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Coupled Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Dynamics

Coupled Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Dynamics. ENVI3410. Module Information. Module manager: Ian Brooks i.brooks@see.leeds.ac.uk Room 3.25 Environment (chemistry building) Lecturers: Ian Brooks : surface-atmosphere interactions Ken Carslaw / Stewart Davis : aerosol, clouds, and radiation

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Coupled Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Dynamics

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  1. Coupled Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Dynamics ENVI3410

  2. Module Information • Module manager: Ian Brooks • i.brooks@see.leeds.ac.uk • Room 3.25 Environment (chemistry building) • Lecturers: • Ian Brooks : surface-atmosphere interactions • Ken Carslaw / Stewart Davis : aerosol, clouds, and radiation • Sarah-Jane Lock : ocean & cryosphere processes • Webpage: www.env.leeds.ac.uk/~ibrooks/envi3410 • Lecture slides, animations, etc • links to background material • Access to online climate model ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  3. 15 Lectures Tuesday 3-4pmEC Stoner 08.60 Thursday 12-1pmBaines Wing 1.15 Assessment Exam: 60% Climate modelling exercise: 40% 2 workshops in computer cluster Textiles G34 cluster 1) Thursday Oct. 26, 11:00-13:00 2) Thursday Nov 1611:00-13:00 N.B. These replace the Thursday lectures. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  4. Outline • The coupling and feedback systems between the atmosphere and ocean that is driving energy transfer and climate change. • Concepts of surface exchange of heat and greenhouse gas transfer between atmosphere / land / ocean / biosphere. • The role of clouds in the climate system, including their effect on radiation and energy transfer. • How clouds are parameterised in climate models and the very large uncertainties in their effect on climate change. • Changing aspects of water mass formation and its implication on the oceans thermohaline circulation and climate. • Cause and consequence of sea ice recession on the atmosphere and global sea levels. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  5. Suggested Reading • IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. 2001, Cambridge University Press. [available free online at http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.htm] • Global warming. John Houghton, Rep. Prog. Phys. 68 (2005) 1343–1403. Online at http://stacks.iop.org/RoPP/68/1343 TEXT BOOKS: • The Physics of Atmospheres. John Houghton, 2002, Cambridge University Press. • Boundary Layer Meteorology. Roland Stull,1988, Kluwer Academic Press. • The Atmosphere and Ocean: A Physical Introduction. Neil Wells, 1997, Wiley. • Human Impacts on Weather and Climate. William Cotton & Roger Pielke, 1995, Cambridge University Press. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  6. Online Resources • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/index.html • Real Climate – comment on climate issues by climate scientists. http://www.realclimate.org/ • SOLAS program – ocean-atmosphere exchange & climate processes: http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/solas/ • US National Snow and Ice Data Centre: http://nsidc.org/ ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  7. Climate & Climate Change • Climate change is often considered synonymous with global warming – a result of human activities. This is an over-simplification. • Climate processes are many, and interact in complex ways, not always obvious. Feedbacks between different processes may amplify or inhibit the first order effects. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  8. Atmosphere Includes gaseous atmosphere, clouds, aerosols Hydrosphere Oceans, rivers, precipitation Cryosphere Polar icecaps, ice sheets, glaciers, snow-covered landmass, permafrost Land surface Surface type Biosphere Plants, animals, plankton,… Climate System The climate systems consists of 5 major components: External forcing: solar radiation, volcanic activity (addition of aerosols & gases to atmosphere), human activity. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  9. Climate Processes (Houghton, Rep. Prog. Phys. 68 (2005) 1343–1403) ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  10. IPCC : http://www.ipcc.ch/present/graphics.htm ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  11. IPCC : http://www.ipcc.ch/present/graphics.htm ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  12. Sea surface temperature anomalies relative to 1961-1990 mean for North Atlantic (tropical: blue, extra-tropical : red, black lines are 10-year running averages). (Trenberth, 2005: Uncertainty in Hurricanes and Global Warming. Science, vol 208, doi: 10.1126/science.1112551) ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  13. CO2 concentration (grey line) and mean polar temperature difference from now (Black line) from Vostock ice core measurements. CO2 concentration estimates projected forward to 2100. (Houghton, Rep. Prog. Phys. 68 (2005) 1343–1403) ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  14. Northern Hemisphere ice extent is decreasing at a rate of -2.7 ± 0.5% per decade. The rate of decline in summer (-4.9 ± 1.5%) is considerably greater than that for winter (-1.8 ± 0.6%) ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

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  16. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  17. 2002 : record minimum in Arctic sea ice concentration ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  18. Change of climate state Changes to either the mean or variance in climate state both lead to increased occurrence of extreme conditions. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  19. There is substantial evidence that climate is changing: increasing globally averaged temperature, decreasing ice extent, changing precipitation patterns,… • There is also substantial evidence that human activity has increased the levels of ‘greenhouse’ gases in the atmosphere. • There are strong correlations between greenhouse gas concentrations and temperature, and basic physics suggests higher concentrations should lead to warming, but… • How can we be sure what the real relationships are between our activities and climate? ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  20. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

  21. The remainder of this course will examine (some of) the many and varied processes that control climate, their response to anthropogenic forcing, and the uncertainties in our understanding of them. ENVI3410: Coupled Ocean & Atmsophere Climate Dynamics

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