Earth System Science

1. Earth System Science Climate and Global Change Lecture: Three 50-min classes or two 1-hr and 15-min classes for a semester Labs: One 2-hr lab per week during the semester Course Description: Introduction to the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system. Structure and interaction of the components of this system. Natural and human-induced changes in these components, including the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, air pollution, acid rain, biodiversity, and climate change. Possible The Earth System (2nd edition) Text: by L.R. Kump, J.F. Kasting and R.G. Crane Many other options

2. Listening Level 1 - Involvement in the Discussion At this level, listeners evaluate the speaker’s words attempting to make connections with their own experiences, concepts from other courses, and ideas previously presented in this course. Some characteristics of level 1 listening include taking in main ideas; acknowledging and responding; not letting oneself be distracted; paying total attention to the speaker and the topic. It also requires that the listener show both verbally and nonverbally that he or she is truly listening. Level 2 - Hearing Words, But Not Really Listening At this level, people stay at the surface of the communication and do not listen to make connections and develop understanding of what is being said. They try to hear what the speaker is saying, but make little effort to understand the speaker’s intent. Level 2 listeners tend to listen logically, but remain emotionally detached from the subject. Level 2 listening can lead to dangerous misunderstandings because the listener is concentrating only slightly on what is said.

3. Listening Level 3 -Listening in Spurts Tuning in and tuning out, being only somewhat aware of the communication, mainly paying attention to other things. Level 3 listening is quiet, passive listening without responding. Often a person listening at this level is faking attention while thinking about unrelated matters. The listener may display a blank stare.

4. Introduction Course Quote 1 As a crab moves on the ocean-bottom, but is of the water, so man rests his feet upon the earth - but lives in the air. Man thinks of the crab as a water-animal; illogically and curiously, he calls himself a creature of the land. As water environs the crab, so air surrounds, permeates, and vivifies the body of man. If traces of noxious gas mingle with it, he coughs and his complexion turns deathly gray. If it becomes overcharged with water-droplets, he gropes helplessly in fog. If it moves too fast, he becomes a pitiable wind-swept creature, cowering in cellars and ditches. Even for rain he is dependent on air. If actually removed from air, he dies immediately. Physicists describe the air as tasteless, odorless, and invisible. It could not well be otherwise. But these are not so much its qualities as adjustments of man. For if air impressed the senses, being at the same time all-pervasive, it would necessarily obscure all other tastes, odors, and sights. George Stewart, "Storm", Modern Library, Random House, p. 19.

5. Introduction Course Quote 2 Despite man’s pretensions to art and civilization, man’s existence depends on 4 inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains. Author Unknown Course Quote 3 Treat the Earth well: it was not given to you by your parents: it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Author Unknown

6. Introduction Course Quote 4 1854 Chief Sealth of the Duwamiah Tribe (the Puget Sound Indians by another account) was asked to sell a large area of land in what is now Washington State. Seattle, a corruption of the chief’s name, is built in the heart of the Duwamish land. He and his people were promised a reservation by President Franklin Pierce. The following is a condensation of the reply written in 1855 and remains one of the most eloquent statements ever made in appreciation of the environment. The great chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. For the land is sacred to us.

7. Introduction Course Quote 4 (Con’t) The shining water that moves in the stream and the river is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell our land then you must remember, and teach our children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother. And what is there to life when man cannot hear the lonely cry of the poor whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pool at night? The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by the rain or scented by the pinion pine. The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath: the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath.

8. Introduction Course Quote 4 (Con’t) You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our own children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls earth, befalls the sons of earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover – our God is the same God. You may think that you own Him as you wish to own the land; but you cannot. He is the God of man and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.

9. Observing Climate Introduction to the Climate System The Sun Atmospheric Constituents Orbital Changes & Climate El Niño - La Niña & Climate Motions & Climate Stratospheric Ozone Hole Atmospheric Motions Earth’s Radiation & Energy Budget Urban Changes & Climate Volcanoes & Climate Greenhouse Gases & Climate Oceanic Motions Ocean Currents Hydrologic Cycle Earth - A Special Planet Climate & Global Changes Regional Changes Continental Drift Carbon Cycle Ice & Sea Level Course Roadmap

10. Introduction Science Concepts Climate and Global Change What is Climate? What is Global Change or Global Warming? Earth’s Climate System Variability of the Earth System Budgets and Cycles External Forcing The Earth System (Kump, Kasting and Crane) • Chap. 19 (p. 290) • Chap. 1

11. Climate • “The study of climate can assume many forms.... We will regard climate in a very broad sense in terms of the mean physical state of the climate system. The climate can be defined as a set of averaged quantities completed with the higher moment statistics (such as variances, covariances, correlations, etc.) that characterize the structure and behavior of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere over a period of time.” (Peixoto and Oort 1992) • “Climatology is the study of the exchanges of energy and mass at the interface between the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.” (Lydolph 1985) What is climate? • “Climate is the synthesis of the weather in a particular region.” (Hartman 1994) • “The average course or condition of the weather at a place over a period of years as exhibited by temperature, wind velocity, and precipitation.” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary 1975) • “Climate is a summary of weather conditions over a period of years, including how temperature and rainfall vary with the seasons.” (Krauskopf and Beiser 1997)

12. Climate Elements • Air temperature - The degree of hotness or coldness of a substance as measured by a thermometer. It is also a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules in a substance. • Humidity - A general term that refers to the air’s water vapor content (e.g., specific humidity, relative humidity, etc.). • Air pressure - Atmospheric pressure is felt as the force that the air molecules exert of a surface. The magnitude of this force per area equals the weight of the air above that surface area. • Clouds - A collection of many liquid water droplets or ice crystals (or both) in the atmosphere. • Precipitation - Any form of water particles, liquid or solid, that falls from the atmosphere and reaches the ground. • Wind - Air in motion relative to the Earth’s surface. Note: wind is a vector and has both speed and direction. What parameters make up climate?

