1. MODULE 2 WEATHER vs. CLIMATE
ScienceBeat
CLIMATE
CHANGE
MODULE 2 WEATHER vs. CLIMATE

2. 1. Difference between climate and weather
You Will Learn:
1. Difference between climate and weather
2. The three most human-produced
Greenhouse gases
3. How greenhouse gases heat Earth
4. Natural versus human driven factors

3. CLIMATE VERSUS WEATHER
What’s the difference?
CLIMATE VERSUS WEATHER

4. That is today’s WEATHER.
Look out the window.
That is today’s WEATHER.
CLIMATE is the average weather. The statistics of changes in weather is the basis of climate change.
A common confusion is thinking that a cold winter is evidence against global warming. There are always extremes of weather. But when temperature data are averaged over the entire Earth, for many years, the fact that the Earth is warming is readily apparent.

5. How is Earth’s temperature average Changing? Since when? How much? ”

6. Modern (thermometer) records extend
back to about 1860

7. Grey line is the monthly anomaly Black is the annual anomaly in
Global mean surface temperature.

8. COMPARE VISUALLY
The following two maps show the change in the temperature
Anomaly for two periods of time.

9. Temperature Anomaly (°C)
Temperature Anomaly (°C)
−2.5
2.5
YEAR 1885 to 1894

10. Temperature Anomaly (°C)
Temperature Anomaly (°C)
−2.5
2.5
Year 2005 to 2014

11. Youtube aNimation
The time lapse video shows change over six decades.

12. With web access clear the image or here.
With web access clear the image or here.

13. changing, you can view this optional (6 minute) video.
Focusing on how
the climate is
changing, you can view this
optional (6 minute) video.
Quote in right textbox -
Question to get them thinking about link between flooding and potential health effects beyond just drowning.

14. Atmospheric warming starts with the differences
(in wavelength) of sunlight versus heat heat emitted
by Earth (called infrared or IR).
Which is a longer wavelength?
Quote in right textbox -
Question to get them thinking about link between flooding and potential health effects beyond just drowning.

15. The two “emitter” animations that follow
represent 2 types of radiation into greenhouse gases.
Infrared radiation or IR (emitting as red in the first animation) is followed by a second animation of
visible photons (in yellow)
emitted into greenhouse gases
Quote in right textbox -
Question to get them thinking about link between flooding and potential health effects beyond just drowning.

16. Every time you see a greenhouse gas molecule
shake, it has “captured” the photon.
Which one makes makes more “shakes?”
Quote in right textbox -
Question to get them thinking about link between flooding and potential health effects beyond just drowning.

17. CO2
CH4
H2O
Red gun shoots photons that are infrared (Earth radiation) … these sometimes are absorbed and re-emitted by the GHGs H2O, CO2, and CH4

18. CO2
CH4
H2O
Yellow gun shoots photons that are visible (solar radiation)… these are never absorbed by the GHGs H2O, CO2, and CH4.

19. Which one makes makes more “shakes?”
Compare again.
Which one makes makes more “shakes?”
Quote in right textbox -
Question to get them thinking about link between flooding and potential health effects beyond just drowning.

20. CO2
CH4
H2O
Red gun shoots photons that are infrared (Earth radiation) … these sometimes are absorbed and re-emitted by the GHGs H2O, CO2, and CH4

21. CO2
CH4
H2O
Yellow gun shoots photons that are visible (solar radiation)… these are never absorbed by the GHGs H2O, CO2, and CH4.

22. is the most important greenhouse gas released by humans
In the U.S. alone, 70% of the CO2
is released from transportation
and electricity

23. The second most important greenhouse gas is methane (CH4)
The second most important greenhouse gas is methane (CH4). Its three major sources
are cattle,

24. SOURCE: http://www.tumbleweed.com.au/WhyRecycle.aspx
Landfills
SOURCE:

25. activity called “fracking.”
…and an
activity called “fracking.”
SOURCE:

26. What’s the relationships of CO2 levels (top chart )
CH4 (middle chart) and the
population (bottom) over the past two millennium?

27. Now look at the trend in global temperature.

28. In fact, for the past 400,000 YEARS,
Temperature and CO2 have co-varied.

29. Compare this ice coverage of the glacial maximum to….

30. …current ice coverage

31. What happens when you take humans out of the equation?

32. Model prediction (red) with human greenhouse gases
activity

33. Model prediction (red) with human greenhouse gases
NO human
activity

34. Yes, there are NATURAL factors…

35. To affect climate, volcanoes have to eject material up into the stratosphere.
(The last volcanic powerful enough to do that was Mount Pinatubo, Philippines in June 1991.)

36. The sunspot number, each a solar storm, has undergone change
The sunspot number, each a solar storm, has undergone change. More recently, a maximum every 11 years

37. a pool of warm water migrates from the Western Pacific
El Niño
Every 5 to 10 years,
a pool of warm water migrates from the Western Pacific
to the East.

38. Quiz Q 1 of 3
Next week produces a heat wave in Prince George’s County. Most scientists would say:
Global warming is the cause
Human activity is the cause
Local temperatures over one week
tell us more about weather than climate
D. Our climate is getting warmer

39. Quiz Q 2 of 3
What activities are most responsible for the recent rise in greenhouse gases?
Spray bottles and carbonated beverages
Transportation, electricity,, heating, AC
Volcanoes
D. Farmland converted into forests

40. Natural factors that affect Earth’s climate include:
Quiz Q 3 of 3
Natural factors that affect Earth’s climate include:
Volcanoes, sun’s energy output, El Nino
Lightning, forest fires, and wind
Earthquakes and the drilling for natural
resources
D. Day to day changes in weather