Composition of the modern atmosphere
78.09% nitrogen 20.95% oxygen 0.93% argon .04$ carbon dioxide
water vapor 1% at sea level
Greenhouse gases - who they are and what they do
-Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Water Vapor, Methane, and Carbon Dioxide, greenhouse gases keep the earth climate from being unbearably cold
-Most scientists believe that water vapor produced directly by human activity contributes very little to the amount of w
Order of the atmospheric layers bottom to top
-Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and exosphere
-ozone layer is within the stratosphere
Troposphere
-Temperate change in the troposphere is related to the heating of
Earth's surface by solar radiation - cools upward to tropopause
-Troposphere is the most dynamic place within the atmosphere: life lives, weather occurs; about half of the mass of the atmos
Stratosphere
-Temperatures increase upward through the stratosphere
-Higher temperatures of the stratosphere vs. those of the underlying
troposphere prevent air from rising and crossing the boundary zone - the tropopause
-Top of the stratosphere is marked by a tempera
Ozone
-Ozone molecules = three atoms (O3) rather than the usual two (O2) forms when UV radiation breaks apart some O2 and makes O- combines with other O2 to form O3
-Ozone layer (few ppm) screens out harmful, UV radiation (causes
sunburn and skin cancer)
Benefi
Earth's Radiation Budget (global average)
- Sun's incoming radiation (= heat and light) is called insolation
30% reflected, 51% absorbed by land & oceans, rest absorbed by atmosphere
-Insolation at the equator is higher than at the poles
This drives winds and currents on the planet that redistrib
Movement of air masses
-High solar radiation at the
equator heats the air masses,
causing them to be buoyant
and rise
-As the air rises, the temperature
of the air mass decreases
-Warm air rises at the equator
and sinks near the poles
-As the air rises, the temperature of the a
Coriolis Effect
-Earth's rotation causes moving air and water masses to be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere
-Counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere
-Actual pattern is more complex three circulation cells: trade winds, westerlies, easterlies
-Intertr
Role of surface currents
-currents circulate in clockwise gyres in the northern hemisphere, counterclockwise gyres in the southern hemisphere
-driven by an effect caused by Earth's rotation on its axis known as Coriolis effect
-The Gulf-Stream-North Atlantic --> "Gulf Stream warm
Weather
-Atmosphere and oceans govern physical conditions of weather -- the state of the atmosphere at a place and time
-temperature, pressure, moisture content (humidity
), wind, cloud cover, precipitation
-short period of time (minutes to hours)
Climate
-average weather for a particular region and time period
-typically 30 year average ex. Seattle has a rainy climate
-
Land-ocean thermal response
-large land masses heat and cool quickly; extreme seasonal temperature reached one month after Solstice
-upper ocean heats and cools slowly; extreme seasonal temperature reached 2-3 months after Solstice
Albedo
-Reflectivity Earth average is 30%
-warming increases water vapor which results in more warming: positive feedback
Effect of aerosols
-fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas ex. air pollution, smog, smoke
-they affect the atmospheric chemical composition
-they reduce visibility
-they have important impacts on air quality and human health
-they serve as nuclei for cloud droplet
Keeling Curve
-onging change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere
-CO2 is rising due to burning of fossil fuel and land use changes
Carbon Dioxide level at 1850
280 ppm
Carbon Dioxide level at 2014
401 ppm
Global warming
-gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants
Temperature forecast by 2100
-it is projected that by 2100 the temperature will increase by 9-+10 degrees
Effects of Global Warming
- warmers temperatures --> glaciers melt and oceans expand --> sea level rise --> coastal flooding
- warmer temperatures --> changes in patterns of precipitation --> hotter, drier deserts --> more violent weather ex. thunderstorms --> changes in plant com
Arctic ice loss and projections
-Himalayan glaciers that are Asia's biggest rivers could disappear as temperatures rise
-Ganges (river in India) that provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people
Beach
-accumulation of sand and gravel located at transition zone between land and sea.
-effected by waves, tides, currents
Barrier Island
-long, narrow beach separated from mainland by lagoon ex. Sandy Beach and North Carolina
- most extensive beach system in US
-composed of loose sediments
-towns with expensive homes common
-spend hundreds of millions to keep them stable; and more repairin
Beach Budget
- Industry: $16 billion tourism, $50 billion maritime, $100 million commercial fishing
Global, Regional, and Local Effects
-NY,NJ,DE Region: higher sea-level rise (4mm/ye) due to: global eustatic rise, regional subsidence, local compaction
Causes of Coastal Erosion
-Waves, generated by storms, wind, or fast moving motor craft, can cause coastal erosion, which may take the form of long-term losses of sediment and rocks, or merely the temporary redistribution of coastal sediments; erosion in one location may result in
Beach Growth
Sedimentation > Erosion = Positiv Budget
Beach Erosion
Erosion > Sedimentation = Negative Budget
longshore currents
-currents parallel to beach within the surf zone
-major component in creating coastal landforms and in beach erosion
longshore drift
sediment carried along beach moving parallel to shoreline in direction of longshore current
Ways to precent beach erosion
-hard stabilization
-soft stabilization
Hard Stabilization Structures
-engineered defense structures; used to protect coastline, property, and navigable channels, reduce rate of sediment transport along coastline, often attempt to create positive beach budget, although can cause increased erosion
Preventing Beach Erosion Soft Stabilization
-beach nourishment, expensive; can be short-lived
beach nourishment: alternative to coastal structures, artificial placement of sand on beach, creates positive beach sand budget, protects coastal property from wave damage, maintains recreational beaches
d
Jetties
-pair of walls or groins built perpendicular to shoreline
-protect entrance to harbor
-erosion, deposition due to longshore currents
Groins
common saw-tooth pattern formed by sediment accumulation on up drift side
Why is global sea level is rising today?
