Analysis of Interactive Plots of Worldwide CO2 Data
GOL105 Northern Virginia Interactive Plots of Worldwide CO2 Data Analysis
Analysis of Interactive Plots of Worldwide CO2 Data
Geoscientists use data to understand how the Earth System works. Science is based on real data from which hypotheses are formulated. Understanding and interpreting the data is a skill that all scientists learn as they first, advance their education, and, second, as they conduct their research. In this exercise, you are going to look at the data as an informed citizen and explain what the data display is attempting to convey. All data must be digested in pieces. This exercise will help you break down the data presented so that you can understand it.
THIS LAB EXERCISE WILL BE GRADED ON ACCURACY, SENTENCE STRUCTURE, SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND CONTENT. DO YOUR BEST WORK.
1.Open the Analysis of Interactive Plots of Worldwide CO2video in YouTube (on BlackBoard) or here: https://youtu.be/gH6fQh9eAQE . There is no sound. You will want to watch this in full screen to view all of the information. The animation will begin as soon as you open it. Move the slider all the way to the left and stop it at the zero point of the video.
2.Before you begin watching the animation, let’s take a look at the baseline information being presented. There is a lot of information available in this animation so we will break it down piece by piece.
3.Review the title of the interactive animation and the key to the data displayed.
4.Focus your concentration on the graph on the left side of the screen.
a.What is represented along the horizontal axis?
b.What is represented along the vertical axis?
The different color dots on the graph represent observation stations across the globe. See the small world map in the upper right.
c.What data is being collected at the observation stations?
d.Where is the data being collected at the blue dot?
e.Where is the data being collected at the red dot?
f.At what date does the data collection begin?
g.What does “ppm” actually mean?
h.Using complete sentences, explainwhat the initial line graph represents.
5.Let the animation run and concentrate on the movement in the left graph.
a.What is the baseline concentration of CO2? ____________________ @ Mauna Loa
b.What is the baseline concentration of CO2? ____________________ @ the South Pole
c.*** Thought Question***
Why is the left side of the graph relatively static while the right side of the graph is fluctuating up and down?
Hints:
•Match the fluctuations with the time of year that the fluctuations take place.
•Think about the world population distribution south of the equator vs. north.
•Think about the world land surface distribution south of the equator vs. north.
•Also, think about how CO2 is produced, both man-made and natural.
Explain in complete sentences:
d.As the graph on the left is running, the graph on the right also starts up. What does the graph on the right represent?
e.What does the blue line represent vs. the red?
f.Notice the pop up for October 1989, why is that important? Have you ever heard of the activist group “350.org”? If not, check it out and find out why the 350 ppm number is so important. You can also do a simple Internet search on this as well.
g.Notice as you move through time that the number of “signals” (stations) is increasing. Think about why this would be important with respect to the scientific method and provide your insight:
h.Stop the animation when the January 2016 CO2 concentration shows up on the graph in red. What is the concentration of CO2 in January 2016?
_______________________________
6.After you pass about the 2 minute mark of the video, the graph on the right will begin to expand. Pay close attention to the graph as it expands. The graph changes from Red/Blue represented data from Mauna Loa and Antarctica, to Green for data collected by Dr. Keeling before the CO2 monitoring stations were set up. This is followed by data points in Orange.
Who was Dr. Keeling and why is his data important? (Internet search)
What do the Orange data points represent?
Where do the Orange data points come from?
What do the Light Blue and Dark Blue data points represent?
Where do the Light Blue and Dark Blue data points come from?
How far back in time has the data been collected? _______________________________________________
Write the above date out in numbers: ____________________________________________
CO2 PPM during the Ice Ages: ____________________________
CO2 PPM during the Preindustrial Era: ____________________________
CO2 PPM in January 1979: ____________________________
CO2 PPM in January 2016: ____________________________
7.Watch: https://youtu.be/oHzADl-XID8 to learn about how ice cores are used to understand Earth’s climate history. To answer the questions, you will most likely need to stop the video and play back sections several times.
a.What types of data can scientists collect by studying ice cores? List several.
b.At about 1:45 in the video, CO2 concentration begins to plot in blue. Following this, a second plot appears in red. What is the red line plotting?
c.What type of data did the scientists use to determine how to plot the red line data?
d.Looking at the two plots together, answer the following:
i.When CO2was in higher concentrations, how did Earth’s temperature respond?
ii.When CO2 was in lower concentrations, how did Earth’s temperature respond?
iii.How many glacial periods has Earth experienced in the past 400,000 years?
8.You may also watch: https://youtu.be/8BgD9xul16g to get another simple picture of what ice core data has helped us understand about climate change.
Considering all of the data that you have analyzed during this exercise, what is your “take-away message”? What have you learned from this exercise? Construct a short essay to explain.
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