METEOROLOGY/AGRONOMY/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 404/504


Block 2 Exam
31 March 1999
  1. What is a transient global climate model and how will its results be expected to differ from the other category of global climate model.


  2. Why might we worry if our climate system is determined to be "almost intransitive"?


  3. List and give a one-sentence description of 3 different paleoclimate methods for reconstructing information about past climates.


  4. Measured temperatures are the most reliable source of information about global warming, but they also have problems. List and discuss three problems that lead to uncertainties in the record of measured temperatures.


  5. The ice-altitude feedback process leads to an irreversibility, or hysteresis, of the death and birth of mountain glaciers. Using a sketch if necessary, describe the reason for this irreversibility and the conditions that are required for re-establishment of a glacier once lost to global warming.


  6. List 3 items I presented in at the National Forum for Agriculture that were not otherwise covered in class.


  7. Discuss the (a) motivation for, and (b) the difficulties in, mitigation as a response to climate change.


  8. You, as governor of Iowa, are approached by a satellite salesman who offers to put a geostationary satellite in low earth orbit (530 miles) over Iowa to monitor the corn and soybean crops by use of a radar to measure vegetation index. Your agriculture advisor encourages you to put up the money since it would give Iowa farmers an edge in monitoring the health of their crops. You agree, but insist on certain design changes. List the necessary changes to make the project work.


  9. The complex diagram demonstrating the components of earth system science and the NASA webpage describing Mission to Planet Earth (assigned reading) both point to the central role of soil (land) in the earth system. Write a paragraph describing how soil is highly interconnected with other components of the global climate system.