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EASC 1020 Introduction To Climate Science: DR Zhonghui Liu DR Shenghua Li

This document provides an overview of an introductory climate science course. It outlines the course structure, including topics, readings, assignments and assessment. The course aims to introduce global climatic systems and processes, climate across space and through time. Key topics covered are the climate system, general circulation, ocean circulation, climatic classification and climate change at various timescales. The document also summarizes the composition and structure of Earth's atmosphere and early atmospheric evolution.

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LS Chan
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80 views

EASC 1020 Introduction To Climate Science: DR Zhonghui Liu DR Shenghua Li

This document provides an overview of an introductory climate science course. It outlines the course structure, including topics, readings, assignments and assessment. The course aims to introduce global climatic systems and processes, climate across space and through time. Key topics covered are the climate system, general circulation, ocean circulation, climatic classification and climate change at various timescales. The document also summarizes the composition and structure of Earth's atmosphere and early atmospheric evolution.

Uploaded by

LS Chan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EASC 1020

Introduction to Climate Science

Dr Zhonghui Liu
Dr Shenghua Li

Dept. of Earth Sciences


Aims

Ø Global
climatic systems and
CONTROLLING PROCESSES

Ø Climate across space

Ø Climate through time (Climate


change)
Contents
Contents
Contents

Global general circulation


Contents

Ocean surface currents


Contents

The Atacama Desert, Chile, 20S

Similar latitude, different climate

Costa Rican rainforest, 10N


Contents

The Gobi Desert Central Pennsylvania


Similar latitude, different climate
Famous Curve in Climatology
Famous Curve in Climatology
Textbook/Learning Material
Ø Textbook:
William F. Ruddiman: Earth's Climate: Past and
Future, 2nd edition.
Robert V. Rohli and Anthony J. Vega, Climatology
(Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2008),

Ø Learning material:
http://physicalscience.jbpub.com/book/climatology.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/data.html
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/cgi-
bin/data/composites/printpage.pl
Course Outlines
Ø 17/1 Basics: Introduction to climatology and the
atmosphere [No tut.]
Ø 24/1 The climate system: controls on climate
[Tut. Find data from the internet]
Ø 11/2 Energy, moisture and hydrological cycle
Ø 14/2 General circulation and secondary circulations
[Tut. NOAA ESRL training]
Ø 21/2 Ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere
interactions
[Tut. Spatial patterns]
Ø 28/2 Climatic classification (climate across space)
[Tut. ENSO etc.]
Course Outlines
Ø 14/3 Climate change at tectonic timescale (Fri)
[Tut. How to make geological archives (sediments) to talk.]
Ø 21/3 Climate change at orbital timescale
[Tut. How to make geological archives (sediments) to talk.]
Ø 28/3 Climate change at millennial timescale
[Tut. Cenozoic climate]
Ø 4/4 Climate change in historical period
[Tut. Global warming]
Ø 11/4 Human and climate change
Ø 18/4 [Tut. Q/A / Presentation (?)]
Ø 25/4 Review
[Tut. Q/A / Presentation (?)]
Course Assessment

Ø This course will be assessed through a


combination of one 2-hour written
examination (50% weighting) and coursework
assignment (50% weighting, including 10%
group presentation (?))

Ø Class attendance is vital.

Ø Remember to bring your laptop for tutorial if


you have one.
Introduction to Climatology
Topics

Ø Earth’s “spheres”

Ø Weather and climate

Ø Meteorology and climatology


Earth’s “Spheres”
Earth’s “Spheres”

Ø Lithosphere: solid earth near to the surface

Ø Hydrosphere: liquid water

Ø Cryosphere: frozen water in all forms

Ø Atmosphere: thin gaseous layer

Ø Biosphere: all life forms


Earth’s “Spheres”
Weather and Climate

Ø Weather variables: Ø Climate describes


l Temperature long-term synthesis
l Pressure
l Means
l Clouds
l Dew point l Extremes
l Precipitation l Frequencies
l Wind l Spatial patterns
Visibility
l
Ø Impacts are also
Ø Weather describes current assessed
conditions and
understanding
fundamentals (with goal of
prediction)
Meteorology and Climatology
Ø Meteorology:
the study of weather - the overall
instantaneous condition of the atmosphere at
a certain place and time

Ø Climatology:
the study of climate - the state of the
atmosphere for a given place over time

the long-term consequences of these


processes.
Measurements
Climate Variability

Mean
Extremes
Frequency
Global Climate System
Global Climate System
Introduction to Atmosphere
Topics

Ø Atmospheric Composition

Ø Atmospheric Structure

Ø Earth’s Early Atmospheres

Ø The Faint Young Sun Paradox


Atmospheric Composition

Composition – currently 78% N2,


21% O2, 1% “everything else”.

CO2 is ~0.035%

Also contains water vapor, water


droplets, dust
Atmospheric Composition
Atmosphere Overview

Composition of the atmosphere:


Small components play a big role
Atmospheric Pressure

Gas molecules bounce randomly creating force in all


directions

Gas also has mass – the force of gravity acts on gas


molecules giving the atmosphere weight, atmospheric
pressure
Measured with a barometer
1 bar = sea-level atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric Pressure
Atmospheric Pressure
Atmospheric Temperature
Atmospheric Temperature

Ø Troposphere – the layer we live in


l Most weather
l All clouds & water vapor
l Cools as you go up, environmental lapse rate
~6.5C/km

Ø Tropopause – ~17km high, the cooling ends


abruptly, little mixing with troposphere
Atmospheric Temperature

Ø Stratosphere – temp constant to 35km


l Increases up to 50km, due to UV absorption by O3
(Ozone)
l Ozone forms here
l Above 55km (stratopause) temps fall again
Ø Mesosphere – thin air, very cold up to 80km
No UV absorption
Ø Thermosphere – above 80km, temps rise
rapidly (to just below freezing!)
l Hi-energy environment, uppermost N2 and O2 absorb
insolation.
Earth’s Early Atmospheres
Earth’s Early Atmospheres

Ø Studies of ancient rocks show that the early


atmosphere was oxygen poor
Ø Photosynthesis –process by which
organisms convert water & CO2 to organic
sugars, releasing O2 as a by-product
Ø Cyanobacteria – simple, blue-green algae
Ø First Great Oxidation Event – 2.4bya oxygen
began to accumulate in the atmosphere
Earth’s Early Atmospheres
Earth’s Early Atmospheres

Red, banded iron formation (BIF).


The Faint Young Sun Paradox

The Sun was about 30% less luminous


when life developed on Earth, yet
geological and biological evidence points
to a warm young Earth, 60 to 70 C
To Summarize…

Ø Course structure

Ø Introduction to climatology

Ø Introduction to the atmosphere

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