Summary: Climate Hydrological Processes

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  • 1 Introduction

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  • What is climate sensitivity?

    The global mean surface air temperature increase that follows a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
  • What is a tipping point?

    A critical threshold at which the future state of a system will qualitatively change by a small change in global mean temperature.
  • What is a black body?

    Object that absorbs all wave lengths and does not reflect any light.
  • 2 Enery Balance & Hydrological Cycle

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  • Why do you need to divide the solar constant by four?

    Difference between surface area of a circle (sun) and a sphere (earth).
  • What are the three most important climate change feedbacks?

    1. Water vapor feedback
    2. Albedo feedback
    3. Clouds feedback
  • How does the water vapor feedback work?

    1. Warmer oceans means more water vapor
    2. More water vapor means a larger greenhouse effect
    3. A larger greenhouse effect means warmer oceans
  • How does the albedo feedback work?

    1. Warmer temperatures means melting ice
    2. Melting ice means a reduced surface albedo
    3. More surface albedo means more SWR absorption
    4. More SWR absorption means warmer temperatures
  • How does the cloud feedback work?


    High clouds: Cold due to adiabatic coolling. Absorbed LWR is re-emitted at low temperatures and thus less LWR emitted to space: Warming effect.
    Low clouds: Very white, reflecting lots of SWR: cooling effect
  • Where does the sensible heat flux depends on? (two things)


    1. Temperature difference between surface and atmosphere
    2. Surface wind speed
  • Where does the evaporation/latent heat flux depends on? (four things)

    1. Net surface radiation (available energy)
    2. Atmospheric water demand 
    3. Availability at the surface (oceans are unlimited)
    4. Surface wind speed
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