Levels of Present and Past Atmospheric Carbon-

dioxides, Global Warming Caused By CO2

Increase in The Present Atmosphere.

Carbon Sequestration.
What are greenhouse gases?

Where do they come from?

How do they work?

2
Composition of the Earth’s Atmosphere

• Nitrogen N2 = 78 %
• Oxygen O2 = 21 %
• Argon Ar = 0.9 %
• Other = <0.1%
• Carbon Dioxide CO2
• Methane CH4
• Nitrous Oxide NO2
• Ozone O3
• Hydrogen

3
What is a Greenhouse Gas?
• Greenhouse gas is a gas that that is
relatively transparent to solar radiation, but
absorbs and emits in the infrared…the type
of radiation the earth emits.
• Some examples:
• Carbon dioxide
• Nitrous oxide
• Methane
• Water vapor
 The Real greenhouse . . .
Shortwave can penetrate the glass panels whereas long waves
are trapped inside

A greenhouse in this definition is a house used to trap the sun’s energy in order to
extend the growing season or grow plants in areas that would otherwise be too cold.
We use this idea as a way to think about how sun’s energy is trapped in our
atmosphere. The difference is that the Earth is not surrounded by glass, but by
5
invisible gas that is also able to trap energy and heat.
Earth With An Atmosphere That Includes
Greenhouse Gases (why greenhouse gases absorb longwave radiations

Partly

(infrared)

Greenhouse Gases Make the Earth Warmer by Slowing the Loss of Infrared Radiation
 The Earth With No Atmosphere
If the amount of
energy that
comes in to
Earth is the same
amount of
energy that goes
out of Earth,
how can our
planet stay (infrared)
warm?

Earth’s surface would be 60F cooler than today…no life.

 What if Earth did not have greenhouse gases?
Main Greenhouse Gases CO2 and H2O

Estimated temperature ‐5 °C (23 °F)

without greenhouse
gases

Actual average 15 °C (59 °F)

temperature

Temperature change 20 °C (36 °F)

because of greenhouse
gases

This is an example of why we want to have greenhouse gases. They make our planet inhabitable and bring the
temperature up to a level humans can live in. It does not mean that the temperature everywhere on everyday
is equal to 59 degrees, but just that there is a dramatic change because of the GHG. We know this because we
can look at other planets (Mars and Venus usually) and compare their temperatures and atmospheres to ours.
 The “Goldilocks” Principle
Mars is too cold,
Venus is too hot,
and Earth is just
right!

Why is the greenhouse effect so important? This slide compares the temperatures on three planets with
and without greenhouse gases. All of them do experience warmer temperatures with the greenhouse
gases. The next slide is specifically the Earth and temperatures are reported in Fahrenheit (which might be
more familiar to the students).

Recent calculations by NASA actually put the temperature change due to GHGs at only 20 degrees, not the
33 degrees in the chart. This is mostly because of using a different albedo number to consider the effects of
solar and longwave radiation on the planetary albedo. The changed number is (-18 to -5) and is called the
“atmosphere effect” of greenhouse gases, as opposed to the “enhanced atmospheric test” associated by the
9
increase in greenhouse gases due to human activities.
Greenhouse Gases Warm the Earth in a
Similar Way That Blankets Warm Us at
Night
Earth’s greenhouse effect

Some gases preferentially absorb certain wavelengths of radiation and are transparent to others. This is
because of resonance. As we just saw with the amount of shaking in the gas models, they shake more or
less depending on how much energy you put into them. The long wave radiation is the resonance
wavelength of the greenhouse gases.
The (Atmospheric) Greenhouse Effect
Remember this chart?

• Examples of greenhouse gases: H2O, CO2, CH4, CFC.

• Currently, CO2 is the main suspect of causing the global warming since the 20th
century because combustion of fossil fuel naturally injects CO2 into the
atmosphere and it has increased dramatically since last century.
 What are other causes that the temperature
of the atmosphere to go up?
• There are many possible mechanisms that can cause the warming of the
atmosphere, for example:
• Natural variation – the climate becomes warmer by internal chaotic dynamics of
the earth‐atmosphere system (that is, no external influence).

