Questions tagged [climate-science]
The climate-science tag has no usage guidance.
16
votes
4answers
4k views
To what extent do (man made) generators of heat from internal sources in earth's system cause climate change?
So I'm very far from a climate scientist but I've always wondered, why don't things like electric heaters, lightbulbs, etc, contribute to climate change, or even things like the accelerated decay of ...
5
votes
0answers
149 views
Is there a difference in the infrared absorption spectrum of a greenhouse gas when pure and when mixed with non-greenhouse gases?
According to the standard IPCC greenhouse climate change hypothesis a doubling of the preindustrial CO2 concentration of 285 ppm in the atmosphere - the current value is 405 ppm - would lead to an ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
Satellite radiance measurements in spectral regions
Q: A satellite measures longwave radiation emerging from a planet with uniform surface temperature T1 and uniform atmospheric temperature T2. What values of radiance does the satellite measure in the ...
-5
votes
3answers
148 views
Why is Mars so cold when it has so much atmospheric $CO_2$?
Mars has 1/10 of Earth's atmosphere but that atmosphere is 95% CO2. Why is Mars so cold when it has so much atmospheric CO2?
-3
votes
1answer
155 views
How is global warming distributed with respect to altitude?
Lets assume a sea level temperature increase 2c/3c. Then, what is the temperature increase at 10 km altitude? Temperature increase at 30 km altitude? Temperature increase at 70 km altitude? And ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
does diluting sea water from iceberg melt raise levels
I'm asking this because I just joined and am not permitted to comment on the question "Does the sea level increase if an iceberg melts?"
According google search, one liter of sea water contains 35 ...
0
votes
1answer
45 views
Has there been a quantifed estimate of the thermal impact of human activity? Not to include “greenhouse gasses” [closed]
In 1984 I read a prediction by the biological scientist and Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz that heat produced by human activity would necessarily increase Earth's average atmospheric temperature. His ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
What additional percentage of the suns energy is being trapped via green house gases?
Every year we release more greenhouse gases which causes the atmosphere to trap more energy and thus warm the planet.
What additional percentages of energy are we talking about here? I would assume ...
58
votes
11answers
18k views
Why don't solar panels contribute to global warming?
I've been wondering this for a while but I have not yet encountered an explanation.
This is from my understanding of physics, which is by no means expert, so sorry for my crude explanation:
Energy ...
6
votes
2answers
75 views
Blocking of infrared radiation from the sun by $\rm CO_2$ [duplicate]
Why is the infrared heat from the sun not prevented from entering the earth's atmosphere by $\rm CO_2$ to the same extent that it is prevented from leaving the Earth's atmosphere?
2
votes
1answer
48 views
Temperature Proxy (Climate)
At the bottom of the wikipedia article on climate proxies there is this formula:
$$
\delta \, {\rm ^{18}O} = \frac{\frac{\left[\rm{^{18}O}\right]}{\left[\rm{^{16}O}\right]}}{\frac{\left[\rm{^{18}O}\...
-3
votes
2answers
51 views
What if the luminosity of Sunlight increased by 10% [closed]
If the luminosity of sunlight increased by 10%, would people be able to survive outside? Would such brightness of light be very harmful to them, for exemple as much as the Mercury Vapour Lamp without ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
Radiative Forcing
In a first approximation the radiative forcing $RF$ is related to the temperature change by the linear relation
$$
\Delta T = \lambda \, RF
$$
where
$$
\lambda\approx 0.8 \, \frac{{\rm K}}{{\rm W}/{\...
1
vote
0answers
26 views
In terms of the greenhouse effect, what is the Earth's heat capacity?
Has the earth’s atmosphere reached an equilibrium at which the input radiation energy roughly equals its output, or is the output significantly lower than the input because the energy is being used to ...
1
vote
2answers
78 views
Global warming and air temperature
The layman's question. Is there a maximum temperature that can be reached by air on Earth due to global warming? For example, one that would prevent living organisms from functioning? I read somewhere ...
-1
votes
1answer
52 views
Potential effect of another “year without a summer” on solar-powered society? [closed]
In the "year without a summer", a volcanic eruptions caused enough sunlight to be blocked for average global temperatures to drop by 0.4–0.7 °C. What would be the effect of this sort of event on a ...
0
votes
2answers
100 views
Given $2\text{ °C}$ atmospheric temperature rise, what would be the temperature increase if confined to an oven?
