1 / 28

Climate and Climate Science

Explore climate change evidence and the human impact, learn about the climate system's components like the cryosphere, and differences between weather and climate. Discover how interdisciplinary climate science informs our understanding.

mwillilams
Download Presentation

Climate and Climate Science

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Climate and Climate Science • Current Weather • Introductions • Is Climate Changing? • Weather vs. Climate • Climate System • Cryosphere For Next Class: Read Chapter 2 (pp. 33-50) Reminder: Labs WILL meet next week!

  2. Introductions • Find out the following information from a partner: • NAME • POINT(S) OF ORIGIN • MAJOR (or projected major) • INTERESTING PLACES VISITED • FAVORITE KIND OF WEATHER • INTERESTS/HOBBIES

  3. Dr. Perry’s Background https://geo.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/baker-perry https://youtu.be/ISmN0MPR83U http://climate.appstate.edu/~perrylb/Pubs/Media/Andes_Precip_Research_Features_201710.pdf

  4. Global Climate Change Is the climate changing? On what evidence (i.e., what are the indicators of climate change?

  5. Overview of Observed Change Indicators IPCC 2013

  6. Indicators of Climate Change IPCC 2013

  7. Changes in Climate Statistics IPCC 2013

  8. Global Climate Change Do humans have anything to do with climate change? How? Should we care? Is there anything we should do about it?

  9. Climate Science • Highly interdisciplinary field drawing on expertise from: • Atmospheric Science • Geography • Chemistry • Physics • Biology/Ecology • Remote sensing and computer science • Economics, Demography, and other social sciences

  10. What is the difference between Weather and Climate?

  11. What is the difference between Weather and Climate? Weather: State of the atmosphere over the short term (minutes to ~15 days). Climate: Synthesis of weather conditions in a given area, characterized by long-term statistics (mean values, variances, probabilities of extreme values, etc.) of the meteorological elements in that area. Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get!

  12. Defining Climate • The Climatic Norm • Encompasses the total variation in the climate record, that is, both averages plus extremes

  13. The Climate System • System: entity whose components interact in an orderly manner according to the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology • Earth’s Climate System: defined as the totality of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere and geosphere and their interactions

  14. Atmosphere Relatively thin envelope of gases and tiny suspended particles surrounding the planet Divided into four layers: Troposphere Stratosphere Mesosphere Thermosphere The Climate System

  15. What is the Cryosphere?

  16. What is the Cryosphere? Consists of various forms of frozen water at the planet’s surface.

  17. What are some components of the Cryosphere?

  18. Components of the Cryosphere Snow – a collection of loosely bonded ice crystals deposited from the atmosphere. Sea ice – any form of ice found at sea which has originated from the freezing of sea water. Glaciers – fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses that move. Ice Sheet – mass of glacial land ice extending more than 50,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles). The Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are the only two that currently exist.

  19. Ice Shelves – thick slab of ice, attached to a coastline and extending out over the ocean as a seaward extension of an ice sheet or series of glaciers. Iceberg – massive piece of ice of greatly varying shape, protruding 5 m or more above sea-level, which has broken away from a glacier and which may be afloat or aground.

More Related