CIVL1180

Monitoring Changing Climate From Space

Prof. Hui Su
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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11 October, 2023
Brief Review
of Last Class
• Satellite data

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 Basics of Global Climate

• Components and phenomena in the climate system

• Basics of radiative forcing
• Globally averaged energy budget
• Radiative Forcing and energy transport by atmosphere
• Atmospheric circulation
• Ocean circulation
• Land surface processes

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 Components and phenomena in the climate system

§ "Components" of the climate system:

• atmosphere
• ocean
• land surface
• cryosphere (land ice (including ice shelves and glaciers), snow
and sea ice)
• biosphere
• lithosphere (solid earth)
• chemical composition (biogeochemistry; biology Û chemistry
of climate system).

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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
§ Climate processes
• solar radiation tends to get through the atmosphere;
absorbed at land surface and upper 10 m of ocean.
• ocean heated from above Þ stable to vertical
motions.
• warm surface layer, colder deep waters
• mixing near ocean surface by turbulent motions,
e.g., by wind Þ upper mixed layer ~ 50 m depth.
• mixing carries surface warming down as far as
thermocline, layer of rapid transition of
temperature to the colder abyssal waters below

Figure Credit: Praveenron

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 Figure 2.1

• Schematic of components of the climate system

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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Table 2.1
Atmosphere Typical time scales
Overall response time to heating months
Typical spin-down time of wind if nothing is forcing it days
Frontal system lifetime (1000s of km) days
Convective cloud lifetime (100m to km horizontal; hours
Time scale for typical upper level wind (20 m s-1) to days
cross continent (a few 1000 km)
Ocean
Response time of upper ocean (above thermocline) to months to years
heating
Response time of deep ocean to atmospheric changes decades to millennia
Ocean eddy lifetime (10s to 100 km) month
Ocean mixing in the surface layer hours to days
Time for typical ocean current (cm s-1) to cross ocean decade
(1000s of km)
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Cryosphere Typical time scales
Snow cover months
Sea ice (extent and thickness variations) months to years
Glaciers decades to centuries
Ice caps centuries to millennia
Land surface
Response time to heating hours
Response time of vegetation to oppose excess hours
evaporation
Soil moisture response time days to months
Biosphere
Ocean plankton response to nutrient changes weeks
Recovery time from deforestation years to decades
Lithosphere
Isostatic rebound of continents (after being 10,000s of years
depressed by weight of glacier)
Weathering, mountain building 1,000,000s of years
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Basics of radiative forcing
§ Solar radiation comes in, mostly reaching the surface
§ Infrared radiation (IR) is the only way this heat input can
be balanced by heat loss to space
§ Since IR emissions depend on the Earth's temperature, the
planet tends to adjust to a temperature where IR energy
loss balances solar input:
• i.e., outgoing flux of long wavelength infrared radiation*,
integrated over the Earth, balances flux of incoming short
wavelength solar radiation. *"outgoing longwave radiation" (OLR).
• intensity of radiation as a flux in units of Watts per square
meter (W/m2).
§ Blackbody radiation: approximation for how radiation
depends on temperature (that does not depend on the substance
doing the emitting; black = perfect absorber/emitter).
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Figure 2.5
• Blackbody radiation
curves & absorption
of radiation at each
wavelength

Fraction of radiation
absorbed at each
wavelength as it
passes through whole
depth of atmosphere

Fraction absorbed
above 11 km

After Goody and Yung, 1989, Atmospheric Radiation, Theoretical Basis 10

by permission of Oxford University Press (www.oup.com).
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
§ Total energy flux integrated across all wavelengths of light
(for a blackbody emitter) depends on absolute temperature
T by the Stefan-Boltzmann law
R = s T4
s = 5.67x10-8 Wm-2K-4, T in Kelvin (celsius + 273.16)
§ Actual surfaces or gases do not absorb or emit as a perfect
blackbody Þ define an emissivity e for each substance
R = esT4
§ absorptivity = emissivity.
§ later bulk emissivity ea for an atmospheric layer.
§ Full climate models do detailed computation as a function
of wavelength, for every level in the atmosphere, …

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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Figure 2.6
• Schematic of Sun's rays arriving at disk and spherical Earth

§ Solar energy flux (integrated across all wavelengths) at Earths orbit

So » 1366 Wm-2
§ Insolation averaged over one day, and over all latitudes = global
average solar flux
So/4 » 341.5 Wm-2 (round to 342 Wm-2 below)
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Figure 2.7
• Seasonal and latitude dependence of insolation

Orbital parameters vary on paleoclimate time scales, e.g., ice ages.

(Axial tilt precesses around orbit 23 kyr; tilt changes 41 kyr; eccentricity 100, 400 kyr;
kyr=1000 yr)
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 2.3 Globally averaged energy budget
Pathways of energy transfer in a global average

Figure 2.8
After Kiehl and Trenberth, 1997, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 § Albedo: fraction of incident solar
radiation that is reflected.
§ Global average "planetary
albedo" 0.31 (=107/342).
§ Deep clouds: albedo roughly 0.9,
ocean albedo 0.08.
§ Some absorption of solar
radiation, e.g., in ozone layer
(UV).
§ Aerosols = suspended particles.
§ Most incoming sunlight that is
not reflected passes through the
atmosphere, absorbed at surface.