Consider the 2 °C average global atmospheric temperature rise as discussed by the IPCC. Assume an oven with an the interior that is a perfect cube having a volume of one cubic meter, empty of ...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
Human body water storage effects on weather patterns
There are 7.614 billion humans and counting. On average a human being consists of 60% water. With that water being locked away from natural circulation for an average of 80 years. Are there any ...
0
votes
0answers
11 views
Reference Velocity within a Atmosphere-Ocean System
The above image is taken from "Atmosphere–Ocean Momentum Exchange in General Circulation Models", John A.T.Bye 1999. It represents the inertial coupling concept between the atmosphere and ocean.
It ...
7
votes
1answer
796 views
Damhsa Theory: Can gravitational waves really affect the long term climatic evolution of Earth?
As a glaciologist I'm often involved in topics related to the long-term climatic evolution of Earth, and to the factors that can trigger or end ice ages.
Recently, I came across the paper "Applying ...
0
votes
1answer
33 views
How to know wind speed, given the force
I'm doing a game that is set in a desert and there are sand storms that occur periodically. What I've done is very basic and far from realistic, which is
...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Are there “eccentric seasons”, where do they occur, and why don't we hear more about them?
The earth is on an eccentric orbit. It's a small eccentricity (let's say e=0.01 https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Orbital_eccentricity) but it's there.
As it moves closer and farther from the sun the ...
14
votes
6answers
4k views
Is nuclear power desireable in the long term, given the fact that it's an unnatural heat input to our planet? [closed]
I've been reflecting on whether we want nuclear at all in the long term (compared to renewables like wind, solar, and hydro). There's a certain amount of heat (energy) entering our planet and leaving ...
0
votes
0answers
120 views
How large would a “Solar Shade” need to be to block the sun's rays from hitting the earth?
How large would a "Solar Shade" need to be to block the sun's rays from hitting the earth?
Thinking of a shading apparatus that would leave approximately 100 square miles of earth in darkness, sort ...
1
vote
3answers
296 views
Volume of melted polar ice caps
If (or rather when) the polar ice caps melt, will they occupy more, the same or less volume?
Somehow all options seem possible to me. I don't assume they are just big ice cubes floating on the poles....
43
votes
4answers
15k views
Does the sea level increase if an iceberg melts?
It was claimed that if an iceberg melts in the ocean, the sea level won't change as the ice displaces as much water as there will be melted water. The other claim was that the sea level should rise ...
2
votes
2answers
419 views
Approximately how much x-ray to gamma radiation penetrates the earth's current atmosphere?
I am a science fiction writer with an undergrad level of understanding in this particular area. I am trying to figure out how the changes in the atmosphere will affect the higher end of the radiation ...
2
votes
1answer
83 views
Effect of wind power on the global climate by decreasing kinetic energy of air
Assume the hypothetical situation that all global energy is produced by wind power and instead of fossil fuel power etc.
Since every wind turbine decreases the kinetic energy of the air a bit, I am ...
4
votes
1answer
210 views
Example of Poincare recurrence theorem?
Is it possible to explain Milankovitch cycles (or some other arbitrary planetary configuration that recurs to some approximation) in terms of the Poincare recurrence theorem?
More generally, is ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views
If longer wavelengths propagate further, why does infrared contribute to global warming instead of going through clouds?
Maybe I am not understanding something simple, but longer wavelengths go through things easier correct? So why is it that infrared heat is REFLECTED by the clouds and contributes to global warming? ...
1
vote
1answer
142 views
Is the ocean guaranteed to warm in a warming climate?
More specifically, I've seen some discussion of this article:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/09/why-greenhouse-gases-heat-the-ocean/
which claims that the observed ocean warming ...
1
vote
0answers
74 views
How does the Greenhouse Effect of $CO_2$ modify the classical explanation for atmospheric lapse rate?
Classical physics theory relating to gravity and the properties of gases seems to dictate that the lapse rate of a planetary atmospheres is determined by just 2 factors. The equation being $-g/c$, ...
2
votes
2answers
167 views
Heating up the atmosphere of Mars
In this article: https://users.physics.ox.ac.uk/~pierrehumbert/papers/BAMS_SFatm.pdf, Raymond Pierrehumbert discusses (among other things) how Kim Stanley Robinson deals with the terraformation of ...
1
vote
1answer
156 views
Could tall buildings in very heavily populated cities affect earth's rotation [duplicate]
Is it possible that moving materials from one part of the earth to another area and using these materials to build tall skyscrapers in cities with dense populations could affect the rotation of the ...
-4
votes
2answers
98 views
Can a particle accelerator save our climate?
A particle accelerator needs lots of energy to produce antimatter like positrons. But can energy consumed for the particle accelerator be "recycled"? Conversion of mass in energy has the highest ...
1
vote
1answer
56 views
How much sunlight would need to be blocked to cancel out atmospheric CO2? [closed]
Atmospheric CO2 is trapping too much heat from our star's radiation. How much light would need to be blocked/reflected before reaching Earth to cancel out the excess heat being trapped by atmospheric ...
2
votes
1answer
46 views
Does sun reflecting on sea ice still transfer energy to the Earth?
From reading about climate change, I read that sea ice is reflective, which means some of the sunlight isn't absorbed, so it doesn't contribute to heat.
However, any photons reflected would cause the ...
3
votes
4answers
707 views
Where does all the heat go during winter?
I do not understand where actually the heat in our surroundings go during the winter season. Is it radiated out into space? I know it cannot coz global warming would not be a issue then. It might get ...
0
votes
3answers
557 views
Endothermic reactions and climate change
I have seen some questions regarding climate change. What I want to know is would generating endothermic reactions in a mass controlled state counter balance global warming and reduce heat effect ...
100
votes
4answers
9k views
Explain it to me like I'm a physics grad: Greenhouse Effect
What is the mechanism by which increasing $\rm CO_2$ (or other greenhouse gases) ends up increasing the temperature at (near) the surface of the Earth?
Mostly what I'm looking for is a big-picture ...
4
votes
1answer
204 views
Summer Winter cause
As far as I understand, there are two main reasons for having lower temperatures in winter :
shorter days, so the sun has less time to heat the earth
smaller angle of incidence, so the energy from ...
1
vote
0answers
75 views
How large of an area of the earth's surface would we need to cover in mirrors to negate global warming? [closed]
How large of an area of the earth's surface would we need to cover in mirrors to negate current levels of global warming?
Let's assume that the reflective component of the mirror is made of aluminium ...
4
votes
1answer
262 views
Does aerosol particulate matter attenuate UVA more as compared to UVB?
I am trying to understand if winter aerosol particulate matter has a greater impact on UVB radiation as compared to UVA radiation. Would the attenuation be mainly due to scattering?
I am asking this ...
1
vote
2answers
127 views
Paleoclimatic evidence for cause effect relationship between CO2 and temprature
The Ice core data was famously used to by Al Gore in his documentary "An inconvenient truth" to imply a relation between cause effect relation between CO2 and Temperature. This paper and others ...
1
vote
1answer
190 views
Good books for undergraduates to understand Milankovitch cycles
Forgive me for wierd expression becaus English is not my native tongue. I want some suggestion for books about the math and physics about how Milankovitch cycles were calculated. i.e. How eccentricity,...
6
votes
1answer
269 views
Why is Venus cloud covered but not in an ice age?
I understand that Venus is closer to the Sun, but shouldn't Venus's cloud cover effect it in the same way as Earth's cloud cover would cause an ice age?
Venus with no clouds.
0
votes
1answer
354 views
Where to start, if I would like to run a planet climate simulation? [closed]
I would like to understand the math behind it, and maybe write an own climate simulator program. I know, that it is a really hard subject. But I'm curious, and I would like to learn more about it. But ...
1
vote
0answers
46 views
Can global warming be exploited as a useable energy source? [closed]
I saw an Internet video about global warming, specifically how well the comedic giant ice cube idea could actually work. But then I thought about (other) science-fiction cartoons in the future. How ...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
How much extra CO2 is produced (in the EU) each year due to the introduction of manatory car headlights during daylight hours? [closed]
Forcing drivers to keep their lights on during daylight hours may increase road safety, but there must be an environmental impact (not to mention a financial benefit to certain organisations).
I am ...
0
votes
1answer
83 views
Why don't solstices coincide with temperature extremes? [duplicate]
In northern hemisphere, the highest temperatures are usually in July — in the middle of calendar summer. See e.g. the climate chart on this wikipedia page. But the solstices are on 20-21 of June, ...
