10/9/2022

Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)

Cairo Campus
College of Computing and Information

UNR1601
Climate Change and Water Management
Ch [01] – Earth Climate

Dr. Mohamed Salem Nashwan

Construction & Building Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
AASTMT, Cairo Campus

Why Study Climate?

• For several reasons of which:
– Determines the type and location of human-managed ecosystems, such
as agricultural farmlands.
– Affects the weathering of rock, the type of soil that forms, and the rate of
soil formation.
– Affects people and society
– Helps to determine the quantity and quality of water available for human
use.
– Determines the severity of droughts, storms, and floods.
– Largely determines the nature and locations of biomes -major terrestrial
ecosystems, defined based on their plant communities.

1
 10/9/2022

How does climate affect Egypt?

For example Sandstorm Fog

Heatwave Heavy Rainfall

Climate
Climate is generally defined as a statistical description in terms
of the mean and variability of the atmosphere over a period
ranging from months to thousands or millions of years and
generally for a specified geographical region.

• Thus, the mean temperature for the month of May in Cairo is

obtained from measurements considered representative for
Cairo averaged over the month of May from a record of many
years (classical period is 30 years).

2
 10/9/2022

Climate
• The average-state description involves a wide range of
variables depending on what is of interest.
• Temperature and precipitation are the most commonly used;
however, the list may include wind, cloudiness and sunshine,
pressure, visibility, humidity and elements with noteworthy
human impacts such as severe storms, excessively high and
low temperatures, fog, snow and hail.

Weather and Climate

Here, it is important to identify the difference between weather
and climate.
• Weather involves the description of the atmospheric
condition at a single instant of time for a single occurrence.

• Climate is an average of weather conditions over a period

of time including the probability for distributions from this
average.

3
 10/9/2022

Meteorology – the Study of Weather

• The field of atmospheric science which is most well-known and of practical
importance to the general public is meteorology, the study of weather.
• Meteorology is usually concerned only with the lowest region of the atmosphere,
the troposphere.
• The advent of weather-monitoring satellites, and of supercomputers, have greatly
facilitated the science and application of meteorology in recent years.

Climatology – The Study of Weather Statistics, Patterns,

and Trends
• Climatology, the study of climate, differs from meteorology in that climate is the
long-term pattern of temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, etc. at a particular
location, over periods of a year or more, whereas weather is the current (or very
near-term) state of affairs at the location or region of interest.
• For example, the climate in Antarctica is quite different from that in the Sahara
Desert, or the Amazon river basin.
• Look for other examples

4
 10/9/2022

Example
In Cairo, the hourly temperature in a given day were as
presented in the table. Find the daily temperature on this day?
Hr Temp (C) Hr Temp (C)
1 19 13 27
2 18 14 26
3 17 15 25
4 16 16 25
5 18 17 24
6 20 18 23
7 21 19 22
8 22 20 21
9 23 21 20
10 24 22 20
11 25 23 19
12 26 23 19
9

Example
The following table presents the precipitation gauge records
during a given day. Find the daily precipitation on this day?
Hr Pr (mm) Hr Pr (mm)
1 0 13 0
2 0 14 1
3 0 15 3
4 0 16 2
5 0 17 5
6 0 18 1
7 1 19 0
8 3 20 0
9 4.2 21 0
10 0 22 1.8
11 0 23 0
12 0 23 0
10

10

5
 10/9/2022

Climate System
• The climate system is defined as the five components which
directly interact with the atmosphere, and which jointly
determine the climate of the atmosphere.
• The five components are listed below:
1. Atmosphere (all air)
2. Hydrosphere (all water)
3. Biosphere (all living things)
4. Geosphere (solid portion of the earth)
5. Cryosphere (frozen water part of the earth)

