LE/ESSE 1012 3.

0
The Earth Environment
Winter 2022

Lab. Section: Name:

Other Group Members (if any): Student Number:

Lab 5: RADIATION & CLIMATE

DUE: MARCH 26, 2022, 9:00 AM ET

IMPORTANT: This is a hands-on lab. You must attend the lab session in person in order to
receive credit for this lab.

Unless otherwise indicated, show your work for all problems. You can either enter your
answers into this document electronically using a computer or tablet, or you can print this
document, handwrite your answers, and scan the pages. If you need additional space, you
can insert additional pages or you can add additional space within the Word document. For
all numerical answers, the units should be indicated. Students can discuss this lab with
each other, but copying from each other or copying from other sources is cheating and is
not permitted. You should not share your answer sheets with other students or look at the
answer sheets of other students. You should understand the concepts well enough to explain
your answers in your own words. If your work relies on information that is obtained from a
legitimate source other than ESSE 1012 course materials, please indicate the source of that
information with enough detail so that someone else can locate the source. Please see the
course outline for detailed policies.

Part I: Measurements of Albedo

If the experimental apparatus is not immediately available, you can work on the paper-based
portion of the lab (Part II) until the apparatus becomes available. Each apparatus can be used by
groups of 2-3, but each group member should complete their own lab report and not share their
lab report with other group members. Please provide the names of other group members at the
top of this page.

Equipment provided by the lab:

• Pyranometer with digital multimeter
• Flashlight*
• Box for holding test surfaces and propping up the flashlight
• Plastic tube for pyranometer height placement
• White paper (calibration surface)
 • Yellow, light green, light blue, dark green, dark blue, brown and black construction paper
*If you have a bright flashlight (300 lumens or more), please bring it with you. If it performs
better than the flashlights we have in the lab, please email the course director with the make and
model of the flashlight so that we might obtain the flashlights for future use.

Equipment to bring with you:

• This procedure (in paper or electronic form)
• Calculator

Conceptual background:
As covered in lecture, the albedo, α , of a material is the fraction of incident light that is
reflected from a surface, which can be expressed as

flux of reflected radiation

α=
flux of incident radiation
The albedo of the planet is critical in determining the amount of energy that is absorbed from
incident solar radiation. As the surface of the planet changes due to deforestation, changing
farming methods and changing climate (desertification, cloud changes, ice/snow coverage), it is
important to know how the albedo of the planet may change and feed back on climate.
In this experiment, you will be using a pyranometer to measure the albedo of various
surfaces. When light is received, the pyranometer produces a current which you will read using a
digital multimeter. The precise relationship is that for every 1000 W m-2 that the pyranometer
receives, it will produce 75 μA of current. Thus, to convert from current to radiative flux, we
1000 W m−2
multiply the current by β = . As shown below, we can use this relationship to
75 μA
determine albedo directly from the current measurements, without having to convert to W m-2.
For a surface with albedo α1,

Ir1 β I
α1 = = r1
Ii β Ii
(1)

where Ii is the current generated by the incident flux and Ir1 is the current generated by the
reflected flux. Then for a second surface with albedo α2 receiving the same incident flux,

Ir2
α2 =
Ii
(2)

Dividing equation (2) by equation (1), we obtain

 α2 I
= r2
α1 Ir1

If for the first surface, we choose a highly reflective “calibration” surface with albedo of
approximately one, then α1 = 1 and

Ir2
α2 =
Ir1

That is, if we have a calibration surface with known albedo, we can determine albedos of other
surfaces just from the ratios of the current measurements.

