Lecture 3: Climate Systems and Climate Change

Climatology: the study of climate and its variability

Micro-climate: the climate of a very small or restricted area, especially when this
differs from the climate of the surrounding area

- The importance of climate systems is to help us understand temperature

variations around the world
- Precipitation is used to describe rainfall, snowfall, hail, etc.
- Climate systems helps us understand the global pattern of ice melting and
sea level rise
- It helps us understand the moisture content of soil and vegetation patterns
- We can understand the general crop yield in different parts of the world
(what crops you need to plant in what area?)
Difference between climate and weather
- Weather is the daily atmospheric conditions of a particular place (e.g.
temperature of today)
- Climate is the average weather condition recorded over a long period of
time (a period of 25 years)

Climate Systems
- Wladimir Koppen created the Koppen climate classification, the most
widely used climate classification system
Tropical Rain Forest Climates
- Constantly moist and warm
- High rainfall sustains lush vegetation and broad leaf plants
- Energetic bacteria activity (rapid growth)
o Increases the breakdown of organic matter
- Leaching of minerals
- Found in equatorial region of the world
- Influenced by the ITCZ
o When the two air masses collide, the warm air mass rises and
condenses to form rain
o Zone that is characterized by heavy rainfall because it is moist and
warm
- Convectional rainfall (from lecture 2)
- Ex. Congo rainforest in Africa and the Amazon rainforest in Brazil
(accounts for about 30% of biodiversity in the world)
- Laterite soil is made of organic matter and sometimes has a large amount
of gravel (rough texture)
- Lowest is 15cm of rainfall, annual temperature ranges from 2-11 degrees
Celsius
Tropical Monsoon Climates
- Monsoon: Arabic word mausim (season)
- Dry season that lasts only 1 or more months
- Rainfall lasts between 6-12 months
 - Variations in wind and precipitation
o Changes in wind direction in accordance with the season
- Affected by the ITCZ
- During the winter season, there is moisture leading air mass that blows
from the Indian Ocean onto the land, that result in high rainfall
- In the dry season, the ITCZ is right over it, that brings mild rainfall
- One of the unique characteristics of monsoon rainfall is that much of the
moisture leading air mass is intercepted by the Himalayas
- A lot of rainfall on the windward side of the mountains
- Indian sub continents are the predominant areas of this climate
- Rainfall patterns is continuous throughout the air expect one month, there
is 1 month of low rainfall
- As a result, there is constant flooding; crop fields are often submerged
- Coastal region receive 250cm of rainfall
- Often characterized by green vegetation
Tropical Savanna Climates
- Summer are wetter than winter because convectional rains accompany
the shifting ITCZ
- Two temperature maximum during the year
- Between the equator and the tropics of Cancer in Capricorn
- During the summer, the condition are characterized by low rainfall
- Often results in grassland vegetation (tall and short grass which are
interspersed by trees that are scattered all across)
- ITCZ reaches this climate for about 6 months or less of the year as it
migrates with the summer
- Near the transition to deserts
Humid Subtropical Climates
- Moist all year around or have pronounced winter-dry period
- Eastern and Southern Asia
- Nagasaki Japan – humid and hot summer
- Columbia and South Carolina
- Characterized by most conditions all year around with pronounced winter
dry periods
- Characterized by warm, moist, unstable air mass which produced
convectional rainfall
- During winter, fall and spring, there is the convergence of two air masses
of different temperatures (the Maritime tropical and the Continental Polar
air mass converge)
o Results in the development of cyclones
- Related to the winter dry seasonal pause of the monsoon type
Marine West Coast Climates
- Mild winters and cool summers
- Common in Europe and middle-high latitudes (e.g. USA)
- Portions of Appalachian highlands
 - Region of Pacific Canada (coast of British Columbia) is affected by the
moist leading air mass from the ocean, which is intercepted by the
Cordillera
- British Columbia is the wettest part of Canada
- Characterized by over 400cm of rainfall
- Region is influenced by cold, moist, unstable air mass, which brings a lot
of rainfall
- The summers are characterized by cooler temperature
- Dominated by maritime polar air masses
- Weather can be unpredictable due to the movement of weather systems
forming along the polar front and maritime polar air masses
Mediterranean Dry-Summer Climates
- At least 70% of annual precipitation occurs during the winter months
- Located in the Arabian countries which are distant from the Mediterranean
Ocean
- Influenced by shifting of stable warm to hot and dry air mass over the
entire region
- Characterized by dry summers and wet winter patterns
- Other location affected by this climate is the Canary current (cold –
creates complications in the upper atmosphere)

Ozone Depletion
- UV can easily penetrate the atmosphere and enter Earth
- Causes global warming (caused by human activities)
o Pollution (release of harmful gases and chemicals)

Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming

- Greenhouse Effect is used to describe the role of CO2 and H20 vapour
and secondary gases in holding heat within the atmosphere
- Carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gases absorb thermal infrared
radiation released from the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere
- Human sources of carbon dioxide fall into roughly two major classes:
o Fossil fuel combustion
o Open forest fires
- Biomass breaks down and creates carbon dioxide
- Intergovernmental panel of climate change (IPCC) carried out 3 major
assessment
- In the final assessment, they concluded that there is discernible evidence
that human activities have increased the contribution of greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere

Greenhouse Gases and Acid Rain

Sulphur (Combustion of coal and other fossil fuels, motor vehicles)
o Sulphur trioxide + Water = Sulphuric Acid
Carbon (forest fires, combustion of fossil fuels, etc.)
o Carbon dioxide + Water = Carbonic Acid
Nitrogen (motor vehicles, power plants and chemical fertilizers)
o Nitrogen dioxide + Water = Nitric Acid

Evidence of Contemporary Warming

- In Canada, average winter temperatures have warmed by more than 2oC
over much of the Western parts
- Modest sea-level rise of 2 to 3 metres on coastal ecology could also be
devastating
- Atmospheric warming will increase rates of melting the ice caps and
glaciers
- The ratio of oxygen isotopes of annual layers in polar ice caps and the
annual variation in tree ring width
- Indirect evidence of global warming
o Dendrochronology (dendro means tree and chronology means
order)
 Order of the rings to tell how old a tree is
o Core drills are done in the middle of ice caps; when ice or snow
accumulates and becomes compact
o Calcium carbonate secretions is the accumulation of dead marine
organisms
- Direct evidence of global warming
o Melting glaciers and ice caps (Greenland and Artic ice caps)
o Thickness of ice sheets have been reducing due to increasing
temperatures
El Nino (the little boy)
- El Niño is a strong weather event, characterized by unusually warm ocean
temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific
- It occurs around Christmas time
- Periodically, dead fish litters the water and beaches of the coasts of Peru
and Ecuador (South America)
- Surface pool of warm water
- Causes droughts in South Africa and southern India, hurricanes in the
Pacific and heavy precipitation in the U.S.
La Nina (the little girl)
- La Niña is weather events in the Pacific characterized by unusually cold
ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific
- Weaker and less consistent than El Nino
- Often brings wetter conditions
- Atlantic hurricane season weakens during El Nino and strengthens during
La Nina
- Climate change will result in habitat changes and reduce the range of
species
- Humans will be affected by changes in the geologic distribution of
infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever
- Excessive heat from extreme exposure to solar radiation, cause physical
exertion and various physiological disorders:
 o Low body fluids
o Salt imbalances
o Respiratory problems such as asthma etc.
o Heat waves cause increase mortality of elderly

The Kyoto Protocol – Joint Implementation

- The Kyoto Protocol allows parties investing in joint implementation
projects to receive transferable emissions reduction credits
- To reduce emission levels to 1990 levels
- The emission reduction is subtracted from the cap of the countries that sell
the credits
- This helps to stimulate energy efficiency and renewable energy programs
in transition countries
- The political agreements reached in Bonn, Germany in 2001 established
the operating rules for how and when the Kyoto Protocol takes effect
- Clear Skies Initiatives – instead of cutting down carbon dioxide, U.S. was
cutting down mercury, sulphur and other gases that were making only a
small contribution to the greenhouse effect
- During the Hague, the Canada delegation argued that Canada should be
able to claim credit for that portion of the naturally occurring carbon sink
- However, the naturally occurring carbon sink are already accounted for in
the rate of increase in CO2
- Second, the Canadian position is indefensible morally because it
undermines steps in addressing a serious threat to the well-being of
humanity
- Canadian position was strongly opposed by European delegations
- Canada was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol, on April
29, 1998
- Formal ratification came more than four years later on Dec. 17, 2002
- The Canadian approach has been to water down significantly the original
Protocol:
o Dangerous reliance on carbon sinks
o Attempts to claim credit for us emission reductions
o Resulting from purchase of Canadian natural gas

An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore

- The countries once fit together
- What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, its what we know for
sure that just ain’t so
- The most vulnerable part of the Earth’s parts is the atmosphere because it
is so thin
- It is thin enough that we are capable of changing its composition
- Some of the infrared radiation is trapped in the atmosphere so the
temperature in the Earth remains stable
- Thin layer of atmosphere is being thickened by greenhouse gases
- This causes more infrared radiation to be trapped in the atmosphere,
causing global warming
- When the Northern hemisphere points towards the Sun, the CO2 levels go
down (during spring and summer)
- When the Northern hemisphere points away from the Sun, the CO2 levels
go up (during fall and winter)
- CO2 levels have increased significantly over the past few decades
- Glaciers and ice caps have been rapidly melting and receding
- They can measure the various isotopes of ice bubbles to tell what
temperature it was at the time the snow fell
- They can count back year by year to create a thermometer of the
temperatures using the annual layers of glaciers and ice caps
- In 650,000 years, the CO2 level has never gone above 300 parts per
million
- Today’s CO2 level is the highest its been in 650,000 years
- In less than 50 years, CO2 levels will rise and be off the charts
- When oceans get warmer, it causes stronger storms
- When sunrays hit ice, it reflects back like a mirror
- When sun rays hit the ocean, more than 90% of it is absorbed causing the
ocean to warm up and melting icebergs
- Ocean and wind currents move temperatures and humidity from the
equator to the poles
- Ocean conveyer is a constantly moving system of deep-ocean circulation
driven by temperature and salinity
- When oceans are warmer, it causes stronger storms  Netherlands,
Florida, San Francisco Bay, Bangladesh and New York
- Type of ice thickness to make it easy for submarine to come out of the ice
o 3 ½ or less
- Paradox of global warming (effects of global warming)
o Relocation of precipitation in some areas while drought to others