scholarly journals Entropy Production and Climate Efficiency

2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 3268-3280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Bannon
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Entropy Production ◽  
Equilibrium Model ◽  
Control Volume ◽  
Heat Engine ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Work Efficiency ◽  
External Work ◽  
Radiation Fields ◽  
Earth’S Climate

Abstract Earth’s climate system is a heat engine, absorbing solar radiation at a mean input temperature Tin and emitting terrestrial radiation at a lower, mean output temperature Tout < Tin. These mean temperatures, defined as the ratio of the energy to entropy input or output, determine the Carnot efficiency of the system. The climate system, however, does no external work, and hence its work efficiency is zero. The system does produce entropy and exports it to space. The efficiency associated with this entropy production is defined for two distinct representations of the climate system. The first defines the system as the sum of the various material subsystems, with the solar and terrestrial radiation fields constituting the surroundings. The second defines the system as a control volume that includes the material and radiation systems below the top of the atmosphere. These two complementary representations are contrasted using a radiative–convective equilibrium model of the climate system. The efficiency of Earth’s climate system based on its material entropy production is estimated using the two representations.

The Earth’s Climate System

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna D. Haigh ◽  
Peter Cargill
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Infrared Radiation ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Radiative Energy ◽  
Radiation Absorption ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
System P ◽  
Earth’S Climate

This chapter focuses on solar radiation and its interaction with the terrestrial atmosphere in the context of the Earth's radiation budget and radiative forcing of climate, as well as its direct impact on atmospheric composition and temperature. The composition, temperature, and motion of Earth's atmosphere are determined by internal chemical and physical processes as well as by complex interactions with other parts of the climate system—notably the oceans, cryosphere and biosphere. On a global and annual average the solar energy absorbed by the Earth is balanced by thermal infrared radiation emitted to space. However, solar radiation absorption has a strong latitudinal variation, while the outgoing infrared radiation has only a weak latitudinal dependence. Thus there is a net surplus of radiative energy at low latitudes and a deficit at high latitudes.

scholarly journals Toward Quantifying the Climate Heat Engine: Solar Absorption and Terrestrial Emission Temperatures and Material Entropy Production

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1721-1734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Bannon ◽  
Sukyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Radiative Transfer ◽  
Entropy Production ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Heat Engine ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Solar Absorption ◽  
Maximum Production ◽  
Change Material

Abstract A heat-engine analysis of a climate system requires the determination of the solar absorption temperature and the terrestrial emission temperature. These temperatures are entropically defined as the ratio of the energy exchanged to the entropy produced. The emission temperature, shown here to be greater than or equal to the effective emission temperature, is relatively well known. In contrast, the absorption temperature requires radiative transfer calculations for its determination and is poorly known. The maximum material (i.e., nonradiative) entropy production of a planet’s steady-state climate system is a function of the absorption and emission temperatures. Because a climate system does no work, the material entropy production measures the system’s activity. The sensitivity of this production to changes in the emission and absorption temperatures is quantified. If Earth’s albedo does not change, material entropy production would increase by about 5% per 1-K increase in absorption temperature. If the absorption temperature does not change, entropy production would decrease by about 4% for a 1% decrease in albedo. It is shown that, as a planet’s emission temperature becomes more uniform, its entropy production tends to increase. Conversely, as a planet’s absorption temperature or albedo becomes more uniform, its entropy production tends to decrease. These findings underscore the need to monitor the absorption temperature and albedo both in nature and in climate models. The heat-engine analyses for four planets show that the planetary entropy productions are similar for Earth, Mars, and Titan. The production for Venus is close to the maximum production possible for fixed absorption temperature.

scholarly journals Assessing the Potential of Using Satellite Data on Radiation in the Analysis of Earth’s Climate System to Complement the Scarce Radiation Data Measured from the Ground Stations

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Collins Ochieng Onyaga ◽  
Samson W. Wanyonyi ◽  
Roger Stern
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Missing Values ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Mean Bias Error ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Radiation Data ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Radiation Measurements

High quality solar radiation data is required for the appropriate monitoring and analysis of the Earth’s climate system as well as efficient planning and operation of solar energy systems. However, well maintained radiation measurements are rare in many regions of the world. Therefore, satellite-derived radiation estimates are an alternative to these scarce solar radiation measurements from the weather stations. Satellite estimates of solar radiation have an advantage over solar radiation measurements from weather stations because of their high spatial and temporal resolutions. These satellite radiation estimates at approximately 5-6 Km resolution derived from geostationary Meteosat satellites are available through the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities (SAFs). CM-SAF (SAF on Climate Monitoring) provides consistent dataset of hourly, daily and monthly solar radiation from 1983 to 2013. In this study, we examined the potential of using satellite estimates of solar radiation to fill in the data gaps in records from the weather stations as well as the areas where radiation data is not available. The analysis carried out showed that the satellite data had fewer missing values than the ground data, and that they are both similar in distribution. The average correlation between the two data sets was found to be 0.71 for both monthly and daily analysis. However, the month of September showed a very low correlation of 0.21. Mean percentage error, mean bias error and mean absolute deviation were found to be 2.46, 18.84, 50.32 and 3.08, 559.87, 1135.93 for daily and monthly analysis, respectively. The solar radiation distribution in Dodoma was found to follow Weibull distribution throughout the year.

