Greenhouse Gases

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Greenhouse Gases
Permanent gases Variable gases GHGs Ozone Suspende
d particles
30o cooler w/o GHGs!
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Surface Emission
Image shows the emission from the infrared
portion of the solar spectrum. Bright areas
represent cold high cloud tops. Dark areas
represent warm ground and ocean surfaces. These
images are color coded to enhance high cloud tops
http//weather.unisys.com/satellite/infrared_enh.h
tml
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The Atmosphere
N2 and O2 have little effect on weather and
atmospheric processes
GHGs absorb heat emitted by the earth
John Dalton
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Proportions
http//www.indiana.edu/geog109/topics/01_atmosphe
re/atmosphere.pdf
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Water Vapor
Image from observatory.ph
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Water Vapor Latent Heat
Clouds precipitation incoming (solar)
radiation and outgoing longwave radiation
Evaporative coolers take advantage of liquid to
gas transition
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Industrial Byproducts
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Equivalent CO2
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Solar Spectrum
f l c h f E
Energy
http//www.vicphysics.org/events/stav2005.html
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Thermal Radiation Blanket
http//www.te-software.co.nz/blog/augie_auer.htm
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Energy 50,038 kt

• Energy industries 15,509
• Residential 4,358
• Industries 9,496
• Agriculture 1,190
• Transport 15,889
• Commercial 3,369
• Fugitive Emissions 227
• TOTAL 50,038

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Industry 10,711 kt

• Cement 4,771
• Chemicals 99
• Metals 4,334
• Halocarbons 1,507
• TOTAL 10,711

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Agriculture 33,138 kt

• Rice 13,364
• Livestock 10,497
• Residue Burning 583
• Soils 8,686
• Grassland Burning 8
• TOTAL 33,138

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Waste 9,198.3 kt

• Solid Waste 6,357.3
• Domestic Wastewater 966.4
• Industrial Wastewater 920.4
• Human Sewage 954.2
• TOTAL 9,198.3

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LUCF -127 kt

• Change in Biomass
• Biomass Growth -110,381
• Roundwood/Fuelwood harvest 42,381
• On-site burning 28,866
• Off-site burning 6,555
• Decay 32,774
• TOTAL -127

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Per Capita Emission
National carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per
capita. Shows various countries and their levels
of CO2 emissions per capita. Also indicates the
difference from high income to low income nations
on CO2 output. Central to any study of climate
change is the development of an emissions
inventory that identifies and quantifies a
countrys primary anthropogenic sources and sinks
of greenhouse gas. Emissions are not usually
monitored directly, but are generally estimated
using models. Some emissions can be calculated
with only limited accuracy. Emissions from energy
and industrial processes are the most reliable
(using energy consumption statistics and
industrial point sources). Some agricultural
emissions, such as methane and nitrous oxide
carry major uncertainties because they are
generated through biological processes that can
be quite variable.
UNEP/GRID-Arendal, National carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions per capita, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and
Graphics Library, http//maps.grida.no/go/graphic/
national_carbon_dioxide_co2_emissions_per_capita
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Emissions by Country
http//www.carbonplanet.com/country_emissions
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Mauna Loa
The dashed red line with diamond symbols
represents the monthly mean values, centered on
the middle of each month. The black line with the
square symbols represents the same, after
correction for the average seasonal cycle. The
latter is determined as a moving average of five
adjacent seasonal cycles centered on the month to
be corrected, except for the first and last two
and one-half years of the record, where the
seasonal cycle has been averaged over the first
and last five years, respectively. The Mauna Loa
data are being obtained at an altitude of 3400 m
in the northern subtropics, and may not be the
same as the globally averaged CO2 concentration
at the surface.

