Climate change (Class of 2019)

Carbon dioxide and (steady state) climate change

Notion that climate can change (see also [Can climate be changed? 2019-04-18]


Which components of air interact with radiation?

Absorption and transmittance of infra-red radiation by the atmosphere

Reference


"Discovery of global warming" ... development of thoughts

[Historical list (image file)]

References


Data of carbon dioxide concentration

"ppm" "by volume" ... i.e. ratio of numbers of molecules (rather than ratio of mass)

[x][at World Data Center for Greenhouse Gases (at Japan Meteorological Agency)

[x][at Earth System Research Lab., NOAA, USA]

Precursor of a homework: evaluation of CO2 mass in the atmosphere, given concentration in ppm.


Theoretical computation of vertical temperature profile of the atmosphere [Manabe and Strickler 1964]

"Standard atmosphere": typical vertical distribution of temperature in the real world

Syukuro Manabe finished Ph.D. in 1957 in Japan, moved to USA and worked in what will be later called Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Radiation, for developing 3-dimensional "general circulation" model of the atmosphere.

During the course, he also made a vertical 1-dimensional model.

manabe_strickler1964fig1.png

manabe_strickler1964fig4.png

manabe_strickler1964fig8b.png

Results

Reference


Effect of CO2 concentration on temperature [Manabe and Wetherald 1967]

[Main result of Manabe & Wetherald 1967 (image file)]

Rerefence


Explanation of greenhouse effect based on quasi-steady-states (by Manabe)

Approximate that emission of terrestrial radiation to space comes from a certain single height level.

With more greenhouse gases, effective source height of terrestrial radiation shifts to higher position. (The atmosphere becomes more "opaque" to infra-red.)

Assuming that incoming solar radiation and its absorption by the climate sysem do not change, "effective radiative temperature of the earth" Te does not change.

The temperature must much Te at a higher position than before. So, the surface temperature must be higher than before.

greenhouse_plus_bathtub_model.png


2019-May-23
MASUDA Kooiti
[Climate change 2019] [Index page of "Climate change"] [educational materials] [Entrance page in English] ["Home" page] of K. Masuda