11

11

Climate System Interaction

Air Ice

Water Land

Life

12

12

6
 10/9/2022

Earth Climate System

13

13

Earth Climate System

The Earth's climate system is a compilation of the following components and their interactions-
1. The atmosphere, includes collection of gases.
2. The hydrosphere, including the oceans and all other reservoirs of water in liquid form, which are
the main source of moisture for precipitation and which exchange gases, such as CO2, and particles,
such as salt, with the atmosphere.
3. The geosphere, which affects the flow of atmosphere and oceans through their morphology (i.e.
topography, vegetation cover and roughness), the hydrological cycle (i.e. their ability to store water)
and their radiative properties as matter (solids, liquids, and gases) blown by the winds or ejected from
earth's interior in volcanic eruptions.
4. The cryosphere, or the ice component of the climate system, whether on land or at the ocean's
surface, that plays a special role in the Earth radiation balance and in determining the properties of
the deep ocean.
5. The biosphere - all forms of life - that through respiration and other chemical interactions affects
the composition and physical properties air and water. The biosphere is that part of Earth's
atmosphere, land, oceans that supports any living plant, animal, or organism. It is the place where
plants and animals, including humans, live. Large quantities of carbon dioxide are exchanged between
the land-based biosphere and the atmosphere as plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen,
and animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
14

14

7
 10/9/2022

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

Earth rotates once every
23 hours, 56 minutes and
4 seconds.

Earth’s rotation is
slowing slightly with time

Today is 1.7 ms longer

than day one century ago

15

15

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

Today, the Earth's axis
is tilted 23.5 degrees from the
plane of its orbit around the
sun.

The tilt changes between 22.1

and 24.5 degrees over a cycle
of about 40,000 years

16

16

8
 10/9/2022

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

When Winter is in South,

Summer is in North and
vice-versa.

When Spring in South,

Autumn in North

As the tilt changes the

season shifts

17

17

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

The shape of the Earth's orbit varies between nearly circular (lowest eccentricity of
0.000055) and mildly elliptical (highest eccentricity of 0.0679).

These variations occurs with a period of 413,000 years. This caused Ice Ages.

18

18

9
 10/9/2022

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

The combined effect of these orbital cycles causes long term changes in the
amount of sunlight hitting the earth at different seasons.
Example: the orbital cycles triggered warming at high latitudes approximately
19,000 years ago, causing large amounts of ice to melt, flooding the oceans with
fresh water. 19

19

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

Since 1976, a series of satellite instruments have

measured the energy output of the sun directly. The
satellite data show a very slight drop in solar irradiance
(which is a measure of the amount of energy the sun
gives off) over this time period.

20

20

10
 10/9/2022

Global Energy Flows (W/m2)

21

21

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

General Atmospheric Circulation

22

22

11
 10/9/2022

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

23

23

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

• Ocean Circulation has a Large effect on Climate
The oceans play a large part of in determining the existing climate of the Earth.
• It seems to have a crucial influence on climate change due to human activities.
• Ocean and atmosphere are close interactions and have a strong system.
• Oceans have high capacity to contain heat compared with the atmosphere driving
to gradually raise temperature in the oceans.
• Oceans redistribute heat throughout the climate system through their internal
circulation.

24

24

12
 10/9/2022

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

• Vegetation - Carbon
Carbon only affects climate when
it is in the atmosphere
Gases move through the Earth
reservoirs:
– Atmosphere
– Biosphere (living things)
– Lithosphere (solid earth)
– Hydrosphere (freshwater and
oceans)

25

25

Earth’s Natural Climate Cycle

• Snow and Ice
The presence or absence of Changes in snow and ice
snow and ice affects cover affect freshwater
warming and cooling over availability, air
the Earth’s surface, temperatures, sea levels,
influencing the Earth’s ocean currents, and storm
energy balance. patterns.
A reduction in snow cover and
ice causes the Earth’s surface
to absorb more energy from
the sun (decreased albedo),
which is a positive feedback,
causing stronger warming
26

26

13
 10/9/2022

Climate Variability
• Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and
other statistics (such as the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the
climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of
individual weather events.

• Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the

climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural
or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability).

27

27

Thank You !

28

28

14