using electromagnetic radiation detectors.
• Because they possess both magnetic and electric fields that together propagate as electromagnetic waves.

What is wavelength? 

• The speed at which a wave travels through a medium.

• The measured distance between either a wave ridge (top) or trough (bottom) to the next succeeding ridge or trough respectively

• The time it takes for a wave to complete one full cycle.

What is frequency? 

• The speed of an object to go from top to bottom

• The amount of energy in a system
• The number of wavelengths passing a point in a unit of time

• The distance between two points

List the segments of the electromagnetic spectrum from smallest to largest wavelength.

• gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, microwaves, radio waves

• radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays

• infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, microwaves, radio waves

What is a blackbody?

• A body that will emit the max amount of radiation and absorbs all radiation reaching it at a given temperature

• A body that absorbs only certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation
• A body that reflects all incident electromagnetic radiation
• A black-colored object that emits light

What makes the Kelvin scale different than other temperature scales?

• It is an absolute temperature scale that starts at absolute zero.
• It is a temperature scale that measures only positive temperatures.
• It is a relative temperature scale that starts at absolute zero.
• It is a temperature scale that measures only negative temperatures.

List the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

• Water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane and nitrous oxide

• hydrogen, helium, neon, and xenon

• carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter

• oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and water vapor

If there are greenhouse gases that absorb the outgoing radiation, how does the Earth emit radiation into space?

• There are three atmospheric “windows” where the gases that comprise the atmosphere are transparent to radiation. The atmosphere itself also emits infrared radiation into space, which is the main component of outgoing longwave radiation.

• Due to albedo the amount of GHG that are absorbed very, the higher amount of energy that is able to be absorbed or reflected back is dependent on what type of surface that is being reflected on.

• None, that is not how it works.

What does the Keeling Curve show?

• Sustained increase in annual atmospheric CO₂ concentrations

• Sustained increase in annual atmospheric methane concentrations

• GHG increases