The Sun's Influence on Climate

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna D. Haigh ◽  
Peter Cargill
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Sunspot Cycle ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Upper Atmosphere ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
And Behavior

The Earth's climate system depends entirely on the Sun for its energy. Solar radiation warms the atmosphere and is fundamental to atmospheric composition, while the distribution of solar heating across the planet produces global wind patterns and contributes to the formation of clouds, storms, and rainfall. This book provides an unparalleled introduction to this vitally important relationship. The book covers the basic properties of the Earth's climate system, the structure and behavior of the Sun, and the absorption of solar radiation in the atmosphere. It explains how solar activity varies and how these variations affect the Earth's environment, from long-term paleoclimate effects to century timescales in the context of human-induced climate change, and from signals of the 11-year sunspot cycle to the impacts of solar emissions on space weather in our planet's upper atmosphere.

Essentials of the Earth's Climate System

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger G. Barry ◽  
Eileen A. Hall-McKim
Keyword(s):  
Climate System ◽  
Earth’S Climate

From “Inconvenient Truth” to Effective Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Passarelli ◽  
David Michel ◽  
William Durch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
Political Response ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
National Governments

The Earth’s climate system is a global public good. Maintaining it is a collective action problem. This chapter looks at a quarter-century of efforts to understand and respond to the challenges posed by global climate change and why the collective political response, until very recently, has seemed to lag so far behind our scientific knowledge of the problem. The chapter tracks the efforts of the main global, intergovernmental process for negotiating both useful and politically acceptable responses to climate change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but also highlights efforts by scientific and environmental groups and, more recently, networks of sub-national governments—especially cities—and of businesses to redefine interests so as to meet the dangers of climate system disruption.

scholarly journals Aging fingerprints in combustion particles

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 14455-14493 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Zelenay ◽  
R. Mooser ◽  
T. Tritscher ◽  
A. Křepelová ◽  
M. F. Heringa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Single Particle ◽  
Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Soot Particles ◽  
Wood Stove ◽  
Combustion Particles ◽  
Atmospheric Processing ◽  
Water Uptake Capacity ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Photochemical Aging

Abstract. Soot particles can significantly influence the Earth's climate by absorbing and scattering solar radiation as well as by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. However, despite their environmental (as well as economic and political) importance, the way these properties are affected by atmospheric processing is still a subject of discussion. In this work, soot particles emitted from two different cars, a EURO 2 transporter, a EURO 3 passenger vehicle, and a wood stove were investigated on a single-particle basis. The emitted exhaust, including the particulate and the gas phase, was processed in a smog chamber with artificial solar radiation. Single particle specimens of both unprocessed and aged soot were characterized using x-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Comparison of the spectra from the unprocessed and aged soot particles revealed changes in the carbon functional group content, such as that of carboxylic carbon, which can be ascribed to both the condensation of secondary organic compounds on the soot particles and oxidation of primary soot particles upon photochemical aging. Changes in the morphology and size of the single soot particles were also observed upon aging. Furthermore, we show that the soot particles take up water in humid environments and that their water uptake capacity increases with photochemical aging.

Climate Variability in the Context of Climate Change: El Niño and Other Oscillations

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Rosenzweig ◽  
Daniel Hillel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate System ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Earth’S Climate

The climate system envelops our planet, with swirling fluxes of mass, momentum, and energy through air, water, and land. Its processes are partly regular and partly chaotic. The regularity of diurnal and seasonal fluctuations in these processes is well understood. Recently, there has been significant progress in understanding some of the mechanisms that induce deviations from that regularity in many parts of the globe. These mechanisms include a set of combined oceanic–atmospheric phenomena with quasi-regular manifestations. The largest of these is centered in the Pacific Ocean and is known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The term “oscillation” refers to a shifting pattern of atmospheric pressure gradients that has distinct manifestations in its alternating phases. In the Arctic and North Atlantic regions, the occurrence of somewhat analogous but less regular interactions known as the Arctic Oscillation and its offshoot, the North Atlantic Oscillation, are also being studied. These and other major oscillations influence climate patterns in many parts of the globe. Examples of other large-scale interactive ocean–atmosphere– land processes are the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, the Pacific/North American pattern, the Tropical Atlantic Variability, the West Pacific pattern, the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, and the Indian Ocean Dipole. In this chapter we review the earth’s climate system in general, define climate variability, and describe the processes related to ENSO and the other major systems and their interactions. We then consider the possible connections of the major climate variability systems to anthropogenic global climate change. The climate system consists of a series of fluxes and transformations of energy (radiation, sensible and latent heat, and momentum), as well as transports and changes in the state of matter (air, water, solid matter, and biota) as conveyed and influenced by the atmosphere, the ocean, and the land masses. Acting like a giant engine, this dynamic system is driven by the infusion, transformation, and redistribution of energy.

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