• CO2 Annual Cycle
• Biospheric respiration in winter
• Photosynthesis in summer

The graph shows recent monthly mean carbon
dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory,
Hawaii. The last four complete years of the Mauna
Loa CO2 record plus the current year are shown.
Data are reported as a dry mole fraction defined
as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide
divided by the number of molecules of dry air,
multiplied by one million (ppm)
http//www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
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http//www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/co2_data_
mlo.html
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Carbon Cycle
Aquatic and Terrestrial Carbon Cycles
Carbon Life Carbon Energy
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Photosynthesis

• carbon dioxide water solar energy ? glucose
  oxygen
• 6 CO2 6 H2O Esolar? C6H12O6 6O2
• Carbon dioxide to oxygen

Chlorophyll molecules are specifically arranged
in and around pigment protein complexes called
photosystems which are embedded in the thylakoid
membranes of chloroplasts. http//en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/Chlorophyll
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Chlorophyll
http//www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/chlorophyll/chlorop
hyll_h.htm
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Respiration
Animals-Consumers Oxygen Glucose ? CO2
Water (respiration) C6H12O6 6 O2 --gt 6 CO2 6
H2O
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Terrestrial Carbon Cycle
When organic matter accumulates faster than
decomposition processes
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Aquatic Carbon Cycle
http//www.lenntech.com/carbon-cycle.htm
Warming of ocean
Rocks and sediments
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CO2 locked in the Permafrost
A study published in the September 7th issue
(2006) of Nature authored by Katey Walter of the
University of Alaska, and Jeff Chanton of Florida
State University reports that greenhouse gas is
escaping into the atmosphere at a frightening
rate.
Melting permafrost peatlands at Noyabrsk, Western
Siberia. http//www.terranature.org/methaneSiberia
.htm 
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The Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP)
http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/greenland/s
ummit/document/
Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric
constituents in the core have revealed a detailed
record of climatic variations reaching more than
100,000 years back in time. The results indicate
that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable
and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid
climatic variation during the last ice age (the
Wisconsin). Climatic instability observed in the
core part believed to date from the Eemian
interglacial has not been confirmed by other
climate records
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Antarctic Ice Cores
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100,000 Yr. Ice Age Cycles
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Components
Perihelion closest Aphelion farthest

• Land responds more to solar forcing (relative to
  water)
• More land in north
• Ice has higher albedo
• Milankovitch cycle is combo of periods of 3
  phenomena

http//www.homepage.montana.edu/geol445/hyperglac
/time1/milankov.htm
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Components
This wobbling of the Earth on its axis can be
likened to a top running down, and beginning to
wobble back and forth on its axis. The precession
of Earth wobbles from pointing at Polaris (North
Star) to pointing at the star Vega. When this
shift to the axis pointing at Vega occurs, Vega
would then be considered the North Star. This
top-like wobble, or precession, has a periodicity
of 23,000 years
http//www.homepage.montana.edu/geol445/hyperglac
/time1/milankov.htm
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Impact

• Temperature Rise
• Changing Precipitation Patterns (rain and snow)
• Sea Level Rise
• Extreme Events (stronger typhoons, heat waves)