• Solar activity – either direct increase of solar energy output or indirect “trigger”
mechanisms due to solar activity (though nobody knows how) may cause the
surface temperature to go up.
• Greenhouse effect – increasing “greenhouse” gases such as CO2, CH4, NO,
CFC,…etc. (actually H2O is very efficient, too, but at present it is assumed to be in
steady state).
• The last one is presently thought to be the most likely cause of the global warming
and hence we will examine it here in this chapter..
Greenhouse Gases
Carbon Dioxide

Water

Methane

Nitrous Oxide

Ozone

14
The Problem:
Rapidly Rising Greenhouse
Gases Due to Mankind
Charles Keeling had kept
track of the atmospheric
concentration of CO2 since
’50s. This chart shows a
steady increase of CO2
concentration (in addition
to the annual fluctuation)
in the last five decades.
Although this chart is
based on Mauna Loa’s
data, the same trend has
been found in many other
places.
South Pole and Barrow, Alaska, show the
same trend as Hawaii
The recent history of atmospheric
CO2, derived from the Mauna Loa
observations back to 1958, and ice
core data back to 900, shows a
dramatic increase beginning in the
late 1800s, at the onset of the
Industrial Revolution. At the same
time, the carbon isotope
composition (δ13C is the ratio of
13C to 12C in atmospheric CO2) of
the atmosphere declines, as would
be expected from the combustion
of fossil fuels, which have low
values of δ13C. The inset shows a
more detailed look at the last 150
years, where we can see that the
rise in CO2 coincides with the rise
in the burning of fossil fuels.

Credit: David Bice

The record of atmospheric CO2 over
the last 400,000 years shows that
the recent rise in CO2 is unlike
anything we’ve seen in the past 400
kyr both in terms of the rate of
increase and the levels to which it is
rising. Before this recent rise,
CO2 fluctuated by about 80 ppm in
connection with the ice ages (which
as you can see have a regularity to
their timing); this pattern has clearly
been interrupted by the recent
trend. The data shown here come
from a variety of ice cores (blue,
green, red, and cyan) and the Mauna
Loa observatory (black).

Credit: Robert Rohde

The longer history of atmospheric CO2 as
reconstructed from studies of deep-sea
sediments. In the upper right, the blue
region represents the upper and lower
estimates back through time — you can
see that it is difficult to be too precise
going back this far in time — and you can
see that the last time the midpoint of these
estimates rose above the current level
was around 2.5 Myr ago. This was a time
when there was far less ice on Earth; the
Arctic was apparently 15 to 20°C warmer
than it is today, and sea level was about
20 meters higher than the present. As we
go further back in time, we see that the
atmospheric CO2 concentration rises to
very high levels. The Earth was a very
different place before about 30 Myr ago —
sea level was perhaps 100 m higher and
there was practically no ice on Earth.
The history of atmospheric CO2 over
the last 550 Ma, based on modeling,
shows extremely high levels about
100 Ma (million years ago) and before
350 Ma. Note that there are huge
uncertainties associated with these
estimates, but the mid-range of the
estimates suggests that CO2 levels
were very high during this time
period. Interestingly, these periods of
high CO2 more or less coincide with
periods of high sea level as can be
seen in the lower panel.
Is the climate becoming warmer and warmer?
• According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Earth's
surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in
the past century, with accelerated warming during the past
two decades. There is new and stronger evidence that most of
the warming over the last 50 years is attributable to human
activities. Human activities have altered the chemical
composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of
greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and
nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is
undisputed although uncertainties exist about exactly how
earth's climate responds to them. (source:US-EPA)
Global temperature trend
Note that these are surface temperatures and mostly overland. The temperature in upper levels may
be different, even reversed.
But it is worse than that…
• There are a number of natural “amplifiers” of mankind’s emission of
greenhouse gases.
• The warming due to increased carbon dioxide, methane, and other
greenhouse gases will cause more water to be evaporated from the
earth’s oceans.
 Water Vapor Act as Amplifier
• The warming due to increased carbon dioxide, methane, and other
greenhouse gases will cause more water to be evaporated from the
earth’s oceans.
• The amount of evaporation increases with temperature.
• Water vapor is the most potent greenhouse gas and thus causes even
MORE warming.
• This produces a positive feedback.
Gases Trapped in Ice Gives Us a History of the
Gases in the Atmosphere
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was
demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of
infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many
instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of
greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers
show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels.
Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral
reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence
reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the
average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than
95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a
rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.
The planet's average surface temperature has
risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9
degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century,
a change driven largely by increased carbon
dioxide and other human-made emissions
into the atmosphere. Most of the warming
occurred in the past 35 years, with the five
warmest years on record taking place since
2010. Not only was 2016 the warmest year
on record, but eight of the 12 months that
make up the year — from January through
September, with the exception of June —
were the warmest on record for those
respective months.
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
have decreased in mass. Data from
NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate
Experiment show Greenland lost an
average of 281 billion tons of ice per
year between 1993 and 2016, while
Antarctica lost about 119 billion tons
during the same time period. The rate
of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled
in the last decade.
Image: Flowing meltwater from the
Greenland ice sheet
•The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat,
with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean
showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit
since 1969.
Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere
around the world — including in the Alps,
Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and
Africa.
Image: The disappearing snowcap of
Mount Kilimanjaro, from space.

