L 9 : Module B
Climate Change, Global
Warming, and Ozone Loss
Key Concepts
• Components of Earth’s atmosphere
– Inversion layer, boundary layer
• Changes in Earth’s climate over time
• Possible effects of global warming
• Climate and Weather
• Adapting to climate change
• Greenhouse effect
• Human impacts on the ozone layer
• Protecting and restoring the ozone layer
Inversion layer
• Inversion (meteorology), a layer within which an
atmospheric property is inverted
• Temperature inversion layers, also called thermal
inversions or just inversion layers, are areas
where the normal decrease in air temperature
with increasing altitude is reversed and air above
the ground is warmer than the air below it.
• Inversion layers can occur anywhere from close
to ground level up to thousands of feet into the
atmosphere.
Home Assignment
• Inversion Layers and Their Impact on
Microclimates and Smog
• [Link]
[Link]
Forcing Mechanisms in the
Boundary Layer
Physical processes that act to modify wind velocity,
temperature, moisture, pollution.
• Frictional drag
• Heat transfer from/to the ground Energy balance at
surface:
• Terrain-induced drag ------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
• Evaporation and Transpiration
• Emissions of gases (e.g., pollutants)
Stratospheric and Tropospheric
Ozone
Good vs. Bad
Natural vs. Anthropogenic
Measure Ozone: Dobson Units
• Total Ozone is a measure
of the total column
amount above us.
Measured in Dobson Units
• If we bring all of the
ozone above us down to
the Earth’s surface
• The thickness would be
about 3 millimeters (~0.1
inches) = 300 Dobson
Units (approximately the
global average)
• 100 Dobson Units = 1
millimeter in thickness
3 mm = 300 Dobson Units
The Greenhouse Effect
Global Warming
Causes, Results, and
International Initiatives
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
Stratospheric ozone is produced by photolysis of molecular
oxygen, followed by re action of the oxygen radical with a
second oxygen molecule (Abbatt and Molina, 1993)
Stratospheric ozone can be consumed by photolysis and by
reaction with oxygen radicals:
Nazaroff-ch7
Solutions:
Dealing with the
Threat of
Climate Change
Global Initiatives on Climate
Change
• Montreal Protocol
• Kyoto Protocol
• COPT20 or CMP10
• Paris Agreement
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect
the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous
substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was
agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force on 1
January 1989.
The treaty is structured around several groups
of halogenated hydrocarbons that deplete stratospheric
ozone. All of the ozone depleting substances controlled by
the Montreal Protocol contain either chlorine or bromine.
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends
the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to
reduce greenhouse gases emissions, based on the
premise that (a) global warming exists and (b) man-
made CO2 emissions have caused it.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11
December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February
2005. There are currently 192 parties to the Protocol.
COP20 or CMP10
The United Nations Climate Change
Conference, COP20 or CMP10 was held in Lima, Peru,
from December 1 to 12, 2014. This was the 20th yearly
session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the
1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) and the 10th session of the Meeting of
the Parties (CMP 10) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The
conference delegates held negotiations towards a global
climate agreement.
Paris Agreement
In 2015, all 196 then parties to the convention came
together for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris
30 November - 12 December and adopted by consensus
the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to
less than two degrees Celsius, and pursue efforts to limit
the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Paris Agreement is to be signed in 2016 and will
enter into force upon ratification by 55 countries
representing over 55% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Other decisions
• The Bali Action Plan (2007)
• The Copenhagen Accord (2009)
• The Cancún agreements (2010),
• The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
(2012)
Ozone in the Stratosphere: the “Ozone
hole”
• Ozone (O3) in the
stratosphere
protects life on the
surface of the earth
from harmful UV
solar radiation.
The Antarctic ozone
• The average concentration of ozone in the
atmosphere is about 300 Dobson Units;
• any area where the concentration drops below 220
Dobson Units is considered part of the ozone hole.
• Dobson ozone spectrophotometer at Halley station
(76◦ S, 27◦ W).
• The typical annual variation in the Antarctic, prior to the late
1970s, had a minimum of about 250–300 DU in spring and a
maximum of about 400 DU in summer.
• However, in more recent years the picture has changed
significantly: monthly mean October amounts generally
decreased throughout the 1980s and have fallen below 160
DU in each year between 1991 and 2008, except 2002 and
2004.
• These routine ground-based measurements were confirmed
by satellite observations with the Total Ozone Mapping
Spectrometer (TOMS)
Discovery of ozone hole, short
movie
• [Link]
layer_embedded&v=7QGD-KiqKdE
CFCs
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related
chemicals break down ozone in
stratosphere
• Uses (mostly phased out)
• Air Conditioners
• Refrigerators
• Spray cans
• Cleaners for electronic parts
• Sterilizing medical instruments
• Fumigants for granaries and cargo ships
Ozone Depletion in the Stratosphere