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Arctic
http//nsidc.org/data/iceshelves_images/
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Arctic
Temperature increases in the Arctic due to
climate change, 2090 (NCAR-CCM3, SRES A2
experiment). Climate change, due to increased
concentrations of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, has lead to increased temperatures
and large scale changes in the Arctic. The Arctic
sea ice is decreasing, permafrost thawing and the
glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking.
Temperature increases in the Arctic due to
climate change, 2090 (NCAR-CCM3, SRES A2
experiment). (2008). In UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps
and Graphics Library.
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Antarctic
Projected temperature increases due to climate
change. Some of the ice shelves of the Antarctic
peninsula have split up and started moving more
rapidly, but the analyses of the Antarctic ice
sheet are inconclusive. The projected climate
situation in 2090 are presented in this figure,
the temperatures are annual values from the
NCAR-CCM3 model, ensemble averages 1-5 for the
SRES A2 experiment.
UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Temperature increases in the
Antarctic due to climate change, 2090 (NCAR-CCM3,
SRES A2 experiment), UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and
Graphics Library, http//maps.grida.no/go/graphic/
temperature-increases-in-the-antarctic-due-to-clim
ate-change-2090-ncar-ccm3-sres-a2-experiment
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Sea Levels
http//www.grida.no/climate/vital/19.htm
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http//www.bodc.ac.uk/data/online_delivery/ntslf/
Sea Levels
Over the last 100 years, the global sea level has
risen by about 10 to 25 cm. Sea level change is
difficult to measure. Relative sea level changes
have been derived mainly from tide-gauge data. In
the conventional tide-gauge system, the sea level
is measured relative to a land-based tide-gauge
benchmark. The major problem is that the land
experiences vertical movements (e.g. from
isostatic effects, neotectonism, and
sedimentation), and these get incorporated into
the measurements. However, improved methods of
filtering out the effects of long-term vertical
land movements, as well as a greater reliance on
the longest tide-gauge records for estimating
trends, have provided greater confidence that the
volume of ocean water has indeed been increasing,
causing the sea level to rise within the given
range.
It is likely that much of the rise in sea level
has been related to the concurrent rise in global
temperature over the last 100 years. On this time
scale, the warming and the consequent thermal
expansion of the oceans may account for about 2-7
cm of the observed sea level rise, while the
observed retreat of glaciers and ice caps may
account for about 2-5 cm. Other factors are more
difficult to quantify. The rate of observed sea
level rise suggests that there has been a net
positive contribution from the huge ice sheets of
Greenland and Antarctica, but observations of the
ice sheets do not yet allow meaningful
quantitative estimates of their separate
contributions. The ice sheets remain a major
source of uncertainty in accounting for past
changes in sea level because of insufficient data
about these ice sheets over the last 100 years
http//www.grida.no/climate/vital/19.htm
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Extreme Storms
It formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005,
and crossed southern Florida as a moderate
Category 1 hurricane, causing some deaths and
flooding there, before strengthening rapidly in
the Gulf of Mexico and becoming one of the
strongest hurricanes on record while at sea. The
storm weakened before making its second and third
landfalls as a Category 3 storm on the morning of
August 29 in southeast Louisiana and at the
Louisiana/Mississippi state line, respectively.
Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of
the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of
the United States.3 It was the sixth-strongest
Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the
third-strongest hurricane on record that made
landfall in the United States. Katrina formed on
August 23 during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane
season and caused devastation along much of the
north-central Gulf Coast. The most severe loss of
life and property damage occurred in New Orleans,
Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system
catastrophically failed, in many cases hours
after the storm had moved inland.4 The
hurricane caused severe destruction across the
entire Mississippi coast and into Alabama, as far
as 100 miles (160 km) from the storm's center. In
the 2005 Atlantic season, Katrina was the
eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, third
major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
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Simulated Increase of Hurricane Intensities in a
CO2-Warmed Climate Thomas R. Knutson, Robert
E. Tuleya, Yoshio Kurihara Hurricanes can
inflict catastrophic property damage and loss of
human life. Thus, it is important to determine
how the character of these powerful storms could
change in response to greenhouse gas-induced
global warming. The impact of climate warming on
hurricane intensities was investigated with a
regional, high-resolution, hurricane prediction
model. In a case study, 51 western Pacific storm
cases under present-day climate conditions were
compared with 51 storm cases under high-CO2
conditions. More idealized experiments were also
performed. The large-scale initial conditions
were derived from a global climate model. For a
sea surface temperature warming of about 2.2C,
the simulations yielded hurricanes that were more
intense by 3 to 7 meters per second (5 to
12 percent) for wind speed and 7 to 20 millibars
for central surface pressure. Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory/National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Post Office Box
308, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA.    To whom
correspondence should be addressed. E-mail
tk_at_gfdl.gov
Science 13 February 1998Vol. 279. no. 5353, pp.
1018 - 1021DOI 10.1126/science.279.5353.1018
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Corals elevated temp., high light intensities,
pollutants..
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Global Warming Cynics

• Piers Corbyn, Patrick Michaels, Tim Ball
• 1905 to 1945 temp rise before the industrial boom
• 800 yr. lag of CO2 from temp. from ice core data
• youtube ? Demanddebate.com
• Science skeptics