Environmental Systems and Societies

2020 Session

“To what extent does a model of the

terrestrial atmosphere may
represent the increase of
temperature that can be seen in the
greenhouse effect as the layers of the
model are increased?”
Content:
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..

Justification ……………………………………………………………………….

Hypothesis ………………………………………………………………………...

Experiment variables……………………………………………………………....

Materials…………………………………………………………………………..

Methodology…………………………………………………………………….

Safety and Ethical

Issues…………………………………………………………………………….

Data collection /Raw Data…………………………………………………………………….

Analysis/ Data processing and data presentation………………………………

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………...

Evaluation……………………………………………………………………

Discussion…………………………………………………………………….

Appendix……………………………………………………………………….

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………

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Introduction:
• The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When
the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to
space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases. Greenhouse
gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and
some artificial chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons. The absorbed energy
warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the
Earth’s temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would
otherwise be, allowing life on Earth to exist. (Australian Goverment,
Department of the Environment and Energy)

As the Sun´s energy reaches the Earth, it goes through some layers, one of them
being the ozone layer. This is a layer in Earth’s atmosphere which contains
relatively high concentrations of ozone. This layer absorbs 97-99% of the sun’s
high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to live on Earth.
The thinning ozone layer leads to a number of serious health risks for humans; it
also causes greater incidences of skin cancer and cataract of the eyes (
(Rutherford & Williams, 2015 Edition ). There are also serious impacts for
biodiversity. Increased UV-B rays reduce levels of plankton in the oceans and
subsequently diminish fish stocks. It can also have adverse effects on plant
growth, thus reducing agricultural productivity. Another negative effect is the
reduced lifespan of certain materials. (Sparling, 2001) These consequences
occur due to a phenomenon called ´enhanced greenhouse effect´, which in turn
heats the Earth at greater levels affecting all types of climates around the world,
which are nowadays threatening nature´s and human’s survival.

Research Question: “To what extent does a model of the terrestrial

atmosphere may represent the increase of temperature that can be seen in the
greenhouse effect as the layers of the model are increased?” basically makes a
model of the atmosphere and its layers in order to observe how the time of
exposition to the sun and the thickness of these layers can impact the
temperature on Earth, and how is the relationship between the variables affecting
it. What the model is aiming to project is the varying temperatures of earth, in
the form of a model made of wood sticks and plastic layers, and trough this
analyze the possible consequences. In this way, the model creates a
representation of the environmental issue, which is the enhanced greenhouse
effect and its potential levels of presenting itself on the atmosphere, along with
damaging effects.

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 Justification:
• The issue regarding the greenhouse effect is that it contributes to global warming.
(Rutherford & Williams, Environmental Systems and Societies , 2015)This, in turn,
leads to climate change, the major cause for temperatures rising, frost-free season and
growing season being longer, precipitation patterns changing, droughts and heat
waves increasing, stronger and intensified hurricanes, sea levels rising, etc. (NASA)

Hypothesis:
• As the number of plastic layers increase, then higher levels of temperatures will
be observed inside the model, contrasting to the outside temperature levels.

Experiment Variables:
Experimental Variable(s) Units Additional
Variables Information
Dependent Daily Temperature (inside °C
the model)
Independent 1. The number of 1. They will
layers applied to be
the model numbered
2. The time the (from 1 to
model will be 8)
exposed 2. I will be
using a
chronomet
er.
(minutes)

Controlled 1. The size and 1. Only one 4. The temperature

number of model of will vary from day to
prototype the day; this could mean
2. The type of layer prototype an advantage as results
3. The tool used for will be can be more accurate
measurement used with to real world
4. Temperature the same circumstances where
inside de model size of the temperature is not
wood the same always, and
sticks. at the same time
2. The layer providing a greater
will be of variety of results.
plastic
foam
3. An infrared
thermomet
er will be
used

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Materials:
• Infrared Thermometer
• Plastic; these are used as layers, in this model 8 layers.
• Wood sticks, 30cm long.
• Chronometer

Methodology:
The independent variable which is temperature will be connected to the dependent
variables. These are time exposure, number of layers and the taking of the temperature.

