Meteorology

Chapter 17: Climate Dynamics

Objective:

At the end of the session/s, the pre-service teachers should be able to:
- Understand how climate is generated
- Discuss the behavior of the atmosphere
- Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth's
systems result in changes in climate.

Topics:

Chapter 17: Climate Dynamics

17.1 Climate System
17.2 Behavior of the Atmosphere
17.3 Climate Equilibria
17.4 Climate Variability
17.5 Climate Prediction
17.6 Oceanography
Climate Dynamics:

Climate dynamics is concerned with how natural laws determine the climate. Climate research in the
AOES Department focuses on understanding the role of fluid mechanics, radiation, and land-surface processes in
climate. The primary research tool in the department is the state-of-the-art computer model, though theoretical and
observational efforts, as well as advanced analysis such as machine learning, are also important.

Weather:

Weather can be thought of as short-term changes (over hours or days) and climate as long-term changes (over years
or even thousands of years). Weather includes factors such as temperature, wind, rain, clouds, atmospheric pressure
and humidity. These are observed or predicted over smaller regions. Weather is influenced by the global climate
system.

Climate:

Climate is defined by long-term weather averages, variations and extremes. Local climates are influenced by their
distance from the equator, elevation, distance from water bodies, vegetation, the presence or absence of mountains,
and other geographical features. Climate also varies over time through seasons, years, decades and much longer
timescales such as the Ice Ages.

The Global Climate System

The global climate system arises from the interaction of 5 systems interacting together. To understand our climate
and how it is changing, we first need to understand these 5 systems:

1. Atmosphere
2. Lithosphere
3. Hydrosphere
4. Cryosphere
5. Biosphere

Atmosphere

The atmosphere is the thin layer of gases surrounding the Earth. The atmosphere is important for regulating the
Earth’s temperature.

The types and amounts of gases in the atmosphere can change how much heat and light can pass through. Some
gases can trap heat. These gases are called greenhouse gases and include carbon dioxide and methane.

Human activities such as burning fossil fuels are rapidly increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. This is causing our climate to warm.

Lithosphere

The lithosphere is the land surfaces such as soil and rocks, and human-made surfaces such as roads and buildings.
The different materials that make up the lithosphere absorb different amounts of energy from the sun, while
mountains can slow or redirect winds and affect where rain falls.

A major natural part of the lithosphere in NSW is the Great Dividing Range. This range influences climate by
affecting wind and rain patterns across the state.

Hydrosphere

The hydrosphere is all of the Earth’s liquid water found in oceans, rivers, lakes and underground. Oceans help
regulate Earth’s temperature by absorbing and releasing heat from the sun. This heat is transported around the world
through ocean currents like the East Australian Current. This influences the NSW climate.

Water evaporates from oceans and waterbodies and collects as water vapour in the atmosphere. The process of
evaporation helps keep climate close to these water bodies cooler and the water vapor can also fall as rain.

Important parts of the hydrosphere in NSW include our oceans, rivers and lakes, which we depend on for recreation
and industries. Freshwater from rivers, lakes, rainfall and underground (groundwater) is important for our rich
agricultural regions.

Cryosphere

The cryosphere is the frozen water in ice and snow. The cryosphere is mostly made up of sea ice in the Arctic and
Southern oceans, and the land-based ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. It also includes the ice and snow in
many elevated regions across the globe.

Ice and snow help regulate climate, as their white color reflects energy from the sun back into space. The seasonal
freezing and melting of snow and ice helps ocean water circulate around the world.

Ice and snow are not common in NSW. Some inland regions with higher elevation, such as the Snowy Mountains,
regularly experience snowfall in the cooler months. This affects the climate of surrounding areas, as winds that blow
across the snow-covered areas tend to be much colder.

Biosphere

The biosphere refers to the livings things that are found on Earth. Life plays an important role in the Earth's climate
over short (seasonal) and long-time-scales (millions of years). For example, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere which helps regulate the global climate and reduces the rate of global warming.

Under the right conditions and over thousands to millions of years, plants lock away carbon dioxide through the
formation of peat and coal.
Physical Behavior of the atmosphere and the Gas laws

The atmosphere is composed of a mixture of many different gases. This mixture behaves in many ways as if it were
a single gas. As a result of this phenomenon, the following generalizations describe important relationships
between temperature, pressure, density and volume, that relate to the Earth's atmosphere.

When temperature is held constant, the density of a gas is proportional to pressure, and volume is inversely
proportional to pressure. Accordingly, an increase in pressure will cause an increase in density of the gas and a
decrease in its volume.

If volume is kept constant, the pressure of a unit mass of gas is proportional to temperature. If temperature increase
so will pressure, assuming no change in the volume of the gas.

Holding pressure constant, causes the temperature of a gas to be proportional to volume, and inversely proportional

to density. Thus, increasing temperature of a unit mass of gas causes its volume to expand and its density to decrease
as long as there is no change in pressure.

