Lecture 4 !

The Atmosphere !

Atmospheric Pressure !

If warm air rises and cold air sinks why doesnt the Troposphere turn over?!

The saying that warm air rises and cold air sinks is only true when looking at a constant pressure level. This is because density varies drastically with height. In reality, less dense air rises and more dense air sinks. !

For the sake of this class, one can think of a constant pressure level as a level of constant height. !

The global atmospheric circulation and its seasonal variability is driven by the uneven solar heating of the earths surface.!

Because earths rotation axis is tilted relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun, there is seasonal variability in the geographical distribution of sunshine.! March! December! June!

September!

Source: NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project, 1959-1997 Climatologies. Animation: Department of Geography, University of Oregon, March 2000 !

Warm colors: net gain in energy! Cool colors: net loss!

The geographical distribution of temperature and its seasonal variability closely follows the geographical distribution of sunshine. !

tmp2m_web.gif

Temperature plays a direct role in determining the climate of every region. Temperature differences are also key in driving the global atmospheric circulation. Warm air tends to rise because it is less dense, while cold air tends to sink because it is more dense. As we will see, this sets the atmosphere in motion.!

As air becomes cooler, its capacity to hold water in vapor form decreases signicantly. This is known as the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship. This means that if air containing water vapor cools down, it will eventually become saturated with water vapor. As the air cools further, enough water vapor condenses into droplets to maintain the air at its saturation point.!

Measurements of water vapor in the atmosphere at Black Rock Forest during the early fall of 1995. The saturation curve of water vapor is clearly evident.

Graphic courtesy of John Knox

The Clausius-Clapeyron relationship leads us to the concept of relative humidity. Relative humidity is dened as the ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air to the amount of water vapor that air would hold if it were saturated. So completely saturated air has a relative humidity of 100%. If the air has half as much water vapor as it can hold, the relative humidity is 50%.!

Air temperature just above the Earths surface!

Total amount of water vapor in the atmospheric column!

In the lowest 10 km of the atmosphere (the troposphere), temperature decreases with height. So when warm air rises, it cools. Because of the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship, this often means that the air is quickly brought to saturation. Condensation begins, and clouds form. ! If the air is especially buoyant, condensation continues, causing the water droplets to increase in size. Eventually the water droplets are so large they begin to coalesce and fall as precipitation. For this reason, rising motion is often associated with precipitation. (Note that the troposphere contains 90% of the atmospheres mass.)!

Temperature differences are key in driving the global atmospheric circulation. Warm air tends to rise because it is less dense, while cold air tends to sink because it is more dense. This sets the atmosphere in motion, and ultimately leads to stark contrasts in hydrology. The tropical circulation is a good example of this.!

The Hadley Cell!

Where the earths surface is heated the most by the sun, rising motion occurs (A). This rising motion leads to cooling, condensation (B), and precipitation (C). Then to complete the circulation cell, the air moves northward and southward away from the zone of rising motion. Eventually it also sinks back to the surface (D). Since the air has been depleted of moisture, and warms as it descends, its relative humidity becomes extremely low. This leads to extremely dry conditions. This tropical circulation cell is known as the Hadley Cell.!

(1)! Hadley Cell has a profound inuence on hydrology and climate! The

(2)!

Evidence of the Hadley cell is clearly seen in satellite snapshots of the tropics from space. The band of cloudiness associated with the rising branch of the Hadley cell is known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ. !

Average Precipitation in December!

Persistent features in the global precipitation climatology ! Inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The east-west-oriented band of intense convection located over the warmest regions of the tropics.! Sub-tropics. The large areas of sinking, typically located at about 20 latitude, that compensate for the rising motion of the ITCZ. Little precipitation falls in these regions.! Monsoon. A tropical seasonal phenomenon driven by contrasts in land-sea temperature. When the land is warm relative to the ocean, air rises over the land, drawing in moist air from the ocean. Intense precipitation typically follows on land.! Mid-latitude jet stream. An intense air current that moves to the east in both hemispheres. The jet stream is turbulent, particularly in wintertime. The eddies it generates are wintertime storms, and are associated with high precipitation.!

Keep in mind that in our examination of the seasonal variation of surface air temperature, precipitable water, rising motion, and precipitation weve been looking at long-term averages, or CLIMATOLOGIES. The day-to-day variations in these quantities can look quite different from the climatology. !

Accumulated Precipitation from Sep 10-16 2009 from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission) satellite !

Recent Precipitation, 9 April 2012 !

rainfall estimate courtesy of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)!

Weather vs Climate
Weather is the short-time-scale (< a few days) evolution of the of the atmosphere.! Climate is the statistics of weather. Weather prediction. The evolution of the state variables
of the atmosphere is governed by nonlinear dynamics with chaotic evolution, and is therefore inherently unpredictable beyond a certain period of time (~ 2 weeks).!

Climate prediction. Predicting the statistics of weather is

still possible at much longer time scales. Predictions of climate come in two versions. 1) Predicting the the time evolution of natural climate variability, such as El Nio, where the slow evolution of the ocean permits prediction several months in advance. 2) Predicting the climate response to an externally specied change, such as to the anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases. The external effect is referred to as a forcing or driver of climate change.