In this case, a model with the shape of a cube, 30x30cm2 was built with wood sticks and
in order to represent the ozone layer, a plastic film was used, several times so as to
increase the thickness of the layers.

To begin with, I built the model and placed one layer of plastic that covered every side
of the cube. This will specifically represent the thickness of the ozone layer in this case
the minimum thickness. In real life, Dobson Units are used to measure the thickness of
the layers (Watch). According to the Nasa Ozone Watch, one Dobson Unit is the
number of molecules of ozone that would be required to create a layer of pure ozone
0.01 millimeters thick at a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1
atmosphere. Thus, if this measure is taken into account, the average amount of ozone in
the atmosphere is roughly 300 Dobson Units, equivalent to a 3 millimeters thick layer.
(Watch). In this experiment, one layer of plastic will represent 1 millimeter of thickness
of the ozone layer, and 8 will represent 8 millimeters. The model that was built,
including the first layer is shown here:

Figure 1: Model built with one layer included: (Photo taken by me using an IPhone 8plus, with a camera with the
characteristics of: Dual 12MP Wide and Telephoto cameras, Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture, telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture)

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 I started by applying the first layer on the cube, as seen in Image 1 and I measured
the temperature inside of it, in C with the Infrared Thermometer. This process only
includes setting the thermometer, putting it inside or outside of the prototype and
pushing a bottom that instantly tells temperature. After this, I as well measured the
temperature outside the model in order to have a basis for comparisons.

After this, I waited 5 minutes, measured by a chronometer, and annotated what was
the temperature inside the model after the first 5 minutes. Later, I measured again
the temperature; however I waited 10 minutes by chronometer. Both, outside and
inside temperatures were considered and registered.

The same process was done 8 more times.

Figure 2: shows the temperature in the Infrared thermometer of 56.6 C⁰ after 5 mins (inside prototype, 7 layers)
Day 1

In order to make complete comparisons, I did the same a second day and applied each
one of the layers and considered the same variables: temperature, number of layers, and
time of exposure. I made the same experiment, but made a duplication of the process in
a different day. This would provide a greater number of results, which will not only
make it more efficient to compare but will also increase the reliability of the
experiment. However, results from Day 1 and Day 2 are not the same, but similar.

Safety and Ethical Issues: there is no ethical or safety issues to consider during
this experiment

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Data Collection/Raw Data
In order to have a clear view of all the results, a table was done for both Day 1 and Day
2 of data collection, this can be seen here:

Prototype Temperature Temperature Temp in C⁰ Temp in C⁰ Temp in C ⁰

Layers in C⁰ (inside) in C⁰ (outside) after 5 mins after 10 after 10
(inside) mins mins
(inside) (outside)
1 23.5 24.5 30.5 38.8 24.7
2 22.4 25.3 43.3 36.8 22.9
3 23.8 25.8 37.9 40.7 25.5
4 24.2 25.8 42.3 45.7 23.2
5 24.2 28.1 47.6 40.5 23.2
6 23.5 26.6 43.2 52.7 23.8
7 22.2 26.5 56.6 49.1 27.3
8 24.3 25.2 57.3 53.7 27.9
Table 1. Table of data collected on day 1.

Prototype Temperature Temperature in Temp in C⁰ Temp in C⁰ Temp in C ⁰

Layers in C⁰ (inside) C⁰ (outside) after 5 mins after 10 after 10
(inside) mins mins
(inside) (outside)
1 24.3 25.8 31.3 36.7 25.7
2 23.2 25.6 37.6 39.5 24.2
3 23.2 26.0 45.4 42.7 26.5
4 22.7 24.7 40.8 39.9 23.9
5 24.5 25.9 43.2 44.5 24.6
6 23.7 26.1 44.8 45.7 25.0
7 22.9 25.3 53.8 52.1 28.7
8 23.2 25.5 53.5 54.4 28.1

Table 2. Table of data collected on day 2.