These relationships can also be described mathematically by the Ideal Gas Law. Two equations that are commonly
used to describe this law are:

Pressure x Volume = Constant x Temperature

and
Pressure = Density x Constant x Temperature

Transient and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity

Projections of the severity of anthropogenic climate change are strongly dependent on our estimates of climate
sensitivity, traditionally defined as the global average warming at the Earth’s surface due to a doubling of the carbon
dioxide from pre-industrial levels. This importance arises not because global temperature change directly causes all
of the impacts of major concern, but because many effects of climate change are predicted to increase in severity
with larger global warming.

An important distinction is made between the equilibrium sensitivity — the temperature change realized after
allowing the climate system to equilibrate with a higher value of CO 2 — and the response on shorter time scales,
before the deep oceans have had time to equilibrate, that is of more direct relevance to the changes we are likely to
see in the 21st century. The latter is often quantified by raising the carbon dioxide in a model at the rate of 1% per
year and examining the response at the time when carbon dioxide concentration has doubled, referred to as the
transient climate sensitivity or response. (At a rate of 1% per year, doubling requires 70 years.)

Climate Variability

Weather can be highly variable on a daily, weekly, or even yearly basis – one day it might be sunny and the next it’s
snowing. Climate, on the other hand, doesn’t change day-to-day because it is based on longer time scales and
averages. However, climate is variable as well.

Climate variability is the way aspects of climate (such as temperature and precipitation) differ from an average.
Climate variability occurs due to natural and sometimes periodic changes in the circulation of the air and ocean,
volcanic eruptions, and other factors.
For example, the average daily maximum temperature in July, averaged over 30 years from 1988 through 2017, in
Boulder, Colorado was 87.7° F (30.9° C). However, in some years, the month of July has been warmer than the
average. In other years, the month of July is cooler than the average.

Worldwide, the average global temperature is rarely exactly the same from year to year. One year might be cooler
than the year before, even though the long-term trend shows increasing temperature over time due to climate change.
There are many reasons for climate variability, including natural fluctuations like the ENSO (El Nino Southern
Oscillation). Scientists are currently researching the impact that climate change has on variability.

Climate Prediction

A subset of numerical weather prediction dealing with generalized forecasts beyond the usual short-range and
medium-range forecast periods. It is part of the broader science of climatology.

Climate predictions are inherently probabilistic statements about the future climate conditions on timescales ranging
from seasons to decades or longer, and on spatial scales ranging from local to regional and global. Specifically,
predictions of seasonal and interannual weather (i.e., short-term climate) are predictions of the departures from the
average (normal) climate for upcoming seasons, and these are distinct from short-range weather predictions that
attempt to deterministically forecast day-to-day weather behavior.

Such predictions may provide some statistics on the seasonal or annual mean anomaly together with a measure of its
probability of occurrence, and such information is useful for governmental, nongovernmental, and private agencies
in making long-term decisions and planning in various fields (e.g., farming, early warning of potential hazards,
drought mitigation, disaster prevention, insurance policy, and other economic activities). In the past two decades,
there has been substantial progress in seasonal predictions, and now many operational and research centers around
the world routinely make such predictions. The success of seasonal predictions has arisen from an improved
understanding of the sources and limits of seasonal predictability as well as advances in climate models.

Oceanography

The study of the physical, chemical, and biological features of the ocean, including the ocean’s ancient history, its
current condition, and its future. In a time when the ocean is threatened by climate change and pollution, coastlines
are eroding, and entire species of marine life are at risk of extinction, the role of oceanographers may be more
important now than it has ever been.

Oceanographers from around the world are exploring a range of subjects as wide as the ocean itself. For example,
teams of oceanographers are investigating how melting sea ice is changing the feeding and migration patterns of
whales that populate the ocean’s coldest regions. National Geographic Explorer Gabrielle Corradino, a North
Carolina State University 2017 Global Change Fellow, is also interested in marine ecosystems, though in a much
warmer environment. Corradino is studying how the changing ocean is affecting populations of
microscopic phytoplankton and the fish that feed off of them. Her field work included five weeks in the Gulf of
Mexico filtering seawater to capture phytoplankton and protozoa—the tiniest, but most important, parts of the sea’s
food chain.
References:
https://www.climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/global-climate-system
https://science.gmu.edu/academics/departments-units/atmospheric-oceanic-earth-sciences/graduate-programs/more-
about-2/what#:~:text=Climate%20dynamics%20is%20concerned%20with,land%2Dsurface%20processes%20in
%20climate.
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7c.html
https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/transient-and-equilibrium-climate-sensitivity/
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/climate-
variability#:~:text=Climate%20variability%20is%20the%20way,volcanic%20eruptions%2C%20and%20other
%20factors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_prediction
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/climate-prediction
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/oceanography/