Composite EPs and some associated supporting ideas from Day 1

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Composite EPs and some associated supporting
ideas from Day 1
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2A
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Essential Principle 1

• The atmosphere is a variable, dynamic, and
  complex system.
  
• The atmosphere is mixture of gases with
  measurable properties.
  
• Layers
• Chemical composition

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Essential Principle 2

• The atmosphere is one of many earth systems and
  interacts with these other systems.
  
• Ocean
• Geological
• climate

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Essential Principle 3

• The atmosphere is one of many earth systems and
  interacts with these other systems.
  
• Ocean
• Geological
• climate

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Essential Principle 4

• Living things, including humans, affect the
  atmosphere.
  

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Essential Principle 5

• The cycling of water through the atmosphere has
  profound effects on it
  
• precipitation

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Essential Principle 6

• The cycling of energy through the atmosphere has
  profound effects on it.
  

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Essential Principle 7

• Changes in the atmosphere take place on a wide
  range of spatial and temporal scales.
  
• The atmosphere is made of many components that
  change over temporal and spatial scales.
  

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Essential Principle 7

• Changes in the atmosphere take place on a wide
  range of spatial and temporal scales.
  
• The atmosphere is made of many components that
  change over temporal and spatial scales.
  

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Essential Principle 8

• The atmosphere can be studied and understood

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2B
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Essential Principle 1

• Earth is surrounded by a thin fragile atmosphere
  that sustains life
  
• Layers

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Essential Principle 2

• The Sun and Earths rotation drive the
  atmospheric circulation

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Essential Principle 3

• The atmosphere and life are interconnected.

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Essential Principle 4

• Weather and climate vary in time and space
• Scales of variability
• Evolution of the atmosphere is linked to other
  subsystems
  
• Climate is the product of the interaction of a
  number of different
  

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Essential Principle 5

• The atmosphere is part of the earth system

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2C
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Initial Comments

• Scope? Decided to focus on Atmospheric Science
  Literacy
  
• Concerns that Earth system science concept is
  getting diluted by separating Oceans/Atmosphere/Cl
  imate
  
• Paralleling Ocean Literacy could almost use
  first six of those Essential Principles,
  substituting atmosphere for ocean

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Essential Principle 1

• The atmosphere is a thin gaseous envelope that
  surrounds the earth

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Essential Principle 2

• Energy from the sun drives the atmosphere

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Essential Principle 3

• The atmosphere is an agent of transport

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Essential Principle 4

• The atmosphere brings weather and climate

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Essential Principle 5

• The atmosphere coevolved with life

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Essential Principle 6

• Atmosphere and humans are inextricably
  interconnected

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Concluding Remarks

• We spent quite a bit of time trying to decide
  what was an Essential Principle and what was a
  Fundamental Concept
  
• Evolution of life and the hydrologic cycle need
  to be up front and center, but not sure if they
  are subsets of some of our Essential Principles

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2D
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Essential Principle 1

• The atmosphere is part of the Earth system.

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Essential Principle 2

• An atmosphere is a primarily gaseous envelope
  that surrounds planets.

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Essential Principle 3

• The atmosphere changes through time and space.

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Essential Principle 4

• All organisms are interconnected with the
  atmosphere.

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Essential Principle 5

• How do we study the atmosphere?
• (to be word-smithed later)

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Essential Principle 6

• Atmospheric processes vary over many scales.

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Essential Principle 7

• Solar energy drives atmospheric processes.

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2E
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Essential Principle 1

• Complexity
• Complexity of Earths system is a challenge
• Inadequate measurements and chaos contribute to
  uncertainty
  
• Earth system is nonlinear

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Essential Principle 2

• Linkages (Earth-System)
• All life is linked to atmosphere/ocean/land/space/
  cryo.
  

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Essential Principle 3

• Energy/Matter/Cycles
• Uneven heating of the Earth drives weather and
  climate
  
• Water cycle
• Energy transfers between systems

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Essential Principle 4

• Human Impact
• Atmosphere is being altered by human activity
• Human activities are being affected by the
  atmosphere
  
• Humans use of natural resources
• Humans are able to live because of atmosphere
• Economic impact

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Essential Principle 5

• Change Happens
• Rate of Change
• Human activity accelerates chage
• Constantly changing
• Atmospheric changes affect living and non-living
  components
  
• Atmosphere is dynamic

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Essential Principle 6

• Nature of Atmosphere
• Earth has only one atmosphere
• Air is real and has mass
• Atmosphere has structure and characteristics

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Essential Principle 7

• Nature of Science
• How do we know what we know
• Scientific process
• Critical thinking
• Earth systems science is interdisciplinary
• Laws of Math and Science explain Earth systems
• Our understanding and knowledge of Earth systems
  evolves
  
• Weather and climate are quantified and predicted
  based on data and models
  

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Essential Principle 8

• Weather
• Affects us daily
• Links us to the Earth atmosphere system

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Essential Principle 9

• Climate
• Regional vs global
• Differentiating climate from weather
• Time scale

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Concluding Remarks

• We are still confused about whether we are
  developing a high framework or a document like
  Ocean Literacy.
  
