Terrestrial Climate Change Variables

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Henry Hoover
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1 Terrestrial Climate Change Variables

2 Content Terrestrial Climate Change Variables Surface Air Temperature Land Surface Temperature Sea Level Ice Level Aerosol Particles (acid rain)

3 Terrestrial Climate Change Variables The Earth's climate is a dynamic system influenced by interactions between land, water, and atmosphere. Essential Climate Variables address the following terrestrial categories: River Discharge; Water Use; Groundwater; Lake and Reservoir Levels and Volumes; Snow Cover; Glaciers and Ice Caps; Permafrost; Land Surface Albedo; Land Cover; Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation; Leaf Area Index, Biomass; and Fire Disturbance. Although there are many variables that determine climate change, an analysis of the following terrestrial variables are held: Surface Air Temperature Land Surface Temperature Sea Level Ice Level Aerosol Particles (acid rain)

4 Surface Air Temperature Surface air temperature is the most important variable for determining the state of the climate system. It is a key variable for detection of climate change and assessing the relative importance of anthropogenic and natural influences. It is a prime driver of many impacts on natural and human created systems.

6 Land Surface Air Temperature since

7 Land Surface Temperature Land surface temperature is how hot the ground feels to the touch. If you want to know whether temperatures at some place at a specific time of year are unusually warm or cold, you need to compare them to the average temperatures for that place over many years It could be snow and ice, the grass on a lawn, the roof of a building, or the treetops in a forest.

8 earth surface temperature %28best%29 study/

9 Land Surface Temperature Anomaly

10 Sea Level Locally, sea level can rise because the land is sinking. Globally, it rises because the total volume of seawater is increasing. Global warming drives that in two basic ways: by warming the ocean and by melting ice on land, which adds more water. Since 1900 global sea level has risen about eight inches. It s now rising at about an eighth of an inch a year and accelerating.

12 Sea Level IF ALL THE ICE MELTED (National Geographic, seas/if icemelted map) Explore the world s new coastlines if sea level rises 216 feet (65.84 m). The maps here show the world as it is now, with only one difference: All the ice on land has melted and drained into the sea, raising it 216 feet and creating new shorelines for our continents and inland seas. There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and some scientists say it would take more than 5,000 years to melt it all. If we continue adding carbon to the atmosphere, we ll very likely create an ice free planet, with an average temperature of perhaps 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 C) instead of the current 58 (15 C).

21 Ice Level The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. Arctic sea ice decline describes the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean. Observation with satellites show that sea ice has been in decline for a few decades in area, extent, and volume. Sometime during the 21st century, sea ice may completely cease to exist during the summer. Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean. It extends as far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer. The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth.

23 Arctic sea ice coverage, as reconstructed from 69 sites around the area, fluctuated in a fairly narrow range for more than 1400 years. In the last few decades, it has plunged abruptly. Arctic sea ice coverage in September has dropped in half since 1980, and the drop appears to be accelerating. blog/2012/09/21/arctic sea ice what why and what next/

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26 Aerosol Particles In aerosol physics, deposition is the process by which aerosol particles collect or deposit themselves on solid surfaces, decreasing the concentration of the particles in the air. It can be divided into two sub processes: dry and wet deposition. Volcanic eruptions release large amounts of sulphuric acid, hydrogen sulphide and hydrochloric acid into the atmosphere. These gases represent aerosols and eventually return to earth as acid rain, having a number of adverse effects on the environment and human life.

27 Aerosol Particles Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low ph). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere with positive results. Nitrogen oxides can also be produced naturally by lightning strikes and sulfur dioxide is produced by volcanic eruptions.

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30 Terrestrial Climate Change Variables

Land Surface Sea Ice Land Ice. (from Our Changing Planet)

Land Surface Sea Ice Land Ice. (from Our Changing Planet) Lecture 5: Land Surface and Cryosphere (Outline) Land Surface Sea Ice Land Ice (from Our Changing Planet) Earth s s Climate System Solar forcing Atmosphere Ocean Land Solid Earth Energy, Water, and Biochemistry