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

§ Heat transfer from the surface upward: sensible heat, latent
heat and infrared emission.
§ Sensible heat: contact between molecules, subsequent upward
transfer by parcels of hotter air (e.g. hot plumes known as
thermals; dry convection).
§ Evaporation more effective means of cooling the surface;
stores energy as latent heat.
§ Latent heat subsequently released when
water vapor condenses into clouds.
§ Wherever there is precipitation, latent heat
remains in atmosphere.
§ Cloud formation is most often associated
with overturning motions, known as moist
convection Þ transfers heat through a deep layer.
§ Overall effect convective heating.
§ Over land, vegetation plays such an important role in
evaporation that process is called evapotranspiration.
• plants access ground water, actively regulate water loss.
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
§ Atmosphere emits IR downward Þ absorbed at surface.
§ Greenhouse effect:
•The upward IR from the surface is
mostly trapped in the atmosphere, rather
than escaping directly to space, so it tends
to heat the atmosphere.
•The atmosphere warms to a temperature
where it emits sufficient radiation to
balance the heat budget, but it emits both
upward and downward, so part of the
energy is returned back down to the
surface where it is absorbed.
•This results in additional warming of the
surface, compared to a case with no
atmospheric absorption of IR.
•Both gases and clouds contribute to
absorption of IR and thus to the
greenhouse effect.
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
§ At the top of the atmosphere, in the global average and for a
steady climate:
• IR emitted balances incoming solar.
§ Global warming involves a slight imbalance:
• a change in the greenhouse effect Þ slightly less IR emitted
from the top (chap. 6).
• small imbalance Þ slow warming.
§ Three roles for clouds and convection:
1. heating of the atmosphere (through a deep layer)
2. reflection of solar radiation (contributing to albedo)
3. trapping of infrared radiation (contributing to the
greenhouse effect)

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 2.4 Gradients of rad. forcing and energy transport by atm.

§ Differences in input of solar energy between latitudes Þ

temperature gradients.
§ These gradients would be huge if it were not for heat transport
in ocean & atmosphere and heat storage in ocean.
• e.g., North Pole in winter time would be extremely cold.
§ Net solar energy input (Dec. climatology; Fig 2.9)
• net = incoming minus part reflected to space.
• essentially zero north of the Artic circle to about 385 Wm-2 near 30°S .
§ Outgoing longwave radiation (Fig 2.9) varies much less as a
function of latitude because:
• atmospheric and oceanic transports are very effective at reducing
temperature gradients.
• the ocean stores some heat from the previous summer.

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.9
Net solar energy input and output of longwave radiation
for December climatology as a function of latitude

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.10
Annual average net solar energy input and output
of infrared radiation to space from Earth

§ In the annual average climatology: rate of heat storage is small.

• differences between solar input and compensating IR is due to north-
south heat transport.
§ Net loss at poles approximately balances net energy gain in the tropics.
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 2.5 Atmospheric circulation
Figure 2.11
Temperature as a
function of height
or pressure

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.12
Latitude structure of the circulation

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Latitude structure of the circulation (cont.)

§ Hadley cell: thermally driven,

overturning circulation, rising in
the tropics and sinking at
slightly higher latitudes (the
subtropics).
• transports heat poleward (to
roughly 30°N).
• rising branch assoc. with
convective heating and heavy
rainfall.
• subtropical descent regions: warm
at upper levels Þ hard to convect,
little rain.

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Latitude structure of the circulation (cont.)

§ In midlatitudes, the average effect of the transient weather

disturbances transports heat poleward.
§ Trade winds in the tropics blow westward (i.e., from east, so
known as easterlies).
• they converge into the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ),
i.e., the tropical convective zone.
Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Latitude structure of the circulation (cont.)

§ At midlatitudes surface winds are westerly (from the west).

§ Momentum transport in Hadley cell and midlatitude transients
important to wind patterns. Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Figure 2.13

January
precipitation
climatology

July
precipitation
climatology

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.13
§Intertropical convergence
zones (ITZCs) or tropical
convection zones: heavy
precipitation features deep in
the tropics, (convergence
refers to the low level winds
that converge into these
regions).
§Monsoons: tropical convection
zones move northward in
northern summer, southward
in southern summer,
especially over continents.
•e.g., Asian-Austral monsoon,
Pan-American monsoon,
African monsoon.
•traditionally monsoon was
defined by local reversals of
wind; now generalized. Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Figure 2.13
§Not perfectly symmetric about
the Equator.
§Variations in longitude
(departures from "zonal
symmetry"). e.g., eastern
Pacific has little rain, western
Pacific has intense rainfall.
§More convection and
associated rising motion in the
western Pacific Þ
overturning circulations along
the equatorial band known as
the Walker circulation (see
Figure 2.14).
§Storm tracks around 30-45°N.

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.14

Equatorial Walker circulation

Adapted from Madden and Julian, 1972, J. Atmos. Sci. and Webster, 1983, Large-Scale Dynamical Processes in the Atmosphere

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP

 Figure 2.15

DJF climatology for

upper (200 mb)
level winds
•Note subtropical jets;
strong near storm
tracks.

DJF climatology
for lower (925 mb)
level winds
•Note strong tropical
Pacific trade winds.

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP