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Climate Science for Today's World

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Climate Science for Today's World Climate Science for Today’s World You are about to embark on a systematic study of span of many years. In this empirically-based context, climate, climate variability, and climate change. Earth climate is defined as weather (the state of the is a mosaic of many climate types, each featuring a atmosphere) at some locality averaged over a specified unique combination of physical, chemical, and time interval. Climate must be specified for a biological characteristics. Differences in climate particular place and period because, like weather, distinguish, for example, deserts from rainforests, climate varies both spatially and temporally. Thus, for temperate regions from glacier-bound polar localities, example, the climate of Chicago differs from that of and treeless tundra from subtropical savanna. We will New Orleans, and winters in Chicago were somewhat come to understand the spatial and temporal (time) milder in the 1980s and 1990s than in the 1880s and variations in climate as a response to many interacting 1890s. forcing agents or mechanisms both internal and In addition to average values of weather external to the planetary system. At the same time we elements, the climate record includes extremes in will become familiar with the scientific principles and weather. Climatic summaries typically tabulate basic understandings that underlie the operations and extremes such as the coldest, warmest, driest, wettest, interactions of those forcing agents and mechanisms. snowiest, or windiest day, month or year on record for This is climate science, the systematic study of the some locality. Extremes are useful aspects of the mean state of the atmosphere at a specified location climate record if only because what has happened in and time period as governed by natural laws. the past can happen again. For this reason, for Our study of climate science provides example, farmers are interested in not only the average valuable insights into one of the most pressing rainfall during the growing season but also the environmental issues of our time: global climate frequency of exceptionally wet or dry growing seasons. change. We explore the many possible causes of In essence, records of weather extremes provide a climate change with special emphasis on the role perspective on the variability of local or regional played by human activity (e.g., burning fossil fuels, climate. clearing vegetation). A thorough grounding in climate Selection of an internationally agreed 30-year science enables us to comprehend the implications of period for averaging weather data may be inappropriate anthropogenic climate change, how each of us for some applications because climate varies over a contributes to the problem, and how each of us can be broad range of time scales and can change significantly part of the solution to the problem. in periods much shorter than 30 years. For example, El The essential value in studying climate Niño refers to an inter-annual variation in climate science stems from the ecological and societal impacts involving air/sea interactions in the tropical Pacific and of climate and climate change. Climate is the ultimate weather extremes in various parts of the world. The environmental control that governs our lives; for phenomenon typically lasts for 12 to 18 months and example, what crops can be cultivated, the supply of occurs about every 3 to 7 years. For some purposes, a fresh water, and the average heating and cooling 30-year period is a short-sighted view of climate requirements for homes. variability. Compared to the long-term climate record, By its very nature, climate science is for example, the current 1971-2000 averaging period interdisciplinary, drawing on principles and basic was unusually mild over much of the nation. understandings of many scientific disciplines. We In the United States, 30-year averages are recognize climate as a system in which Earth’s major computed for temperature, precipitation (rain plus subsystems (i.e., atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, melted snow and ice), and degree days and identified geosphere, and biosphere) individually and in concert as normals. Averages of other climate elements such function as controls of climate. Linking these as wind speed and humidity are derived from the entire subsystems are biogeochemical cycles (e.g., global period of record or at least the period when carbon cycle, global water cycle), pathways for transfer observations were made at the same location. Other of climate-sensitive materials (e.g., greenhouse gases) useful climate elements include average seasonal and energy among Earth-bound reservoirs. snowfall, length of growing season, percent of possible An easy and popular way of summarizing sunshine, and number of days with dense fog. local or regional climate is in terms of the averages of Tabulation of extreme values of weather elements is weather elements, such as temperature and usually also drawn from the entire period of the precipitation, derived from observations taken over a observational record. 1 While the empirical definition of climate (in abject poverty of North Africa’s Sahel in large measure terms of statistical summaries) is informative and is due to the region’s subtropical climate that is useful, the dynamic definition of climate is more plagued by multi-decadal droughts. In other regions, fundamental. It addresses the nature and controls of climate provides resources that are exploited to the Earth’s climate together with the causes of climate advantage of society. For example, some climates variability and change operating on all time scales. favor winter or summer recreational activities (e.g., Climate differs from season to season and with those skiing, boating) that attract vacationers and feed the variations in climate, the array of weather patterns that local economy. Severe weather (e.g., tornadoes, characterize one season differs from the array of hurricanes, floods, heat waves, cold waves, and characteristic weather patterns of another season. The drought) can cause deaths and injuries, considerable status of the planetary system (that is, the Earth- long-term disruption of communities, property damage, atmosphere-land-ocean system) determines (or selects) and economic loss. The impact of Hurricane Katrina the array of possible weather patterns for any season. on the Gulf Coast is still being felt many years after In essence, this status constitutes boundary conditions that weather system made landfall (August 2005). (i.e., forcing agents and mechanisms) such as incoming Regardless of a nation’s status as developed or solar radiation and the albedo (reflectivity) of Earth’s developing, it is not possible to weather- or climate- surface. Hence, in a dynamic context, climate is proof society to prevent damage to life and property. defined by the boundary conditions in the planetary In the agricultural sector, for example, the prevailing system coupled with the associated typical weather strategy is to depend on technology to circumvent patterns that vary with the seasons. For example, the climate constraints. Where water supply is limited, higher Sun’s path across the local sky and the longer farmers and ranchers routinely rely on irrigation water daylight length in Bismarck, ND during July increase usually pumped from subsurface aquifers (e.g., the the chance of warm weather and possible High Plains Aquifer in the central U.S.) or transferred thunderstorms, whereas lower Sun angles and shorter via aqueducts and canals from other watersheds. daylight duration during January would mean colder Because of consumers’ food preferences and for weather and possible snow. economic reasons, this strategy is preferred to Climatology is the study of climate, its matching crops to the local or regional climate (e.g., controls, and spatial and temporal variability. dry land farming). Other strategies include Climatology is primarily a field science rather than a construction of dams and reservoirs to control runoff laboratory science. The field is the atmosphere and and genetic manipulation to breed drought resistant Earth’s surface where data are obtained by direct (in crops. Although these strategies have some success, situ) measurement by instruments and remote sensing, they have limitations and often require tradeoffs. For mostly by sensors flown aboard Earth-orbiting example, many rivers around the world lose so much of satellites. their flow to diversions (mostly for irrigation) that they The only scientific experiments routinely are reduced to a trickle or completely dry up prior to conducted by climate scientists involve manipulation reaching the sea at least during part of the year. of numerical climate models. Usually these global or Compounding the constraints of climate on regional models are used to predict the climatic society is the prospect of global climate change. The consequences of change in the boundary conditions of scientific evidence is now convincing that human Earth’s climate system. Furthermore, climatology is an activity is influencing climate on a global scale with interdisciplinary science that reveals how the various significant consequences for society. Burning of fossil components of the natural world are interconnected. fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and clearing of vegetation For example, the composition of the atmosphere is the is responsible for a steady build-up of atmospheric end product of many processes where gases are emitted carbon dioxide (CO2) and enhancement of Earth’s (e.g., via volcanic
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