Test: World Climate And Climate Change - UPSC

This area is near the equator. Significant amount of rainfall occurs in every month of the year as thunder showers in the afternoon.

The ice cap climate or ‘EF’ occurs in this region. It is the polar climate. Even in summer, the temperature is below freezing point. This area receives very little precipitation. The snow and ice gets accumulated and the mounting pressure causes deformation of the ice sheets and they break.

All the climatic types in the group A–C–D–E represent humid conditions.

About 75% of the solar energy reaching the earth is absorbed by the earth’s surface the rest of the heat radiate back to the atmosphere. Some of the heat is trapped by greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide which is released by various human activities.

Methane was discovered and isolated by Alessandro Volta between 1776 and 1778 when studying marsh gas from Lake Maggiore. Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas. Compared with carbon dioxide, it has a high global warming potential of 72 (calculated over a period of 20 years) or 25 (for a time period of 100 years). Methane also affects the degradation of the ozone layer.

1. Warm temperate (mid-latitude) climates extend from 30° - 50° of latitude mainly on the eastern and western margins of continents.

Hercynian denoting a prolonged mountain-forming period in western Europe, eastern North America, and the Andes in the Upper Palaeozoic era, especially the Carboniferous and Permian periods.

Koeppen recognised five major climatic groups, four of them are based on temperature and one on precipitation. According to Koeppen, the capital letters A,C,D and E delineate humid climates and B dry climates.

Polar climates exist poleward beyond 70° latitude. Polar climates consist of two types: (i) Tundra (ET); (ii) Ice Cap (EF).

Sub-tropical Desert Climate (BWh)  is located in the transition zone between humid and dry climates,