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    Chapter1 Part1

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    Chapter1 Part1

    Uploaded by

    Richard Toohey
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    5 views15 pages

    Chapter1 Part1

    Uploaded by

    Richard Toohey

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 15

    Chapter 1: Introduction to the

    Climate System
    • State of atmosphere, hydrosphere,
    cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere

    • Focus first on understanding atmosphere


    Chapter 1: first part
    • Goal: introduction to the atmosphere
    – Composition
    – Temperature and humidity
    – Vertical and horizontal distribution
    Instantaneous weather averaged climate

    Mean cloudiness (ISCCP)


    Weather on a particular day (clouds/precipitation)

    August 21, 2012 (NWS) JJA avg (seasonal avg) (CCSM website)
    Structure of the atmosphere

    Troposphere: lowest part


    Statosphere: ozone layer
    Mesosphere and thermosphere: above that
    Structure varies by latitude
    And moves by seasonality
    One can see this in a
    ‘zonal’ plot.

    Zonal=latitude

    So this is latitude vs.


    altitude

    Notice vertical is reverse p


    (pressure) and increasing z
    (height)
    “map” view of surface temperatures

    Contours show different temperatures


    Can see contrast between Jan and July

    Where is the July-January


    T(temperature) change largest?
    “map” view of surface temperatures

    Contours show different temperatures


    Can see contrast between Jan and July

    Where is the July-January


    T(temperature) change largest?

    Over land, especially high northern latitudes


    Meteorology directions
    • Easterly flow or winds (from the east) westward
    winds
    • Westerly flow or winds (from the west) eastward
    winds
    • Meridional direction (east-west)=longitude
    • Zonal direction (north south)=latitude
    • Zonal average (average across meridions at a
    certain latitude)
    • Meridional average (average across latitudes at a
    specific longitude)
    Atmospheric composition
    Constitutent Chemical Molecular Vol. fraction in Total mass (g)
    formula weight dry air

    Total 28.97 5.136e21


    atmosphere
    Dry air 29.964 5.119e21
    Nitrogen N2 28.013 78.08%
    Oxygen O2 31.999 20.95%
    Argon Ar 29.948 0.934%
    Water vapor H2O 18.015 0-2%
    Carbon dioxide CO2 44.01 353ppmv
    Neon Ne 20.183 128.18ppmv

    Ozone O3 47.998 variable

    Which of these are reactive? Which are important from a radiative perspective?
    Hydrostatic balance
    • Concept of balance: suppose X is a property
    that generally changes with time because of
    various forces that act on it. X will stay
    constant if various forces applied to it cancel
    (are ‘balanced’)
    • F=ma
    • There is acceleration if forces are non-zero.
    • Balance implies that forces add to zero
    [Hydrostatic Balance
    [Hydrostatic Balance
    Recall Ideal Gas Law:
    [Scale Height (H)
    (with R=287 J kg-1 K-1)
    Definition: Height at which surface
    Combine with hydrostatic: pressure decreases by a factor of e-1
    (0.36, or about a 1/3).
    If we assume an isothermal atmosphere, [Scale Height (H)]
    then we can easily calculate pressure at
    any arbitrary height as:
    Definition: Height at which surface
    pressure decreases by a factor of e-1
    (0.36, or about a 1/3).

    It turns out that T varies not too much, so the idea of a scale height
    works a lot of the time and makes it so we can relate z to pressure
    easily.

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