Mark Elliot was born in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. For as long as he can remember, he has
known that he wanted to be a Meteorologist. He was told that while growing up, he used to give his
friends weather forecasts in the sandbox.
He credits a few big storms that knocked down trees outside his house when he was very young as
sparking his interest in weather. This interest grew as he watched his dad fly into different
locations across the country experiencing destructive weather as his job involved emergency
preparedness for hospital systems. Mark wanted to know what he was getting himself into.
Being a self proclaimed weather geek, Mark got outside to enjoy the weather whenever possible.
He's constantly staring up at the clouds and loves to take photos, weather themed or otherwise. He
can talk beer for hours, and can even show you how to derive the thermodynamic properties of the
bubbles as they rise in the glass... see, weather geek.
You can always find him watching Rutgers Football games, and cheering on the Scarlet Knights
whenever possible... Hoo-Rah Hoo-Rah, Rutgers Rah! Besides, you have to love the attitude that
comes with being one of the few schools in history to TURN DOWN talks regarding an invitation to
the Ivy League in order to keep the Land Grant/State University status.
B.S in Meteorology, Rutgers University
B.S in Environmental Science (Physics)
Rutgers University
M.S in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
The Georgia Institute of Technology
Full Name:Mark Elliot
Hometown:Berkeley Heights, NJ
University/College:Rutgers University: Double Major in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
Physics
Georgia Institute of Technology: Masters of Science in Atmospheric Sciences
Table of Contents
1.How can scientists predict what will happen in
future?
Reference1: If we know what's happened in the past, we can often figure out what
will happen in the future. If you know it's rained every Tuesday for the last five
years, you might hazard a guess that it will rain next Tuesday tooand you might
well be right. Forecasting the weather is somewhat more complex than this, but it
essentially means using data from the past to figure out the future. Forecasting
Earth's climatethe long-term patterns of weather for the entire planetis more
complex still.
Reference2: Scientists make forecasts of the climate using what is known as
a computer model. This is a large and very complex program running on
a supercomputer (one of the world's most powerful computers). It's essentially a
collection of math equations that describe how different parts of the climate
work. Each equation contains variables (quantities that change) like temperature,
rainfall, amount of carbon dioxide, and sea-level and shows how one of these things
affects the others. Taken all together, the equations describe roughly how the
climate works.
Reference3: One reason some people are skeptical about global warming is that
they doubt computer models are good enough to model the climate decades into
the future. To produce a computer model, scientists have to make certain
assumptions about how the climate works. Since the climate is very complex and
computers are only so powerful, these assumptions are usually simplifications. The
skeptics are concerned that the computer models are too crude and simple and
they may not reflect how things work in reality. But as time goes on, climate
scientists have more and more data to work with, and computers become more and
more powerfulso the models get better.
Reference1: As Earth warms up, the oceans warm up toovery slowly but
significantly. Water expands as it warms so, as the oceans are heated, the water
they contain takes up more volume, and this makes the level of the seas rise. The
seas also rise when glaciers and ice sheets melt, feeding more water into the
oceans. Sea-level rise is one of the major impacts of global warming.
Reference2: Rivers and lakes supply drinking water for people and animals, as well
as being vital for agriculture and industry. Oceans and seas provide food for
billions of people.
Climate change will have major and unpredictable effects on the world's water
systems, including an increase in floods and droughts. Extremes in droughts and
flooding will become more common, causing displacement and conflict. Less fresh
water means less agriculture, food and income.
Reference3: Climate change will have a significant impact on food availability, food
accessibility, food utilization and food systems stability in many parts of the world.
Climate change poses a significant risk of increased crop failure, loss of livestock
and will impact on local food security.
In some areas drier and warmer conditions are predicted, elsewhere wetter and
cooler conditions are expected which will negatively affect agricultural practices.
It will affect human health and livelihoods, as well as peoples purchasing power,
food markets and food security at household levels.
Reference1: Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global
warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" 1 warming that
results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.Certain
gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain
Reference2: Climate change can also be caused by human activities, such as the
burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of land for forestry and agriculture.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, these human influences on the
climate system have increased substantially. In addition to other environmental
impacts, these activities change the land surface and emit various substances to
the atmosphere. These in turn can influence both the amount of incoming energy
and the amount of outgoing energy and can have both warming and cooling effects
on the climate. The dominant product of fossil fuel combustion is carbon dioxide, a
greenhouse gas. The overall effect of human activities since the Industrial
Revolution has been a warming effect, driven primarily by emissions of carbon
dioxide and enhanced by emissions of other greenhouse gases.
Reference3: The Earths climate can be affected by natural factors that are
external to the climate system, such as changes in volcanic activity, solar output,
and the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Of these, the two factors relevant on
timescales of contemporary climate change are changes in volcanic activity and
changes in solar radiation. In terms of the Earths energy balance, these factors
primarily influence the amount of incoming energy. Volcanic eruptions are episodic
and have relatively short-term effects on climate. Changes in solar irradiance have
contributed to climate trends over the past century but since the Industrial
Revolution, the effect of additions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere has
been about ten times that of changes in the Suns output.