Procedure:
Set up the experiment as in the photo below. Set the multimeter to the “μA" setting. Place
the white calibration surface in the box and place the flashlight on top of the surface leaning
against the side of the box. Use the notch in box edge and the notch in the flashlight handle to
keep the flashlight positioned consistently for each sample. Since the lab is being held indoors,
the flashlight is serving as a replacement for solar radiation. Turn the flashlight on and click the
button if necessary to get the brightest steady light. Adjust the flashlight focus if it is too diffuse.
(The illuminated region should be about the size of a chicken egg.) Remove the red cap from the
pyranometer (if it is not already off) and point the pyranometer tip straight down on the middle
of the illuminated region, with the tip about two inches above the sample. To ensure you are
holding the pyranometer at a consistent height with each sample, you can rest the edge of the
pyranometer on the plastic tube provided with the flashlight. The multimeter should now give a
nonzero reading.
 Next, complete the following steps:
1. While shining the flashlight on the white calibration surface, record the current, Ir1, in the table
below to one decimal place. You can assume that this standard surface has an albedo of
approximately one. If the current appears to be varying slightly, you can give a range of
values in the table.
2. Replace the calibration surface with the yellow construction paper. Record the current, Ir2 , in
the table to one decimal place. If the current appears to be varying slightly, you can give a
range of values in the table.
3. Compute the albedo of the yellow surface as explained above, i.e. α2 = Ir2 /Ir1. Record this
value in the table to two decimal places. If you obtained a range of current values in steps 1-2,
you can provide a range of albedo values.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 with the light green, light blue, dark green, dark blue, brown and black
construction paper.
5. When done, replace the red cap on the pyranometer, and turn the flashlight and multimeter off.

(13 points.)
Surface Current [μA] Albedo

White (calibration) 1.1 1.00 (assumed)

Yellow 0.8 0.73

Light Green 0.5 0.45

Light Blue 0.5 0.45

Dark Green 0.3 0.27

Dark Blue 0.3 0.27

Brown 0.1 0.091

Black 0.05 0.045

Questions to Answer:

1. (6 points.) What do you notice about the albedo as the colours get darker? Is this what
you expect? Attempt to explain any unexpected results.

as the colours get darker the albedo seems to decrease from 1 for white to 0.045 for black

2. (6 points.) Based on your measurements, estimate the albedo change that would occur
due to deforestation. Would this albedo change result in more or less solar radiation
absorbed at the surface?

I believe that as a result of deforestation, the albedo will be the effected with change in a
increasing manor, this is because if more of the dark green trees and forest life were to be
taken down, it would cause a lot of the ground surface life to die making the grass lighter,
as it dies. In other words this will result in less light to be absorbed, which causes a
higher albedo effect.

Albedo change: 0.27 -> 0.091

3. (6 points.) Based on your measurements, estimate the albedo change that would occur
 due to farmland drying out due to prolonged drought. Would this albedo change result in
more or less solar radiation absorbed at the surface?

If Farland were to dry out / die this would cause a more yellow-ish white grass to appear, as we
know from previous studies the lighter the colour is the less light is absorbed, the farmland grass
is to change from a dark greenish colour to a yellowish colour it will result in less solar radiation
to be absorbed by the surface.

Albedo change: 0.5 -> 0.091

4. (6 points.) Based on your measurements, estimate the albedo change that would result
from a mountain glacier melting completely. Would this albedo change result in more or
less solar radiation absorbed at the surface?

Mountain glacier's where to melt completely this would cause a lot of the white snow and ice to
not be present anymore, this would result in the mountains surface to be a darker colour, this
means that from the change in darkness on the surface of the mountain, more light will be
absorbed which will cause the albedo effect to decrease as shown in the chart above.

Albedo change: 1.0 -> 0.091

5. (6 points.) Based on your measurements above, estimate the albedo change due to
melting of sea ice (i.e. ice on the ocean). Would this albedo change result in more or less
solar radiation absorbed at the surface?

Just like stated in question number four has the white ice and snow melts, if there is a darker
surface under the snow or ice like in a mountain(brownish) or sea(blueish-greenish), it will cause
more light to be absorbed intern making the albedo effect decrease.8

Albedo change: 1.0 -> 0.27

 Part II: Climate Change in a Simple Two-layer Model

This part of the lab is paper-based, and only a calculator is required.

Attempt to model the effect of increasing greenhouse gas concentration in Earth's atmosphere
using a simplified model as in the figure below. In this model, there is a single blackbody
atmospheric layer with temperature TA and emissivity ε = 0.9 . The surface is a perfect
blackbody with temperature Ts. The atmospheric layer is assumed to be completely transparent to
solar radiation. In addition to these radiative processes, latent heat flux also acts to cool the
surface and warm the atmosphere. The latent heat flux is taken to be FLH = 55 W m−2. Note that
the latent heat flux can be related to the evaporation by

FLH = ρw Lv E

where ρw is the density of water and L v = 2.5 × 106 J kg−1 is the latent heat of vaporization
for water vapour. Here, E is assumed to be in units of m s−1 . The solar constant is
S0 = 1362 W m−2, the Stefan-Boltzmann constant is σ = 5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4, and
the planetary albedo is taken to be α = 0.29 . For all questions below, assume that the Earth
system is in a steady-state, which implies that the Earth system is in thermal equilibrium.