Satellite observations reveal that the

amount of spring snow cover in the
Northern Hemisphere has decreased over
the past five decades and that the snow is
melting earlier
Global sea level rose about 8 inches
in the last century. The rate in the
last two decades, however, is nearly
double that of the last century and
is accelerating slightly every year.
Image: Republic of Maldives:
Vulnerable to sea level rise

Both the extent and thickness of

Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly
over the last several decades.
Image: Visualization of the 2012
Arctic sea ice minimum, the lowest
on record
The number of record high temperature events in
the United States has been increasing, while the
number of record low temperature events has
been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also
witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall
events.

https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution,
the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased
by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of
humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into
the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide
absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is
increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.
Carbon Sequestration: What It Is
• Stores CO2 removed from the atmosphere or captured from
emissions and stores it in another form somewhere else (a
‘carbon sink’)
• Occurs naturally: oceans and plants are already absorbing
much of what we emit
• We can speed the process along or deposit CO2 in sinks that it
wouldn’t have entered before
• Possible sinks: plants and soils, carbonate minerals, geologic
formations, ocean
Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse
gas. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and
storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of
reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
with the goal of reducing global climate change. The USGS
is conducting assessments on two major types of carbon
sequestration: geologic and biologic.

36
• Also known as “carbon capture”
• A geoengineering technique for the long-term storage
of carbon dioxide (or other forms of carbon) for the
mitigation of global warming
• More than 33 billion tons of carbon emissions (annual
worldwide)
• Ways that carbon can be stored (sequestered):
• In plants and soil “terrestrial sequestration”
(“carbon sinks”)
• Underground “geological sequestration”
• Deep in ocean “ocean sequestration”
• As a solid material (still in development)
 Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration

• The process through which CO2 from the atmosphere is absorbed

naturally through photosynthesis & stored as carbon in biomass &
soils.
• Tropical deforestation is responsible for 20% of world’s annual CO2
emissions, though offset by uptake of atmospheric CO2 by forests
and agriculture
• Ways to reduce greenhouse gases:
• avoiding emissions by maintaining existing carbon storage in trees
and soils
• increasing carbon storage by tree planting or conversion from
conventional to conservation tillage practices on agricultural
lands
• Carbon seq. rates differ based on the species of tree, type of soil, regional climate,
topography & management practice
• Pine plantations in SE United States can accumulate almost 100 metric tons of
carbon per acre after 90 years (~ 1 metric ton : 1 year)
• Carbon accumulation eventually reaches saturation point where additional sequestration
is no longer possible (when trees reach maturity, or when the organic matter in soils
builds back up to original levels before losses occurred)
• After saturation, the trees or agricultural practices still need to be sustained to
maintain the accumulated carbon and prevent subsequent losses of carbon back to the
atmosphere
Geological Sequestration

• Storing of CO2
underground in rock
formations able to retain
large amounts of CO2 over
a long time period
• Held in small pore
spaces (have held oil
and nat. gas for millions
of years)
Layers shown: Coal, brine aquifer, gas bearing
sandstone, gas bearing shale
Injection into Deep Saline Aquifers

• Saline aquifers are

underground layers of
porous sediment filled with
brackish water
• If they are deep enough and
hydrologically separated
from other aquifers, they can
safely hold CO2
 Ocean Sequestration
• “Carbon is naturally stored in the ocean via two pumps,
solubility and biological, and there are analogous man-made
methods, direct injection and ocean fertilization,
respectively.
• Eventually equilibrium between the ocean and the
atmosphere will be reached with or without human
intervention and 80% of the carbon will remain in the ocean.
The same equilibrium will be reached whether the carbon is
injected into the atmosphere or the ocean. The rational
behind ocean sequestration is simply to speed up the natural
process.”
 Ocean Sequestration
• Carbon sequestration by direct
injection into the deep ocean
involves the capture,
separation, transport, and
injection of CO2 from land or
tankers
• 1/3 of CO2 emitted a year
already enters the ocean
• Ocean has 50 times more
carbon than the atmosphere