Global Climate

System:
What Drives It and How It Works

Ricardo T. Bagarinao
University of the Philippines
Open University
 Focus of the Lecture

Climate defined
The Global Climate System:
Drivers
The Global Climate System:
Mechanism
What is climate?

What is your
thought?
 What is climate?

Average weather
and its variability
over a certain time-
span and area
Measured by assessing the patterns of variation:
(a) temperature (b) humidity (c) atmospheric pressure (d) wind (e)
precipitation (f) atmospheric particle count
 What is climate?

Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the

"average weather," or more rigorously, as the statistical
description in terms of the mean and variability of
relevant quantities over a period ranging from months to
thousands or millions of years. The classical period is
30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO). These quantities are most often
surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and
wind.
 Basic Idea

• There is difference in climate through time

and space.

• It is interacting or dynamics.

• Its changes could be partly predictable

especially those that are caused by external
forces.
Components: Dynamics
 Climate Drivers

Paul Loubere © 2012
There are three basics that dictate Earth's climate:

(a)solar heating of the planet balanced by energy loss to space

(b)atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice responses to heating which
provide feedbacks that either mitigate or accentuate planetary
temperature changes;
(c)regional environmental systems which have innate patterns of
climate variability dictated by their unique physical-chemical-
biological conditions. 
 Planetary Energy Balance

•The climate system is powered by radiation from the sun,

of which approximately 49% is absorbed by the Earth's
surface, and 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere (Kiehl &
Trenberth 1997).

•This energy warms the planet, but the warming also

causes Earth to start radiating energy back into space.

•Ultimately, the temperature of the planet will be that at

which energy absorbed balances energy lost.
 Planetary Energy Balance

•The energy coming from the sun is

principally in the shorter (including visible)
wavelengths (0.3–1µm ; yellow-green
visible) while the energy emitted by Earth
surfaces is in the longer wavelength
infrared (4–11µm).

•The wavelengths are dictated by the

temperature of the emitter (Earth is cooler
than the sun so it radiates at a longer
wavelength).
 Planetary Energy Balance

 The energy absorbed by the Earth can

be written as:

EI = (1 – a) * Ω/4
• ‘a' is planetary albedo (0.31, this is
the proportion of incoming radiation
reflected to space and lost);

• Ω is the solar constant (solar

radiation reaching Earth, in Watts m-2 ,
about 1367).
 Planetary Energy Balance

The energy emitted by the

Earth can be written as:

EO = σ * T4 

(T = temperature in Kelvin, σ
= 5.67 x 10-8 J/m2 sec K4)
 Planetary Energy Balance

The Earth's temperature reaches a

balance, called a STEADY
STATE, when

EI = EO

The planetary temperature would

be: T4 = [(1 – a) Ω] / 4 σ (T in
Kelvin degrees)
 Planetary Energy Balance

The Earth's temperature reaches a

balance, called a STEADY
STATE, when

EI = EO

The planetary temperature would

be: T4 = [(1 – a) Ω] / 4 σ (T in
Kelvin degrees)
 Planetary Energy Balance

Earth surface temperatures as seen from emitted infrared radiation.

(Courtesy of NOAA Research in Loubere, P. (2012) The Global
Climate System. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):24
 Planetary Energy Balance

“The increasing Earth's surface temperature

results from energy that is trapped and
recycled in the lower atmosphere,
decreasing the amount reaching higher
elevation and escaping to space.”
(Loubere, 2012)
 What do you think?

What do you think would

be the consequence for
having a differential
energy distribution across
the Earth’s surface?
The Climate System in
Motion: Atmosphere
(a) Simplified atmospheric circulation
once the Coriolis effect is
incorporated with the vertical
circulation cells. This produces the
dominant surface winds: the Trades
at lower latitude and the Westerlies
at mid-latitudes.
(b) An equator to pole (meridional)
view of the circulation cells in the
atmosphere. These reach through
the lower portion of the
atmosphere, the troposphere. They
broadly divide the Earth into
climate belts.
Courtesy of NOAA Research
 The Climate System in
Motion: Ocean
•The surface winds blow over the oceans and they move water.

•Surface currents are generated by the tradewinds and the

Westerlies. This is water responding to the friction of the winds
on the sea surface. 

• Upwelling  causes deeper water to rise and replace the water

pulled away from the shore.

• The winds provide upward draw on deep waters. The

surface waters are drawn away from the coast.
 Feedbacks in the Climate
System
• The Earth has to augment solar heating through a
response to the sun's energy.

•This positive feedback is primarily due to water vapor in

the atmosphere.

• The oceans provide the exposed water surface which

allows the atmosphere to saturate with water vapor,
especially where it is warm as in the tropics.
 Feedbacks in the Climate
System
The amount of water
vapor in the atmosphere
increases with
temperature (Exponential
Increase).
Plot of water vapor dew point with
respect to air temperature at sea-
level. The graph shows the
maximum percentage by mass that
can exist as water vapor in the air.
© 2012 Nature Education Re-drawn
from Wikipedia.org: Dew Point. All
rights reserved
Climate System Feedback
 What do you think?

If the amount of water vapor in

the atmosphere increases with
temperature, can we say then
that global warming may not be
due to anthropogenic emission
of carbon dioxide or other
GHGs but due mainly to water
vapor?
 Human Influence on the
Climate System
•Human activities, in particular those involving the combustion of
fossil fuels for industrial or domestic usage, and biomass burning,
produce greenhouse gases and aerosols which affect the composition
of the atmosphere.

•The emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chlorine and

bromine compounds has not only an impact on the radiative forcing,
but has also led to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer.

•Land-use change, due to urbanization and human forestry and

agricultural practices, affect the physical and biological properties of
the Earth’s surface.
 Global Climate:
The Sum of Parts
The Earth's climate system is made
up of regions which respond
differently to changes in the
planetary energy balance. The changes in climatic
condition may be
beneficial or detrimental to
the biospheric component
Global climate is dynamic and is of the system.
affected both by internal and
external drivers.