2|Climate Responsive Ar chitecture

1 WEATHER AND CLIMATE

- Weather:
Momentary state of the atmospheric environment at a given location (O H Koenisberger)

- 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 of time 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. Climate in a wider
sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.
(https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/518.htm)

An integration in time of the physical states of the atmospheric environment, characteristic of

a certain geographical location; integration in time of weather conditions.
(O H Koenisberger)

2 COMPONENTS OF CLIMATE
The climate system comprises of five components described below, which interact to
generate the observed climate of a location. Not only are each of these components
complex systems in themselves, but the interactions between them take place at various
time and space scales, further increasing their complexity.

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Figure 1.1: Schematic view of the components of the global climate system (bold), their
processes and interactions (thin arrows) and some aspects that may change (bold arrows).

Given below are excerpts from the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC):

- THE CLIMATE SYSTEM

The climate system is the highly complex system consisting
c of five major
components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface
and the biosphere, and the interactions between them. The climate system evolves
in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external
external
forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and anthropogenic forcings
such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use
land use change.

- Atmosphere

The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth. The dry atmosphere consists
almost entirely of nitrogen (78.1% volume mixing ratio) and oxygen (20.9%
volume mixing ratio), together with a number of trace gases, such as argon
(0.93% volume mixing ratio), helium, and radiatively active greenhouse gases
such as carbon dioxide (0.035% volume mixing ratio), and ozone. In addition the
atmosphere contains water vapour, whose amount is highly variable but typically
1% volume mixing ratio. The atmosphere also contains clouds and aerosols.
- Hydrosphere:

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comprisin liquid surface and

The component of the climate system comprising
subterranean water, such as: oceans, seas, rivers, fresh water lakes,
underground water etc
- Biosphere (terrestrial and marine):

The part of the Earth system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms, in
(terrestrial biosphere) or in the oceans (marine
the atmosphere, on land (terrestrial
biosphere), including derived dead organic matter, such as litter, soil organic
matter and oceanic detritus.
- Cryosphere:

The component of the climate system consisting of all snow, ice and permafrost
on and beneath
eneath the surface of the earth and ocean.
- Lithosphere:

The upper layer of the solid Earth, both continental and oceanic, which
comprises all crustal rocks and the cold, mainly elastic, part of the uppermost
the lithosphere, is not considered as
mantle. Volcanic activity, although part of the
part of the climate system, but acts as an external forcing factor.

(https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/518.htm)

3 GLOBAL CLIMATIC FACTORS AND CONTEXT

The global factors that contribute and shape the climate of a location
location may be identified

- SOLAR RADIATION - QUALITY AND QUANTITY

The Sun has the dominating influence on climate. Radiation intensity cannot be used
to estimate luminance, as the spectral distribution of light varies with altitude.

Solar radiation incident on the Earth’s surface is taken as the solar constant. The
Earth-
value of this constant actually varies by a negligible amount because of the Earth
Sun distance as well as the Sun’s output.

- TILT OF THE EARTH’S AXIS

The tilt of the Earth’s
rth’s axis is the cause of seasonal changes. Further, radiation
incident on the Earth surface is highest on the plane normal to the direction of
radiation. Due to the Earth’s tilt, this is not the Equatorial regions, but the area

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 Climate Responsive Architecture |5

Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. This is the maximum heating

between the Tropic of Cancer
zone.

Fig : The Earth-Sun

Sun relationship (Koenisberger)

- RADIATION AT THE EARTH’S SURFACE

Surface radiation is affected by
a. Cosine Law
b. Atmospheric Depletion
c. Duration of sunshine

- The Earth’s thermal balance

lance

Fig : Passage of radiation through the Earth’s atmosphere (Source: Koenisberger)

The heat absorbed by the Earth’s surface is balanced out by corresponding heat
loss, in order to maintain thermal balance of the Earth, thereby ensuring optimum

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6|Climate Responsive Architecture

living
g conditions for all forms of life on the planet. Distribution of incoming radiation is
shown in Fig...

Fig : Heat release from the ground and the atmosphere (Source: Koenisberger)

g wave
Heat is released from the Earth’s surface through three processes - long
radiation, evaporation and convection. This is illustrated in Fig...

- WINDS
- Thermal forces
Winds can be defined as convection currents in the atmosphere, serving to
even out differential heating of various zones. The pattern of movements is
modified by the Earth’s rotation.

The maximum heating zone on the Earth’s surface, described earlier in the
section titled “Tilt of the Earth’s Axis” is where the air movement cycle begins.
Here, due to the high temperature, air rises due to decreased pressure an and
subsequent decrease of weight; and flows towards the colder more high high-
pressure colder regions. Having risen, part of this air is cooled and descends
towards the subtropics from where it is pulled in towards the Equator.

The Inter Tropical Convergence ZoneZone (ITCZ) refers to that area wherefrom
the air rises, and where the northerly and southerly winds meet leading to the
formation of the tropical front.
front. Here, the conditions are usually calm,
sometimes interspersed by light breezes of irregular directions, known as
doldrums.

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 Climate Responsive Architecture |7

- Trade-winds

Fig : Wind Parallelogram (Source: Koenisberger)

Being liquid in property, air tends to experience gravitational pull and frictional
resistance along the Earth’s surface, causing it to lag behind the earth’s rate
of rotation
tion near the Equator where this rotation is fastest. This lag or slippage
- a phenomenon known as the Coriolis force, manifests itself as a counter
wind, blowing in the opposite direction of the earth’s rotation.
This counter wind and the thermal-force
thermal nduced air movement described
induced
earlier interact to produce a set of resultant winds known as the North and
South easterlies, or trade winds,, as named by sailship traders of days
bygone. As the name suggests, they are the North-easterly
North easterly winds north of the
Equator South easterly winds south of the equator, and are the actual
uator and South-easterly
winds experienced by the Earth (not the Thermal force winds or the counter
winds).

- mid-latitude
latitude westerlies
The law of angular momentum requires that a balancing set of winds be
generated
ated in the Westerly directions to counter the Easterlies near the
Equator. These are formed between 30 deg. and 60 deg. N and S, and they
blow in the same direction as the Earth’s rotation. These are known as the
mid-latitude westerlies
latitude westerlies.

Around the 30 and 60 deg latitudes themselves; however, there are light and
variable winds, as these bands have continually high barometric pressure(and
hence descending air).

- polar winds
Near the Poles, in a manner similar to the thermal-force-induced
thermal induced air
movements generated
enerated at the Equator, air moves from the high pressure
colder regions towards the warmer regions away from the Poles. The
negligible circumferential velocity at the Poles, causes this air to lag behind
the Earth’s rate of rotation. These Northerly (near the North Pole) and
Southerly (near the South Pole), are thus deflected into north easterly and
south easterly polar winds.

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8|Climate Responsive Architecture

Subtropical polar front - This is the band where the cold polar winds meet the
mid-latitude
latitude westerlies leading to the formation of a low pressure zone
characterised by highly variable and strong winds.

- annual wind shifts

Fig: Seasonal shift in Inter Tropical Convergence Zone(ITCZ), Source:

Koenisberger

The ITCZ shifts from North to South and back again - with the extreme points
on either hemisphere indicated in Fig. - leading to an annual shift in the
global wind pattern, and corresponding seasonal changes in temperature,
wind patterns and rainfall across regions.

Fig: Global Wind Patterns (Source: Koenisberger)

K

College of Architecture Trivandrum, Mulayara Post, Thinavila, Trivandrum, Kerala – 695543