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21: Natural Climate Processes

  • Page ID
    10188
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    The dominant climate process is radiation to and from the Earth-ocean-atmosphere system. Increased absorption of solar (shortwave) radiation causes the climate to warm, which is compensated by increased infrared (IR, longwave) radiation out to space. This strong negative feedback has allowed the absolute temperature at Earth’s surface to vary by only 4% over millions of years.

    But small changes have indeed occurred. Recent changes are associated with human activity such as greenhouse-gas emissions and land-surface modification. Other changes are natural — influenced by astronomical and tectonic factors. These primary influences can be amplified or damped by changes in clouds, ice, vegetation, and other feedbacks.

    To illustrate dominant processes, consider the following highly simplified “toy” models.


    This page titled 21: Natural Climate Processes is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Roland Stull via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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