Survey of Oceanography
Homework Set 2
Due 9 February 2004

Late homework will cost 15 points per week or part of a week it is late.

The goal of this assignment is to learn more about the role of the oceans in climate.

1. Please begin work on your term paper.
   • Please provide a brief, one-paragraph description of what you will write about. The term paper can be on any subject relevant to the course and your interests.
   • The project can describe K-12 classroom activities that expand on a topic we discussed in class.
   • Or, it can expand on a topic we discussed in class, or it can analyze a topic not considered in class:
     • Physical processes. For example, how good are forecasts of El Niño?
     • Policy issues: For example, what policies might Galveston County wish to implement to reduce damages from severe hurricanes, or to reduce beach erosion.
2. How do we know if the average surface temperature of the oceans changed over the past 100 years?
   • What measurements have been made?
   • How much has the temperature changed?
   • What sampling errors might influence the calculation of the change of mean temperature?
   
   
3. How does the sinking of water in the far north Atlantic influence northern-hemisphere climate?
   
   
4. How important is the ocean in Earth's carbon cycle?
   • How do the physical and biological pumps work?
   • What types of organisms have the most influence on the carbon cycle in the ocean?
   • How do we know their location and abundance?
   
   
5. What information can be gleaned from cores through the Greenland ice sheets?
   • What is measured?
   • What information is obtained from the measurement?

Revised on: 5 September, 2004