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= TOPIC 4: Describe how natural phenomena can affect climate. = =﻿= =﻿= =__//**﻿What does The Green house gas effect, volcanic eruptions, Coriolis effect, El Nino and La Nina have in common?**//__= =﻿There are all varieties of climate changes caused by natural phenomena.= =﻿= =﻿Volcanoes= = = = = Eruptions large enough to affect the climate occur only about several times per century, and this natural phenomena cause cooling. When there is a volcanic eruption, a volcano unleashes a lot of Sulphur Dioxide, water vapour, dust, ash and carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. and If the volcano is powerful enough, the debris emitted from the volcano can reach the upper levels of the stratosphere. Gases and dust particles block the majority of the incoming rays of the sun. Creating a smog like haze in the stratosphere ; which leads to cooling for several years. The debris act as efficient reflectors of sunlight, and screen the ground from some of the energy that would normally be received from the sun.This is how cooling can be brought about for a few years after a major volcanic eruption affecting climate. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo (see picture) was in 1991. It was one of the largest terrestrial eruptions of the 20th century. Global temperatures decreased by about 0.5 °C

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The natural phenomena of the Green house gas effect is when 30% of sunlight is reflected by the outer most atmosphere and is sent back into space. = = The rest reaches earths surface and is reflected upward again and this is called infrared radiation. Our climate is affected by this because green house gases are surrounding the earth kind of like a warm air blanket which traps heat. normally green house gases are a good thing But now because of excess greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, there has been excessive greenhouse effect, which has led to the rise in average temperature throughout the entire world. Green house gases include:65% Water vapour,25% carbon dioxide and 10% of various gases such as methane,nitrous oxide, CFC's and tropospheric ozone and take up only 1% of our earths atmosphere.

El Nino
= = El Nino is the warming of the ocean current and it is also known as known as the southern oscillation. It occurs about every approximately every 4-12 years. It is caused by Unusually global weather patterns which affects the climate. = = El Nino occurs when cold water is stopped from rising and it leaves the warm water which increases the over all temperature in the water. When El Nino occurs the nutrients the cold water normally brings up from the depths of the ocean don't appear and every time it occurs a great amount of plankton and fish die because of the lack of nutrients in the water. El Nino is known to bring heavy rain to south western south America and drought to eastern Australia.

La Nina
= = = = The phenomenon La Nina is the exact opposite of El Nino, instead of a warmer water temperature there is a over all decrease in the waterin water temperature by 3–5 °C.It is also caused by Unusually global weather patterns which affects the climate. = = La Nina is known to bring drought to south western south America and heavy rain to eastern Australia. 2010 was an La Nina year, it brought one of the most devastating natural diasters = = = = to Australia. causing floods and tropical typhoons to hit Australia in "Biblical Proportions".( see pictures) = = La Nina is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

The Coriolis Effect
The Coriolis effect affects climate because it causes significant changes in temperature.The Coriolis effect is caused by the rotation of the Earth and it is responsible for the direction in which winds blow. Without the Coriolis effect winds would blow north and south but instead the winds blow diagonally for an example, south east. But despite contrary belief the Coriolis effect doesn't have anything to do = = with the direction in which the water in a toilet goes. The Coriolis effect is definitely the most constant phenomena that affects the earth because the earth is spinning everyday but large Volcanoes la Nina and El Nino don't occur as often.

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Bibliography: [] http://www.greencitizens.net/ecopedia/article.php?ec_id=21452653684 http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/coriolis_effect.htm http://www.thefreedictionary.com/El+Nino http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/climate_effects.html