13. Climate Alabama Annual Average Temperature Data Source: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/divplot1_form.pl?0106

14. Climate Alabama Annual Average Precipitation Data Source: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/divplot1_form.pl?0106

15. Global Topography Worlds Mountain Ranges • Highest topography in red; blue lowest topography

16. Climate Koppen Climate Classifications • Western hemisphere

17. Alaska = 100°F Hawaii = 100°F Record Maximum Temperature By State Through 2000• Alabama highest temperature = 112°F (9/5/1925 in Centerville) http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/ climate/severeweather/a-thigh.gif

18. Alaska = -80°F Hawaii = 12°F Record Minimum Temperature By State Through 2000• Alabama lowest temperature = -27°F (1/30/1966 in New Market) By State Through 1996 http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/ climate/severeweather/a-thigh.gif

19. Huntsville Temperature Climate Huntsville Mean Monthly Temperature • Mean Annual Temperature = 60.6°F (1971-2000) • Record High = 102°F Record Low = -11°F

20. Philadelphia Vs Chicago Temperature Mean Monthly Average Temperature • Chicago Mean Average Annual Temperature = 49.1°F (1971-2000) • Philadelphia Mean Average Annual Temperature = 55.3°F (1971-2000)

21. Huntsville Precipitation Climate Huntsville Mean Monthly Precipitation • Mean Annual Precipitation = 57.51 in (1971-2000)

22. Philadelphia Vs Chicago Precipitation Mean Monthly Average Precipitation • Chicago Mean Annual Accumulated Precipitation = 36.27 in (1971-2000) • Philadelphia Mean Annual Accumulated Precipitation = 42.05 in (1971-2000) • Salt Lake City Mean Annual Accumulated Precipitation = 16.5 in (1971-2000)

23. Philadelphia Vs Chicago Humidity Mean Monthly Average Relative Humidity • Huntsville Mean Annual Relative Humidity (1971-2000) - Morning = 85%; Afternoon = 62%

24. Philadelphia Vs Chicago Humidity Mean Monthly Average Relative Humidity • Chicago Mean Annual Relative Humidity; Morning = 80%; Afternoon = 62% • Philadelphia Mean Annual Relative Humidity; Morning = 76%; Afternoon = 55% • Salt Lake City Mean Annual Relative Humidity; Morning = 67%; Afternoon = 42%

25. Climate Climate is • Dynamic, changing, non-stationary • Physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, meteorology, oceanography, etc. • Multidisciplinary • Complex and non-linear with complicated feedbacks

26. The Earth’s Climate System What do we mean by the “Earth’s climate system”? Is this a picture of the climate system? http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ BlueMarble/Images/land_shallow_topo_2048.jpg

27. The Earth’s Climate System Blue Marble Image • Much of the information contained in this image is derived from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS that is flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_2002.html

28. The Earth’s Climate System http://learners.gsfc.nasa.gov/mediaviewer/ HurricanesWithJeff/Segment3/ Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Hurricanes • Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Aqua satellite SST image; GOES cloud data • Three-day average of SSTs for Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean 6/8/05-8/29/05 • Warm (orange & red) ocean waters fuel hurricanes - Areas in yellow, orange or red represents 27.8°C (82°F) or above • Hurricane Dennis path Arlene (Jun 8-13) / Bret (Jun 28-29) / Cindy (Jul 3-7) / Dennis (Jul 4-12) / Emily (Jul 11-21) Franklin (Jul 21-29) / Gert (Jul 23-25) / Harvey (Aug 3-8) / Irene (Aug 7-18) / Jose (Aug 22-23) Katrina (Aug 23-30) / Lee (Aug 31-Sep 1) / Maria (Sep 2-10) / Nate (Sep 5-10) / Ophelia (Sep 7-18) Phillipe (Sep 17-23) / Rita (Sep 18-24) / Stan (Oct 2-5) / Tammy (Oct 5-6 ) / Vince (Oct 9-11 ) Wilma (Oct 17-25) / Alpha (Oct 22-24) / Beta (Oct 27-30) / Gamma (Nov 18-20) / Delta (Nov 23-28) Epsilon (Nov 29-Dec 8th) / Zeta (Dec 30 2005-Jan 6 2006)

29. The Earth’s Climate System Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Hurricanes • Note cooling after passage http://learners.gsfc.nasa.gov/mediaviewer/HurricanesWithJeff/Segment30/

30. The Earth’s Climate System Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Hurricanes (Con’t) http://learners.gsfc.nasa.gov/mediaviewer/HurricanesWithJeff/Segment3/