Solar Variability and Planetary Climates

Calisesi, Y.|Bonnet, R.-M.|Gray, L.|Langen, J.|Lockwood, M.

ISBN 10: 1441923713 / ISBN 13: 9781441923714

Published by Springer New York, 2010

About this Item

Dieser Artikel ist ein Print on Demand Artikel und wird nach Ihrer Bestellung fuer Sie gedruckt. Understanding the causes and effects of climate change is probably one of the most crucial scientific challenges of our time. This book provides an updated overview of the processes determining the influence of solar forcing on climate. It discusses in p.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Solar Variability and Planetary Climates
• Publisher: Springer New York
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1441923713
• ISBN 13: 9781441923714
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

2 With a global average irradiance of 342 W/m , the Sun is by far the largest source of energy for planet Earth. In comparison, the internal energy produced by Earth 2 itself is only about 0. 087 W/m (Pollack et al. , 1993), which in turn is 3. 5 times 2 larger than the 0. 025 W/m of heat produced by the burning of fossil fuels. About 31% (31 units) of the solar energy which arrives at the top of the - mosphere is re?ected back to space by scattering from clouds, aerosols, and the Earth’s surface. Almost 20 units of solar radiation are absorbed in the atmosphere. The remaining 49 units are absorbed at the surface. Evaporation of water at the Earth’s surface consumes 23 units, and 7 units are transferred to the atmosphere by heat conduction. On balance 19 units are lost from the Earth’s surface as infrared radiation, however consisting of 114 going upward and 95 returning from the - mosphere to the Earth’s surface (see also Rosenfeld, 2006). There is thus a sixfold recycling of energy. This is the greenhouse effect, established by the presence of watervaporandofothergreenhousegases,CO ,CH ,N O,andCFCs,intheatmo- 2 4 2 sphere. Due to human activities the latter have been increasing in the atmosphere, 2 causing climate warming through an energy imbalance of 2. 5–3 W/m , more than 100 times larger than the heat released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.

From the Back Cover

Variations in solar activity, as revealed by variations in the number of sunspots, have been observed since ancient times. To what extent changes in the solar output may affect planetary climates, though, remains today more than ever a subject of controversy. In 2000, the SSSI volume on Solar Variability and Climate reviewed the to-date understanding of the physics of solar variability and of the associated climate response. The present volume on Solar Variability and Planetary Climates provides an overview of recent advances in this field, with particular focus at the Earth's middle and lower atmosphere. The book structure mirrors that of the ISSI workshop held in Bern in June 2005, the collection of invited workshop contributions and of complementary introductory papers synthesizing the current understanding in key research areas such as middle atmospheric processes, stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling, tropospheric aerosols chemistry, solar storm influences, solar variability physics, and terrestrial climate analogues.