Download Carbon and other Biogeochemical cycles

Physical Aspects of
Climate Change
Philipp Mager 1430434
Institute of Physics
Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten und
Präsentationstechnik
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hohenester
Observations and Measurements in the Climate System
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Global-scale observations since ~1950
Paleoclimatic Reconstructions extend
Records back to millions of years
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Together they provide a full view
of change in our climate system
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Atmosphere
Oceans
Cryosphere
Land surface
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Drivers of the climate change
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Radiative Forcing
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Radiative Forcing = Solar Insolation (irradiance) – Energy radiated to space
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Quantifies the change of energy fluxes caused by changes of the CC drivers
Degree of Certainty
contains of
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Confidence in the
validity
Quantified measures
of uncertainty
of a finding
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Observed Changes in the Climate System
Temperature
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Globally average Temperature raised by
0.89 (+0.20) °C since 1901
The first Decade of the 2000’s has been
the warmest
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Observed Changes in the Climate System
Carbon and other
Biogeochemical cycles
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Highest greenhouse gas records since
800,000 years.
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The pH of ocean surface water has
decreased by 0.1 since 1750
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Observed Changes in the Climate System
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Arctic sea ice extent decreased about
0.5 million km² per decade since 1950
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The sea level raised 0.20 m
between 1901 and 2010
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90% of net energy increase is stored in
the ocean → increase of temperature
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References / Sources
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“Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis” (IPCC 2013 Report)
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"Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry", Daniel J. Jacob, Princeton University
Press, 1999
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiative_forcing
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