1. (7 points.) Write an expression for the energy balance of the surface in terms of ,
and the other given parameters. Keep your expression algebraic, using the notation given
above.

εσT4A + S0/4(1/- αp) = FLH + σ T s4

εσT4A = FLH + σ T s4 -S0/4(1/- αp)
𝑇
𝑇
 2. (7 points.) Write an expression for the energy balance of the atmospheric layer in terms of
, , and the other given parameters. Keep your expression algebraic.

2 εσT4A = εσ T s4

3. (6 points.) Combine your answers from questions 1 and 2 to eliminate and obtain an
expression that solves for . Keep your expression algebraic, and simplify your
expression as much as possible.

T s = (S0/4(1/- αp)/ σ(4-2ε))(1/4)

4. (5 points.) Using the given parameter values, determine a numerical value for . Express
your answer to two decimal places in units of K.

T s = (KLHS0(1/- αp)/ σ(4-2ε))(1/4)

Ts = ((1362(1-0.29))/((5.67*10-8) (4-2*0.9))))(1/4)
Ta = 292.14K
𝑇
𝑇
𝑇
𝑇
𝑇
 5. (7 points.) Assume that increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and
water vapour cause the atmospheric emissivity to increase to 0.93. Obtain a new value for
. Express your answer to two decimal places in units of K. Comment on whether your
answer is greater or less than your answer to question 4, and whether that agrees with
what you would physically expect to result from an increase in atmospheric emissivity.

T s = (KLHS0(1/- αp)/ σ(4-2ε))(1/4)

Ts = ((1362(1-0.29))/((5.67*10-8)(4-2*0.93)))(1/4)
Ta = 292.90K

6. (7 points.) Assume that, in addition to the atmospheric emissivity increasing to 0.93, the
planetary albedo reduces to 0.27. Obtain a new value for . Express your answer to two
decimal places in units of K. Comment on whether your answer is greater or less than
your answer to question 5, and whether that agrees with what you would physically
expect to result from a decrease in planetary albedo.

T s = (KLHS0(1/- αp)/ σ(4-2ε))(1/4)

Ts = ((1362(1-0.27))/(5.67*10-8)(4-2*0.76)))(1/4) = (967.02 / (1.4* 10-7))(1/4)
Ta = 288k
𝑇
𝑇
 7. (7 points.) Assume that, in addition to the atmospheric emissivity increasing to 0.93, and
the planetary albedo decreasing to 0.27, the latent heat flux (FLH) increases to 62 W m-2.
Obtain a new value for . Express your answer to two decimal places in units of K.
Comment on whether your answer is greater or less than your answer to question 6, and
whether that agrees with what you would physically expect to result from an increase in
latent heat flux.

T s = (KLHS0(1/- αp)/ σ(4-2ε))(1/4)

Ts = ((1362(1-0.27))/(5.67*10-8)(4-2*0.76))))(1/4)
Ta =

8. (5 points.) Compute the evaporation for both the original climate (FLH = 55 W m−2)
and the perturbed climate from question 7 (FLH = 62 W m−2). Express your answers
in units of cm y-1 (centimetres per year) rounded to the nearest cm y-1.

FLH= (Pw)(Lv)(E)
𝑇
 E1= 62/((997)(2.5*106))

(2.49*10-8) m/s

(2.49*10-8)*100cm/m*(3.1536*107 s/yr)

E1= 78 cm/yr

FLH= (Pw)(Lv)(E)

E2= 55/((997)(2.5*106)) = 55/2492500000

(2.2*10-8) m/s

(2.2*10-8)*100cm/m*(3.1536*107 s/yr)

E2= 69.6 cm/yr

9. (6 points.) Based on your answer to question 8, what are the values of global mean
precipitation for the original climate (from question 4) and in the perturbed climate (from
question 7)? Express your answers in units of cm y-1 rounded to the nearest 1 cm y-1.

Avg = (E1 - E2)/2

Avg = (78 + 69.6)/2 = 73.8 cm/yr