1: Chapters
- Page ID
- 54242
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)- 1.1: Everything Off
- This page explores a thought experiment on the abrupt halt of industrial activities, highlighting benefits such as improved air quality and health from reduced pollution. However, it notes potential warming from the loss of reflective aerosols. While methane levels drop and temperatures eventually decrease, enduring carbon dioxide levels perpetuate elevated temperatures.
- 1.2: A Simple Model of Future Climate
- This page describes the EarthGames interactive app, which enables users to experiment with greenhouse gas emissions and their effects on global temperatures. It includes a Simple Mode for basic emissions control and more detailed modes that analyze emissions by sector or by gas. The app highlights the impact of short-lived pollutants and promotes exploration to enhance understanding of climate change mitigation strategies.
- 1.3: The Brightest Light- Waves from the Sun
- This page covers electromagnetic radiation, highlighting that all objects emit it based on temperature, and clarifying that much of it is harmless. It explains black-body radiation through Planck's law and contrasts solar radiation (shortwave, mainly visible spectrum) with Earth's infrared (longwave) emission. It also discusses variations in solar intensity resulting from sunspot cycles and the Earth's elliptical orbit.
- 1.4: Scattering Rays
- This page discusses Earth's energy dynamics, detailing that direct shortwave radiation at the atmosphere's top is 1362 W/m² with 173 PW absorbed at the surface. It indicates 50% of this energy reaches the surface, while 30% is reflected, and 23% absorbed by the atmosphere. Cloud cover impacts reflection significantly, with a cloud radiative effect of 47 W/m². Aerosols contribute to cooling via reflection and cloud formation.
- 1.5: Heat Traps- Earth's Increasing Greenhouse Effect
- This page discusses the greenhouse effect's crucial impact on Earth's climate, highlighting how most longwave radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases, preventing heat from escaping into space. It differentiates between incoming shortwave radiation and more effective longwave radiation in heating the surface.
- 1.6: Why We Know It's Fossil Fuels
- This page examines the contributions of industrial pollution and natural factors to radiative forcing, noting a significant rise linked to industrial activities since the late 1970s, which are responsible for 70% to 130% of global warming. It introduces carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions for comparing pollutants, especially highlighting methane's high short-term global warming potential.
- 1.7: Smokestack Stats
- This page examines the sources and emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, emphasizing regional and sectoral disparities. It critiques labeling emissions as purely "human" due to global inequalities and breaks down transportation and industrial contributions, with a focus on American road transport.
- 1.8: Water Burns- Moisture and Latent Heat
- This page examines the crucial influence of water on Earth's climate through latent heating during phase changes. It highlights the energy costs associated with these changes and their impact on humidity and temperature relationships. The role of water vapor as a greenhouse gas is emphasized, along with its implications for climate change. A study on cold drink cans shows that condensation leads to faster heating in humid conditions.
- 1.9: Going Up?- Lapse Rate and Tropopause
- This page explains the dynamics of temperature and density in the atmosphere, highlighting that hot air rises but cools due to adiabatic expansion and the lapse rate. It details the effects of humidity and static stability on temperature and the rise of the tropopause in response to global warming. The role of ozone in heating the stratosphere and its significance in climate and weather patterns is also discussed, illustrating how these interactions influence storm dynamics and climate zones.
- 1.10: Ups and Downs of Rain
- This page covers the essentials of rain formation, emphasizing the roles of water vapor and rising air, and how geographical features create diverse rainfall patterns. It also explores precipitation changes due to global warming, distinguishing between thermodynamic increases in moisture and uncertain dynamic shifts in storm tracks. Warmer temperatures can lead to intense rainfall in moist areas, while some regions, especially subtropical ones, may experience drying.
- 1.11: Roaring Poleward
- This page examines the Southern Hemisphere storm track, the stormiest region on Earth, dominated by persistent extratropical cyclones influenced by Antarctica's elevation and ozone depletion. It outlines the consequences of these meteorological changes, including shifting storm patterns and increasing droughts in areas like New Zealand.
- 1.12: Moving Energy
- This page discusses the equator-to-pole temperature gradient on Earth and the atmospheric and oceanic transport of heat. It highlights the role of latent and dry static energy in this process, particularly through mechanisms like Hadley circulation. The page suggests that global warming may increase moisture content, affecting latent energy transport and potentially weakening temperature gradients.
- 1.13: Shifts of Rain
- This page examines how global warming impacts precipitation changes through thermodynamic and dynamic factors. Warmer air's increased moisture leads to greater overall precipitation, while changing wind patterns, especially in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), alter rainfall distribution.
- 1.14: The Little Boy and the Sea
- This page covers the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, detailing its significant impact on global weather patterns and marine ecosystems due to warm waters in the Pacific. Named El Niño, this unpredictable event disrupts nutrient-rich upwelling in Peru, affecting fisheries and leading to extreme weather elsewhere. La Niña, its counterpart, reverses these effects.
- 1.15: Feedback
- This page covers climate feedbacks and forcings, explaining how feedbacks—natural responses to temperature changes—can either amplify (positive) or reduce (negative) warming effects driven by forcings. Key feedbacks discussed include water vapor, lapse rate, ice-albedo, and cloud feedbacks, with significant implications for climate sensitivity and future warming predictions.