Climate System and

Components
Dr. Saadia Hina
Course Code Env-601
BS 7th Semester
Environmental Sciences & Engineering
Introduction to Climate
• From the ancient Greek origins of the word ( klíma , “an inclination or slope”—e.g., of the Sun’s
rays; a latitude zone of the Earth; a clime) and from its earliest usage in English, climate has
been understood to mean the atmospheric conditions that prevail in a given region or zone.
• In the older form, clime , it was sometimes taken to include all aspects of the environment,
including the natural vegetation.
• The best modern definitions of climate, regard it as constituting the total experience of weather
and atmospheric behavior over a number of years in a given region.
• Climate is not just the “average weather” (an obsolete, and always inadequate, definition).
• It should include not only the average values of the climatic elements that prevail at different
times but also their extreme ranges and variability and the frequency of various occurrences.
• Just as one year differs from another, decades and centuries are found to differ from one
another by a smaller, but sometimes significant, amount.
• Climate is therefore time-dependent, and climatic values or indexes should not be quoted
without specifying what years they refer to.
Characteristics of Climate

Climate is affected by a combination of factors from three different

systems:

• Solar System
• Earth System
• Earth’s Dynamics (how planet earth is changing at a macro scale)
Energy from the sun

The output of energy from the sun has

been monitored by satellites for thirty
years and has not increased during this
period of rapid global warming.
Solar System

The earth’s solar system (our sun and

the associated planets, etc.) have an
impact on the Earth’s System composed
of five components:
Atmosphere (all air)
Hydrosphere (all water)
Biosphere (all living things)
Geosphere (solid portion of the earth)
Cryosphere (frozen water part of the
earth)
Earth System (Interaction)
Air Ice
Atmosphere (all air)

Hydrosphere (all water)

Biosphere (all living things)

Water Land
Geosphere (solid portion of
the earth)
Life
Cryosphere (frozen water
part of the earth)
Climate System
Video: How Does the Climate System Work?

Global Climate System Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrPS2HiYVp8
Global Energy Flows (W/m )
2
Dynamics of the Earth

• Atmospheric Circulation
• Ocean Circulation
• Land Surface Processes
• Vegetation
• Carbon Cycle
• Snow and Ice
Atmospheric Circulation

• What is atmospheric circulation?

1
2
3

• What is Coriolis effect?

1
2
3
Atmospheric Circulation

• The atmospheric convection cells play to convey heat from the warm equatorial region
to the cold polar regions.

• Warm air rises near the equatorial latitudes.

• When the rising warm air reaches the peak of the troposphere, it moves toward the
poles, and when the air cools, it flows and becomes dense enough to sink at latitudes
of about 30oN or 30oS.

• When this cold air reaches the Earth's surface, it is moved toward the equator, and it
then warms and rises.

• Where the air is rising or sinking at the equator, 30 o, 50o, 60o, and at the poles.
General Atmospheric Circulation
Jet Stream occurs
here

Jet Stream occurs

here
Coriolis Effect

• Coriolis Effect comes from the Earth’s rotation influencing the direction of
the air movement.
• The Coriolis Effect causes moving objects or currents on the surface of a
rotating planet to veer to the right (clockwise) in the Northern
Hemisphere and to the left (counterclockwise) in the Southern
Hemisphere.
• Air moves horizontally from high to low pressure zones, forming the major
wind belts, including the trade winds, between the equator and 30 oN and
30oS; between 30oN and 30oN and 50o to 60oN and 50o to 60oS; and the
polar winds.
Video: Atmospheric Circulation

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Ye45DGkqUkE

Atmospheric Circulation
Ocean Circulation

• The oceans play a large part of in determining the existing climate of the Earth.

• It seems to have a crucial influence on climate change due to human activities.

• Ocean and atmosphere are close interactions and have a strong system.

• Oceans have high capacity to contain heat compared with the atmosphere
driving to gradually raise temperature in the oceans.