• Are we expressing Climate Change clearly enough?
• How much emphasis should weather have?

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2F
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Initial Comments People Process

• Facilitator is Carol Knight of NOAA.  OPL
  Cherilynn Morrow
  
• Dilling (U. Colo. Center for Sci Tech Policy)
  Tuddenham (College of Exploration),
  
• Pandya (UCAR - SOARS - minority ugrad research),
  Ledley (TERC, research-education interface),
  McCaffrey (U. Colo. CIRES), Geary (Director of
  GLOBE),
• Meeson (NASA - Ocean science education) Pitman
  (K-12 educator, evaluator, Miami) , Henson (UCAR
  Office of Communication), LaDue (NSF).
  
• The Essential Principles of the Climate Literacy
  Draft and those published for Ocean Literacy were
  written on the walls. We built on and referred to
  these in our introductory discussion.
• Opening discussions have centered on the ideas of
  a. the Sun as an essential source of energy, b.
  the interconnectivity of all the spheres, and c.
  the interplay with humans and their impacts. 
• We're focusing on science content but it is felt
  that the content we choose should be considered
  in light of how it can be related to society and
  what people might do as result of being literate
  about the atmosphere and climate.
• We brainstormed ideas for Essential Principles
  (EP's) that will be revisited, filtered, and
  prioritized later on.  They numbered 26. We then
  binned those 26 into 9 themes that seemed to
  capture our ideas.

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Essential Principle 1

• The atmosphere is a single, integrated system
  everyone interacts with it We all live in an
  ocean of air 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 20
  

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Essential Principle 2

• The atmosphere is a fluid that transports heat
  and matter water, particles 10 , 11, 18, 21

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Essential Principle 3

• The atmosphere is unique and makes Earth
  habitable 4, 5, 6, 12, 17, 26
  

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Essential Principle 4

• Humans change the atmosphere, The atmosphere
  changes over time 5, 9, 13, 14

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Essential Principle 5

• The atmosphere is dynamic it changes at
  different rates, the composition changes, it
  varies from location to location, small changes
  can have transformational effects 4, 11, 14,
  15, 16, 18

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Essential Principle 6

• Plants use content in the atmosphere to build
  life 17
  

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Essential Principle 7

• There is exchange between the atmosphere,
  hydrosphere, oceans, and biosphere, The
  atmosphere is constantly exchanging energy and
  matter with other spheres 5, 10, 11, 17, 18, 21,
  25

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Essential Principle 8

• There is one atmosphere that varies depending on
  location and at different timescales. Weather and
  Climate are different but inextricably connected.
  14, 15, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25

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Essential Principle 9

• The Sun is the source of all energy in the
  atmosphere 5
  

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Concluding Remarks

• Our sub-points can help refine the Essential
  Principles and also inform the discussions about
  Fundamental Concepts. These sub-points are
  documented completely on the BLOG.
• In developing these Essential Principles we used
  technical terms as a shorthand. This will need
  additional care and revision.
  
• The final articulation of these Essential
  Principles should use terminology carefully and
  be sensitive to clarifying common
  misunderstandings (e.g. the differences between
  atmosphere, weather, climate)

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NASA Goddard
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1. Earth is completely enshrouded in an atmosphere

• Our atmosphere is relatively thin
• The processes by which our atmosphere formed
• The reasons our atmosphere remains intact

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2. The atmosphere is made up of gases
particles

• Indicate the concentrations of primary gases
• Concentrations of particles
• The atmosphere brokers exchanges of energy b/t
  Earth space
  
• Gases help trap heat
• Gases block certain solar rays
• Particles both reflect and absorb, depending upon
  their color composition

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3. The atmosphere changes over time and place

• Atmospheric movements are driven by solar energy
• Atmospheric movements are driven by Earths
  rotation
  
• Atmospheric movements are driven by convection
• Atmospheric movements are driven by temperature
  gradients
  
• Atmospheric movements are driven by interactions
  w/ the surface

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4. The atmosphere has five different layers

• The troposphere (e.g., where is it, whats it
  made of, why does it matter?)
  
• Stratosphere
• Mesosphere
• Thermosphere
• Exosphere

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5. The atmosphere is essential for life

• Protects life forms from the Suns harmful rays
• Keeps our planet warm
• Distributes water
• Protects us from space debris, CMEs, etc.

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6. Atmosphere interacts w/ all other Earth system
spheres

• Interactions with the surface (land ocean)
  influence the physical and chemical composition
  of the atmosphere
  
• Life respires and evapotranspires, thus
  influencing the physical chemical composition
  of the atmosphere

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7. Humans influence and are influenced by the
atmosphere

• Humans add gases that help trap heat
• Humans add particulates that can both cool and
  warm the surface by reflecting or absorbing
  sunlight
  
• Humans are changing the chemistry of the
  atmosphere, with global consequences (e.g., ozone
  hole global warming)
  
• Human-released particles modify clouds to
  sometimes delay, sometimes intensify rainfall
  
• Humans change the surface, which affects the
  warmth and particulates the surface gives to the
  atmosphere