Download Geography 120 Earth Systems II: The Atmospheric Environment

Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences
at a Glance
The mission of the atmospheric
sciences is to understand and predict
weather, climate, and related
disasters
Global climate system
Spatial Scale
Climate Change
Globe
Climate
Continent
Global warming
AMO
PDO
Ice age
Glacial cycle
Abrupt change
ENSO
QBO
Monsoon
Madden-Julian Oscillation
Tropical waves
Annular modes
Diurnal variation
State
Weather
Mesoscale convective system
Thunderstorm
Tornado
Shallow convection
Boundary layer turbulence
City
Football
field
1 mm
1 m
10-4 m
Heat wave
Midlatitude cyclone
Tropical cyclone
Cloud/precipitation
Radiation
Composition
10-15sec
1sec 1min
1day
1mon
1yr
10yr
100yr
100,000yr
Time Scale
Weather-related Disasters: Tropical Cyclones
(Hurricanes, Typhoons, Cyclones)
Global distribution of the paths of major tropical cyclones during the last 150 years.
On average, ~ 80 per year around the world.
U.S. Fatalities: normal year 21, Katrina 1836
U.S. Property loss: normal year $5400 million, Katrina $84000 million
Weather-related Disasters: Tornadoes
U.S. Annual mean fatalities 56, annual mean loss $777 million
Weather-related Disasters: Winter Storms
U.S. Annual mean fatalities 57, annual mean loss $329 million
Weather-related Disasters in US
Flooding
Lightning
Fire
Blizzards
Extreme cold
Tornadoes
Hails
Hurricanes
Climate-related Disasters over the world
Example 1: El Nino
Climate-related Disasters over the world
Example 2: Global Warming
Effects on society
Hurricane Sandy in 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaG1jRLIBw
Weather/Climate and Business
- Insurance companies
History of Atlantic hurricane activity
The $15 billion insurance loss of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 led to the
insolvency of 12 insurance companies and significant market disruption.
Climate Change & Economy/Engineering
- Green Economy
• Renewable energy
• Green buildings
• Clean transportation
• Water management
• Waste management
• Land management
Weather/climate and International
Relationships: Water conflict
Six nations share the
watershed of the Mekong,
which is affected by
unconstrained development,
natural droughts, and climate
change
From The African Water Page
Climate and History/Politics
- Collapse of Maya civilization and
Chinese ancient dynasties
Droughts
The Atmospheric Sciences:
Predicting weather and climate
Video: Flying into hurricanes
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAy
fHqEW3gk
The modern climatology (meteorology)
was born in the 1940s (a very young
science!), but has been growing very fast!
Carl-Gustaf Rossby (1898-1957)
Generally considered as the “father of
modern meteorology”. Founder of the
“Chicago School of Meteorology”.
Observing the atmosphere:
Surface weather stations
Observing the atmosphere:
Upper-air sounding stations
Observing the atmosphere:
Weather Radar
First weather radar
(NOAA NSSL)
Current NEXRAD Doppler
radar (NOAA NWS)
Observing the atmosphere:
Shipborne radar
From Mapes and Lin (2005)
Observing the atmosphere: Aircraft
NASA unmanned Global Hawk
used for hurricane research
(from NASA)
NOAA P3
Observing the atmosphere: Satellite
TIROS-1 (1960)
World’s first weather satellite
NASA’s Earth
Observation System
A-Train Satellites
Climate Modeling on World’s Fastest
Supercomputers
Japan’s Earth Simulator
(World’s #1 in 2004, #20 now)
OSC’s new IBM machine
World’s top 50 now
World’s Major Climate Modeling Centers
Summary
• The mission of meteorology is to understand and predict
weather- and climate-related disasters (e.g. tornados,
hurricanes, El Nino and global warming).
• 3 scales: weather, climate, climate change
• The modern climatology (meteorology) was born in the
1940s (a very young science!), but has been growing
very fast! Now we have a global observational network
with many satellites, ships, radars and surface stations,
as well as very comprehensive prediction models
running on the world’s largest computers.