• Oceans redistribute heat throughout the climate system through their internal
circulation.
Ocean Circulation has A Large Effect on Weather and
Climate

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=p4pWafuvdrY

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=kpvUivhCw2Y
Vegetation - Carbon

Carbon only affects climate when it is in the atmosphere

Gases move through the Earth reservoirs:
• Atmosphere
• Biosphere (living things)
• Lithosphere (solid earth)
• Hydrosphere (freshwater and oceans)
Carbon Cycle
Video: The Carbon Cycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mldBE9Ee3zY
Snow and Ice

The presence or absence of

Changes in snow and ice
snow and ice affects
cover affect freshwater
warming and cooling over
availability, air temperatures,
the Earth’s surface,
sea levels, ocean currents,
influencing the Earth’s
and storm patterns.
energy balance.
Reductions of Snow and Ice

A reduction in snow cover and

ice causes the Earth’s surface
to absorb more energy from
the sun (decreased albedo),
which is a positive feedback,
causing stronger warming

Albedo is the "whiteness" of a surface

El Niño and Global Warming

• El Niño in general occurs in every 3 to 7 years and appears

around Christmas period.
• Droughts and floods occurring almost all continents are
associated with El Niño.
• ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) is caused by the shift
of the atmospheric-oceanic conditions, due to the way the
oceans store and transport heat.
At Decadal and Annual Time Scales

Decadal & Annual-Scale Cycles (2 to 4 yr

periods)
 Pacific Decadal Oscillation 25 - 45 yr cycle
 El Niño/La Niña (ENSO) 2 - 8 yr cycle

Driven by changes in ocean circulation

El Niño

• What is El Niño?
• El Niño is the prolonged warming in the Pacific Ocean sea
surface temperature compared with the average value. It is a
warming of at least 0.5°C (0.9°F) averaged over the east-central
tropical Pacific Ocean.
• A pattern of ocean surface temperature in the Pacific off the
coast of South America, which has a large influence on world
climate (Houghton, 2009).
El Niño

• The first signs of an El Niño are:

• Rise in surface pressure over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia
• Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of the central and eastern
Pacific Ocean
• Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or head east
• Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the northern Peruvian deserts
• Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the
east Pacific. It takes the rain with it, causing extensive drought in the
western Pacific and rainfall in the normally dry eastern Pacific.
El Niño
El Niño: Warm water
pool approaches South
American coast.
Absence of cold
upwelling increases
warming
La Niña
La Niña: Equatorial
winds gather warm
water pool toward the
west. Cold water
upwells along South
American coast
Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies for El Niño (Dry)
and La Niña (Wet) Conditions

SST °C SST °C

El Niño
La Niña

Droughts in SE Asia Flooding in SE Asia

Video: El Niño y La Niña

El Niño and La Niña

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FVZrw7bk1w
What is Climate Change?

IPCC, 3rd Assessment Report:

Climate change: a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its
variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer).

Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent
anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use .

UNFCCC, Article 1:
“climate change”: “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that
alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability
observed over comparable time periods.”
What is Climate Variability?

IPCC, 3rd AR:

Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics
(such as the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all temporal
and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may
be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal
variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing
(external variability)
What are the Primary Indicators of Climate Change?

• Let the students work in group

• They can draw the indicators
• They can list the indicator
• Let them present the results and discuss amongst themselves
What are the Primary Indicators of Climate Change?
Warming of Climate

• Increases in global sea and air temperatures

• Widespread melting of snow and ice
• Rising global sea level
• What other effects?
Widespread Melting Snow and Ice

• Most mountain glaciers are getting smaller.

• Snow cover is retreating earlier in the spring.
• Sea ice in the Arctic is shrinking in all seasons, most dramatically in
summer.
• Reductions are in the permafrost, seasonally frozen ground and river
and lake ice.
• Important coastal regions of ice sheets on Greenland and West
Antartica, and the glaciers of the Antartic Peninsular, are thinning and
contributing to sea level rise.
Sea Ice Thickness (10-year average)
How Does this Affect Temperature?

The change in sea ice in the previous slide:

Discuss:
How does this change affect the heating of
the Earth’s atmosphere?
Rising Global Sea Level

Two major causes of global sea level rise:

• Thermal expansion of the oceans (water expands as it warms)
• Loss of land-based ice due to increased melting and movement
from land to sea
(glaciers and continental ice caps)
Historic Record of Global Climate

Warming of the climate system evidence:

• Increases in global average air and ocean
temperature
• Widespread melting of snow and ice
• Rising global mean sea level
Change
Arguments that Global Warming is Real?
Look Here:

https://
www.skepticalscience.com/
argument.php