-thermal expansion of ocean surface due to gained heat; warmer water is less dense
-melting glaciers and ice caps; melting land ice = glaciers raises sea level; melting sea ice = caps has less impact
Global sea-level rise increased by regional subsidence
- 3 mm/yr = 12 inches/century
- 4 mm/yr = 16 inches/century
Effects of sea-level rise
-function of rise and gradient
-NY sea-level rise by 2100 ~1 m at the Battery, NYC rise results in a natural movement of beach 1000 m landward
-fight back with replenishment ($$$ and often does not work)
-by 2100, a "5 to 10-yr storm" will have the floodi
Saffir simpson scale
-The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), formerly the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale (SSHS), classifies hurricanes - Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms - into five categori
Nonrenewable resources
finite and exhaustible over human time scale
Renewable energy resources
collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wing, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat
Coal Formation
-partly decayed vegetation forms thick peat accumulations saturated water. Burial by sediments heats and compresses the peat, gradually changing it to coal
Coal Mining Methods
-underground mining
-surface or strip mining
Impact of coal mining
environmental: destruction of environment, soil erosion, waste rock, acid mine drainage(in humid areas), toxic metals, surface - water pollution
Centralia, Pennsylvania Mine Fire (1962) Case Study
-town contained abundance of anthracite coal
-with all the mining being done, town started to utilize abandoned strip mines
-In May 1962, a group of volunteer fire fighters were instructed to burn a trash pile in a landfill
-disaster struck
-mine fires ar
Coal and Greenhouse Gases
-power plants emit 40% of United States CO2 pollution
-US has 4% of world's population yet emits 25% of greenhouse gases
Acid rain and its impacts
-acid rain has a ph less than 5.6
-damage to stream and lake ecosystems
-destroy plant life
-damage to human structures
-"The Northeast and eastern
Canada are home to some of the worst acid rain pollution because of emissions from large
dirty Midwestern c
Carbon capture and sequestration
-the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir
-ex. in NJ deep saline formations (onshore, offshore), oil and gas reservoirs, unminable coal seams,
Environmental problems with petroleum exploration and production
-petroleum: carbon-rich organic accumulation that occurs as liquid and natural gas in porous rocks
-can damage the waters and ecosystems that live there
-finding hydrocarbon energy resources today typically incorporates seismic surveys prior to drilling a
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
-an explosion turns the Deepwater Horizon oil rig into a massive inferno
-11 workers killed 17 injured
-within two days, the oil rig sinks while Coast Guard search and rescue missions continue for missing workers
-Sea life is effected by this
-the leak wa
Exxon Valdez
-most litigated spill case in history; > $2 billion clean-up cost
-Exxon Valdez ran aground March 24, 1989 in nearshore waters of Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska
-Released ~ 260,000 barrels of crude oil into sea
~ 46th largest tanker spill in w
Location of world oil and gas reserves
-149 operating refineries in U.S. with capacity to process 17 million barrels of crude oil each day
-Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Venezuela, Russian Fed, Kazakhstan, USA
Peak Oil
point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline
Marcellus Shale
-natural gas wells in Pennsylvania are drilled horizontally because it offers access to a larger quantity of natural gas, while disturbing a smaller area on the surface. Both vertical and horizontal Marcellus Shale wells produce marketable quantities of n
Shale gas including drilling methods and environmental issues
-concerned about habitat destruction
-concerned about threats to biodiversity
-concerned about health effect
-concern over excess water use as each well requires 5 to 6 million gallons to drill
-stress on water treatment facilities
-ground water contamina
Oil Sands
-a deposit of loose sand or partially consolidated sandstone containing petroleum or other hydrocarbons
-environmental hazards: enormous fresh water use, huge, toxic tailings ponds, tremendous energy consumption producing high greenhouse has emissions
- I
Nuclear Energy - pros and cons
-pros : low pollution, low operating costs, reliability, more proficient than fossil fuels
-cons: environmental impact, radioactive waste disposal, nuclear accidents, high cost, uranium is finite, hot target for militants
Three Mile Island Disaster
-failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape, no one was injured/affected
-1 millirem--miniscule compared to the
Chernobyl Disaster
-An accident occured in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the error and design of the plant caused overheating of the reactor which resulted in an explosion and fire
-the result of human error and poor design. Of the approximately 50 fatalities, most were rescue worker
Wind Power
-renewable source
-conversion of wind energy to electricity
-currently 1% of world energy use, although 19% in Denmark
-increased 5 fold 2000-2007
-no greenhouse gas production
NJ Wind Energy
-The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm is the first wind farm in New Jersey and first coastal wind farm in the country
-Five 1.5 megawatt turbines produce enough energy to power > 2,000 homes every year