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Analysis/ Data processing and data presentation:
According to the data presented on Table 1 and Table 2, a graph was made in order to
observe the changes in a linear manner:

Figure 3 presents the results from all measurements made on day 1 inside the prototype.
In the horizontal axis time in minutes is presented, and in the vertical axis temperature
in °C is shown.

70

60
Temp. Layer #1
50 Temp. Layer #2
Temp. Layer #3
40
Temp. Layer #4
30 Temp. Layer #5

20 Temp. Layer #6
Temp. Layer #7
10
Temp. Layer #8
0
0 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes

Figure 3: Temperatures inside the prototype Day 1.

Figure 4 presents the results from all measurements on Day 2 inside the prototype. In
the horizontal axis time in minutes is presented, and in the vertical axis temperature in
°C is shown.

60

50 Temp. Layer #1
Temp. Layer #2
40
Temp. Layer #3

30 Temp. Layer #4
Temp. Layer #5
20 Temp. Layer #6
Temp. Layer #7
10
Temp. Layer #8
0
0 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes

Figure 4: Temperatures inside the prototype Day 2.

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Example of procedures that were taken to get results from the table 3 and table 4: As
for the temperature inside the prototype through all of the 8 layers, at the beginning of
the experiment the average temperature was:

(23.5+22.4+23.8+24.2+24.2+23.5+22.2+24.3)/8= 23.5 C

Table 3 show analysis of results for Day 1:

Table 4 show analysis of results for Day 2:

50
45
40
AverageTemperature in
35 C⁰ (inside)

30 Temperature after 10
25 mins inside

20 Temp in C⁰ (outside)

15
Temp in C⁰ after 10 mins
10
(outside)
5
0
Day 1 Day 2

Figure 5: shows the average temperature results for Day 1 and Day 2 of experiment. Average of temperatures
shown in bars.

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Conclusion:
According to what was stated at my hypothesis, it can be concluded that it was
supported, as the results show, temperature increased inside the prototype as the layers
were added. The patterns that were observed are clearly shown in Figure 3, as average
temperature in C inside the model, temperature in C outside the model and temperature
in C after 10 minutes outside maintained a very close temperature, on average 24.85C.
However, there is an increase in temperature after 10 minutes inside the prototype,
either for Day 1 or Day 2, in which the layers of the model were already 8. This, which
is illustrated on Figure 3, is also reinforced by the results of percentage changes
between the average temperature in C at the beginning of the experiment inside the
prototype and the average temperature in C after 10 minutes inside the prototype. Take
for instance, Day 2, the percentage change was of 47, 7%, meaning a higher 21, 5 C.

So, according to the Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian

Government “Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and land
clearing are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere and
this is trapping extra heat, and causing the Earth's temperature to rise”. This means that
in reality, it is not the ozone layer which is getting thicker and rising temperatures by
trapping greenhouse gases, instead human activities are responsible for this. However,
this is IA presents a model were the increase in plastic layers means the trapping of
greenhouse gases, which in turn creates the Greenhouse effect.

Evaluation:
Evaluation Realistic suggestions for improvement
Correct sampling strategy, through the use
of an Infrared Thermometer, was used,
which helped with the accuracy of the
results and valid data being collected.
This was the correct sampling strategy
because it is a professional tool and it is
used for even more complex and specific
tasks. Moreover, it is easy to obtain.
However, the IR thermometer does not
take into account wind and there is the
need for the environment to be clean and
without humidity.
The use of plastic foams helped to make a But, in real life the ozone layer a lot more
model of the ozone layer, with and easy to complex and increased number of
get and to manage material. repeated trials will mean a waste of
plastic, which contaminates and takes
years to disappear.
Table 4 is an evaluation of method for ESS IA.

