Climate- categories, controlling factors, and proxies | GEO GIRL

Climate categories, the factors that control climate, and paleoclimate proxies- difference between weather and climate, Koppen's climate categories (tropical rainy, dry, mid-latitude humid and warm, mid to high latitude humid and cold, polar), solar radiation, latitude and continents, global wind patterns (Coriolis effect), oceanic circulations (thermohaline currents), mountain belts / distribution (precipitation patterns), surface reflectivity (albedo), ice / snow and positive & negative feedback, atmospheric composition (greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, permafrost melting, water vapor, sulfur dioxide, acid rain), astronomical factors (Earth's rotation, tilt and wobble), paleoclimate vs. current climate change / global warming (fossil fuels, human-caused climate change, temperature rise, rate, effect of warming on environment and life, coral bleaching, polar bears, 6th mass extinction, and the *great* thing about climate change for us humans!)

References: Investigations in Historical Geology: Lab Manual by Deborah Caskey and Vicki Harder (2014) - Lab 13

Tools I use as a geologist/teacher/student:

0:00 Climate vs. weather
0:47 Climate categories
2:24 Factors that control climate
2:39 Climate feedback mechanisms
3:57 How solar radiation affects climate
4:35 How albedo affects climate
5:47 How continental latitude affects climate
6:20 How wind patterns affect climate
7:44 How ocean circulation affects climate
8:14 How mountains affect climate
8:44 How atmospheric composition affects climate
9:34 How CO2 affects climate
10:24 Is methane worse than CO2 for global warming?
11:30 How volcanos affect climate
11:56 How astronomical factors affect climate
12:54 How we reconstruct paleoclimate
15:30 Current global warming trend

Image sources:

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[robinleow]

That was a brilliant presentation (as always) and the conclusion and parting words are a class above human as a species!

[Nothingimportant]

Hey, you are a real professor. I do not know why universities request YouTubers to teach students. I am mostly learning my class lessons on Youtube. 😂

[davevann]

@12:12 In Earth's elliptical orbit, the Sun is NOT in the center of the ellipse, as is implied in the video. The Sun is approximately at one focus of the ellipse. Therefore, the Earth is closest to the Sun at one end of the ellipse (not at the sides of the ellipse as stated in the video). And the Earth is farthest from the sun at the other end of the ellipse. Because of orbital mechanics, the Earth spends more time at the end of the ellipse farthest from the Sun. Then at the end of the ellipse closest to the Sun, the Earth is travelling faster so spends less time at the end of the ellipse closest to the Sun.

[davevann]

@9:05 Greenhouse gasses do absorb some of the heat radiated upward by the Earth which would have otherwise been sent off to space and away from the Earth. The greenhouse gas molecules then re-radiate the heat in all directions, which sends approximately half of the absorbed heat energy back toward the Earth. This is heat energy that would have been radiated upward by the Earth and lost to space, being sent back toward the Earth.

[do_gotcha]

My paleoclimatology class condensed into an excellent video! I love it, and thank you for the video.

[dennis_mihaylov]

I've learnt a lot, thank you very much!

[PedroBigeriego]

Great video. I´d like to comment that oxygen released from photosynthesis comes from the splitting of the water molecule, not from the atmospheric CO2...I am sure you mention this in other videos that I have not yet watched, so please excuse me if so.

[whiskeytango]

The analogy I heard was this...climate is to weather what personality is to mood.

[LostArchivist]

Have you seen any successful integration of Chaos Theory models in providing long-term climatological insights? It seems like the edge of chaos concept in pattern form at least, comes into play fairly often from what I have seen.

[itsyaboi]

I’m curious as to what the time interval is for the regular fluctuations of Earth’s tilt and orbit. For a planet that’s been around a few billion years, I’m guessing its definition of regular isn’t the same as mine

[pgantioch]

The Sun was 30% cooler during the Hadean, >4B years ago, not the pre-Cambrian. The Sun becomes 1% stronger every ~140M years, a time which is gradually decreasing with time.

[royjohnston]

Rachel - excellent teaching videos. Re: the final climate change comments:
1. Water vapor vs CO2 - water vapor is around 95% of greenhouse gas and the great governor of warming not CO2.
2. Anthropogenic CO2 is contributing to warming but as your video explains, warming occurs in cycles which are not well understood, thus cannot be predicted.
3. The last Ice Age ended about 12, 600 years ago and Anthropogenic CO2 was about zero. We have been warming since then, with a hiatus from around 1300-1870. CO2 played almost no role in these warm ups.
4. "Scientists say" does not confir accuracy. Science is not conducted by Concensus.
5. The loss of "species" is not measurable because the definition of a species is not settled. Morphology as a determinant is being replaced by genomics.
5. Methane and water vapor infrared absorption overlap, thus eliminating any warming from increased methane.

These are not trivial issues I am raising and should be delineated in your presentation to insure your audience has a balanced perspective. Keep up the good work.

[revolvermaster]

Great video, but I must say that I’m not a member of the anthropogenic climatism church. I’m old enough to recall dozens of climate predictions over the last 50 years NONE of which have come close to coming to pass.

[harrykirk]

Also, frequency of extreme weather (FEW) is not climate or weather. It has to be studied largely on its own - easier to understand than weather perhaps but harder than climate certainly. FEW is harder to find as a topic than weather and climate. When you group FEW into climate, you give researchers and analysts an excuse to gloss over and hand wave about FEW, while pretending to fully cover the topic.