Transcript ppt - Cal State LA - Instructional Web Server

Geog 410: APPLIED CLIMATOLOGY
THE EARTH SYSTEM
ATMOSPHERE
HYDROSPHERE
CRYOSPHERE
GEOSPHERE
BIOSPHERE
THE CLIMATE SYSTEM
CLIMATE VERSUS WEATHER
Choose which one hurts less.
The Atmospheric Sciences include meteorology and
climatology.
Climatology: The study of atmospheric condition over
periods of time (average, variation, and extremes)
Methods are meteorological but results are
geographical.
Brief History
•
In ancient Greek culture, climate means “slope” in Greek.
(incline of the earth’s axis)
•
400BC “airs, Waters, and Places” by Hippocrates
•
Middle of 15th century (age of discovery, sea voyages, and development of new trading areas) started
descriptive reports of climates outside of Europe
•
17th century, Instruments are invented to measure atmospheric conditions and scientific analysis of the
atmosphere begin:
(a)
Galileo-thermometer 1593
(b)
Torricelli-barometer 1643
(c)
Boyle-basic relationship between pressure and volume in a gas
18th century, extensive data collection and description of regional climate began
19th century, explanation of phenomena through the study of the physical processes
Temperature and precipitation are the most widely recorded and longest records
Central England: 325 yrs; Europe and United States: 200 years; most weather stations is less than 100 years
1817 von Humboldt constructed the first map using isotherms (lines of equal air temperature)
1885 balloons became widely used to monitor upper atmosphere (radiosondes)
Important event: “the National Climate program Act’ signed into law in Sept 1978 stated :to establish a
national climate program that will assist the nation and the world to understand and respond to natural
and man-induced climate processes and their implications.
(the first element was “assessment of the effect of climate on the natural environment, agricultural
production, energy supply and demand, land and water resources, transportation, human health, and
national security;
The second element was “to improve the understanding of climatic processes, natural and human-induced, and
the social, economic, and political implications of climatic change)
IPCC report of 2007 won Nobel Prize with Al Gore
Areas of Climatology
• Physical Climatology: study energy exchanges
and physical processes
• Dynamical climatology: atmospheric motion
and exchanges that lead to and result from
that motion
• Synoptic Climatology: relate local and regional
climate to atmospheric circulation
Methodology: descriptive, statistical,
mathematical and synoptic
Scale: microclimatology, mesoclimatology,
macroclimatology
Areas of Applied climatology:
1. Biophysical (food-agricultural and fisheries,
water-disasters and resources, energy-fossil
fuels and renewable resources)
2. Socioeconomic (health-bioclimatology and
comfort, community-air pollution and
recreation, industry and trade-commerce,
construction, services, and transportation)
How Big Is Climate?
Temporal Aspects of
Climate:
Climate Variability
Climate Change
Los Angeles Civic Center (USC Campus)
Average Annual Temperature (1878-2007)
TEMP
70
Yr Avg-10
10-Yr Avg
Degrees F
68
'83
Linear(TEMP
Trend
)Linear
'59
'31
66
64
'97
'05
'85
62
'75
'44
60
58
2006
2002
1998
1994
1990
1986
1982
1978
1974
1970
1966
1962
1958
Data: NOAA NWS (Los Angeles/Oxnard)
LA's HEATING UP!!
1954
Year
1950
1946
1942
1938
1934
1930
1926
1922
1918
1914
1910
1906
1902
1898
1894
1890
1886
1882
1878
'94
LA Civic Center (USC Campus)
Annual Mean Temperature (1878-2007)
70
'83
TEMP
Degrees F
68
'97
'59
Year Avg 01
'07
'31
66
'85
64
62
'44
60
'75
LA's HEATING UP!!
'94
18
78
18
83
18
88
18
93
18
98
19
03
19
08
19
13
19
18
19
23
19
28
19
33
19
38
19
43
19
48
19
53
19
58
19
63
19
68
19
73
19
78
19
83
19
88
19
93
19
98
20
03
58
Data: NOAA NWS (Los Angeles/Oxnard)
Year
Bill Patzert/JPL
California
Temperature
Changes (°F)
1950 - 2000
331 Met. Stations
CA Warming Due To:
• Land Use (60%)
• Greenhouse Gas
Warming (40%)
California’s Extreme Makeover
CLIMATE AND SOCIETY
Climate As a Resource
Climate As a Hazard
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it
is quite clearly Ocean.” – Arthur C. Clarke
Tide Gauge Observations
150
3.2 mm/year
100
2.0 mm/year
MSL (mm)
50
~ 8 inches
(20 cm)
0.8 mm/year
0
= 16,000 cubic miles!!!
-50
Average Rate
~ 1.8 mm/year
(67,000
cubic
km)
-100
1880
1900
1920
1940
Year
1960
1980
2000
[Church and White, 2006]
Sea Level Rise
Malibu’s “sandbagged” Broad Beach.
The once-wide sand strip, swept away
by waves and rising seas.
WHAT CAUSES CLIMATE
CHANGE?
OK! I believe mankind
causes global
Warming!
Very well. Give the
heretic back his
research funding.
To overturn the world economy based on the
musings of a few idiot leftist scientists is just
stupid, that’s what Global Warming is all about.
-Rush Limbaugh-
Global Warming Guaranteed