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Discussion:
As it can be seen in the figures above, my hypothesis regards the ozone layer and its
change in temperature, was correct. As the number of layers in the prototype increased,
temperature also increased. But, it is not clear if the time exposure to the sun is one of
the factors that affected the temperature inside the porotype, since the temperatures vary
as minutes’ pass from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, but it can decrease as it can increase. It
can be noted that the first 5 minutes of exposure to sun are the ones that mark the
highest temperatures as layers’ increase, and the trend tends to be more positive during
this 5 minutes. It must be taken into account that for better and more accurate results, a
better prototype should be made, different locations should be chosen and better
equipment, like the thermometer, should be used. Thus, what the results imply is that
there may be many factors contributing to the increasing temperature globally, in this
case the higher ozone layer thickness, the higher temperatures. Whatever the reasons for
this increase in average temperature over time, the consequences are an increase in the
greenhouse effect potential dangers, which include the higher probability of global
warming increasing as well as climate change all around the world. The implications to
society would be more extreme weather events and wildfires, decreased air quality, and
diseases transmitted by insects, food, and water (Program, 2019). However, some
implications to society also are positive, as one of the roles of the ozone layer is to
protect the Earth from UV-rays.

The results of my analysis are adverse to previous published research, which instead
focus on the negative effect of ozone depletion.

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Application:

Environmental Solution to These The strength The weakness

Issue: issue: In the solutions to of the of this solution
Enhanced case the ozone reduce proposed is that, many
Greenhouse layer is greenhouse solution is that counties such
effect and its increasing in gases can be many as LEDCs may
further size; reduce seen in the countries are find a harder
consequences the emissions Kyoto encouraged to time to reach
of Greenhouse Protocol. “The agree to the the accorded
Gases (GHGs) Kyoto proposed agreements, as
through Protocol is an requisites, and they have
legislation, international may even help fewer
carbon credits, agreement each other as resources and
environmental linked to the well as lower living
regulation, and United Nations provide a standards than
raising Framework forum for new MEDCs. Also,
awareness Convention on sustainable countries like
through social Climate international China and the
media audits. Change, which relations. USA have
commits its failed to meet
Parties by some of the
setting targets.
internationally
binding
emission
reduction
targets.”
(United
Nations, 2019)
Another
international
solution was

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 the Paris
agreement:
The agreement
presents a
balanced
outcome with
an action plan
to limit global
warming 'well
below' 2°C.
(Council,
2018)
Table 5: Applications

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Bibliography
Australian Goverment, Department of the Environment and Energy. (s.f.). Obtenido de
https://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/climate-science-data/climate-
science/greenhouse-effect

Council, E. (07 de 06 de 2018). European Council, Council of the European Union. Obtenido de
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/climate-change/international-
agreements-climate-action/#

NASA. (s.f.). Global Climate Change, Vital signs of the planet . Obtenido de
https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/

Program, U. G. (2019). GlobalChange.gov. Obtenido de

https://www.globalchange.gov/climate-change/impacts-society

Rutherford, J., & Williams, G. (2015 Edition ). Environmental Systems and Societies . En J.
Rutherford, & G. Williams, Environmental Systems and Societies (pág. 279). United
Kingdom : Oxford, University Press.

Rutherford, J., & Williams, G. (2015). Environmental Systems and Societies . En J. Rutherford, &
G. Williams, Environmental Systems and Societies (pág. 324). United Kingdom : Oxford,
University Press.

Sparling, B. (30 de May de 2001). NAS. Obtenido de

https://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/ozonelayer.html

United Nations, C. C. (2019). United Nations, Climate Change. Obtenido de

https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol

Watch, N. O. (s.f.). Nasa Ozone Watch . Obtenido de

https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/dobson_SH.html

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