Climate Change- All Classes

Dear Glenns Students-   It is not coincidental that all M&E classes right now from the sophomores to the seniors are studying climate change.  In Foundations, we are looking at the natural astronomical and geological forcings on our climate, that tend to produce changes with periods from centuries to millennia.  Milankovitch cycles, plate tectonic changes, and solar output are well known drivers of large-scale, slow climatic change.  In M&E I, we are looking at how Earth's atmosphere moves, what it is made of, how the interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere create a dynamic fluid envelope for life and the overall organization of Earth's biomes.  Finally in Oceanography, we are studying global ocean circulation which acts as the Earth's heat pump, moving warm air from the tropics and redistributing it to the poles, ventilating the deep ocean and delivering oxygen to the benthos and nutrients to the surface.  Current global warming and rapid glacial melt could threaten to stabilize the water column around the zones of deep and bottom water formation, capping the water column with stable, fresh water.  This potential negative feedback could lead to rapid global cooling according to some researchers.
       Let's see what scientists are talking about with a couple of interesting readings to put our learning into a larger context.  The first article is very concerning as we have a lot of unknowns about what is actually happening out in the extremes of the environment, the poles, and little money being allocated to study the areas where we have so many big questions.  The second article has been around for a while now, but is a very interesting analysis of Global Ocean Conveyor Belt shutdown, how it could occur and what it might mean.  Many folks consider climate change to be some far off, future generational potential- what if we are living it right now in fast forward?  Some things to think about.  


Ready or not - quick climate changes worry scientists most

Abrupt Climate Change should we be worried?

Aerosols

Dear Sophomores- In our study of climate change, we need to look at how Earth's geologic activity and plate tectonics can affect the changing temperatures we experience.  Aerosols are of great importance to our global radiation budget, acting like a curtain blocking incoming radiation by scattering light and reflecting and refracting it back into space.  Please read the article below, and then we are going to graph some Optical depth data and look at how much volcanic activity can affect the aerosol concentration in the atmosphere.

NASA Earth Observatory- Aerosols

Learning about Earth's atmosphere

Dear Juniors- In our study of the Earth's atmosphere, I want you to appreciate how your chemistry learning is applied in the real world.  As we study the dynamics of the atmosphere, we need to understand the complex chemistry of the gases involved and how their specific properties determine how they affect us down here on Earth.  Nitrogen gas, N2, is a nice, stable fairly inert gas that makes up 78% of the gas in the air, where methane, CH4, makes up only 0.00017% of the air we breathe, but has a massive impact on Earth's temperature.  Further, it is easy to forget that water, H2O, is a gas as well as a liquid, and that water vapor is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, holding a lot of heat into the Earth's atmospheric envelope.  Beyond just the chemical properties of these gases are the interactions between them and with incoming solar radiation, which can be observed in the complicated chemistry of stratospheric ozone which we will look at shortly.  Wow, chemistry is really important and cool too!


please read these pages-  Reading Assignment on Atmospheric Composition

Atmospheric motions study guide