CC Feedback Mechanism

Climate Change and Climate
Variability
-Albedo
-Climate Feedback Mechanism
-Ocean Current
ALBEDO
• Albedo is the fraction of light from the sun
reflected by a surface.
• Close to 1 for fresh snow – reflects most of the
solar energy, close to 0 black surface.
• Example: Clear snow from a dark driveway –
adjacent snow melts faster.
Surface type Albedo
• Lithosphere
-dark soil 10%, Light soil 30%, Black
soil 5-10%,Concrete 30%
• Biosphere
Forest 5-10%, crops 2-25%
• Cryosphere
Fresh snow 60-90%
clear skies 5%
Earth’s energy imbalance
In a stable climate, the amount of energy that the Earth
receives from the Sun is approximately in balance with the
amount of energy that is lost to space in the form of
reflected sunlight and thermal radiation.
‘Climate drivers’, such as an increase in greenhouse gases
or aerosols, interfere with this balance, causing the system
to either gain or lose energy.
The strength of a climate driver is quantified by its effective
radiative forcing (ERF), measured in W m -2. Positive ERF
leads to warming and negative ERF leads to cooling.
That warming or cooling in turn can change the energy
imbalance through many positive (amplifying) or negative
(dampening) climate feedbacks.
Climate Feedback Mechanisms
• Any change in the environment leading to
additional and enhanced changes in that system
is the result of a positive feedback mechanism.
Alternatively, if a change in the environment
leads to a compensating process that mitigates
the change it is a negative feedback mechanism
• i.e warming introducing the melting of glacier,
then will it reinforce or suppress the change,
thus give negative change or feedback process.
Feedback mechanism
• Positive feedback: A change Speed up Change- Global warming.
• Negative feedback: Create a change- Slow down a change –
Slow global warming.
Examples
1. The ice albedo feedback in Antarctica and Atlantic
2. Ocean warming
3. Cloud feedback (it can either be positive or negative)
+ve when having thick cloud embedded in atmosphere then
will be having much solar radiation trapping
-ve when having thin cloud, less solar radiation trapping with
reflected solar radiation
Positive Feedback
• Ocean warming provides a good example of a potential positive
feedback mechanism. The oceans are an important sink for
CO2 through absorption of the gas into the water surface. As
CO2 increases it increases the warming potential of the
atmosphere. If air temperatures warm it should warm the
oceans. The ability of the ocean to remove CO2 from the
atmosphere decreases with increasing temperature. Hence
increasing CO2 in the atmosphere could have effects that
exacerbate the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.
Ice-Albedo Mechanism
• Similar examples can be drawn for warmer air
temperatures increasing the rate of glacier
and sea ice melting.
• As the ice melts it changes the surface
characteristics of the surface as the underlying
ocean or land will have a lower albedo than
the ice and hence an enhanced ability to
absorb solar radiation.
lower tropospheric water vapor content
• The increase in temperature would permit more

water vapor to be stored in the atmosphere.
• The amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold
increases exponentially with temperature so
increases in temperature can yield increases in
atmospheric water vapor.
• The increased water vapor, as a greenhouse gas,
enhances the greenhouse effect and could lead to
further warming as long as this positive feedback isn't
modified by an increase in cloud cover that could lead
to a negative feedback
Negative feedback mechanism
• A good example of a negative feedback
mechanism will be if the increase in
temperature increases the amount of cloud
cover. The increased cloud thickness or extent
could reduce incoming solar radiation and
limit warming.
• the atmosphere, to increased cloud cover that
increases albedo and reduces the incoming
solar radiation, hence leading to a self-limiting
cooling.
Effects of Aerosol
• Aerosols are tiny (0.001 to 10 µm) airborne particles.
In the troposphere, the lower about 10 to 15 km of
our atmosphere, human-made aerosols have greatly
increased since about 1850. `Fine' aerosol particles
with sizes between about 0.1 and 1 µm can influence
climate in two ways.
• Sulfur dioxide from fossil fuel burning, organic and
elemental carbon from burning of tropical forests and
savannas sources of aerosols.
• They scatter and absorb solar radiation; some of the
scattered sunlight goes back to space (the direct
effect). They also can act as cloud
condensation nuclei, they may enhance reflectivity
Committed change, long-term
commitment:
• Changes in the climate system, resulting from past, present and future
human activities, which will continue long into the future (centuries to
millennia) even with strong reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Some aspects of the climate system, including the terrestrial biosphere,
deep ocean and the cryosphere, respond much more slowly than
surface temperatures to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations.
• As a result, there are already substantial committed changes associated
with past greenhouse gas emissions. For example, global mean sea level
will continue to rise for thousands of years, even if future CO 2 emissions
are reduced to net zero and global warming halted, as excess energy
due to past emissions continues to propagate into the deep ocean and
as glaciers and ice sheets continue to melt.
OCEAN CURRENTS
• The surface circulation of the world’s oceans is mostly wind driven.
Thermohaline currents are driven by differences in heat and salt and
are associated with the sinking of dense water at high latitudes; the
currents driven by thermohaline forces are typically subsurface
• This vast, global circulation is driven by density variations in the
ocean. Sometimes called thermohaline circulation because it depends
on temperature and salinity, the conveyer begins on the surface of the
sea near the poles.
• There, the water gets very cold, chilled by low air temperatures to
freezing and below. Polar seawater also gets saltier, because when sea
ice forms, the salt is left behind.
• As seawater gets colder and saltier, its density increases, and it starts
to sink toward the bottom. Surface water is pulled in to replace the
sinking water, and in its turn, eventually becomes cold and
salty enough to sink. Thus, a current begins.
OCEAN CURRENTS

CC Feedback Mechanism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CC Feedback Mechanism

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CC Feedback Mechanism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Climate Change and Climate

• The increase in temperature would permit more

You might also like