Climate Forcing
Climate forcing has to do with the amount of energy we receive from the sun, and the amount of energy we radiate back into space. Variances in climate forcing are determined by physical influences on the atmosphere such as orbital and axial changes as well as the amount of greenhouse gas in our atmosphere.
NASA/GISS Climate Forcing & Temperature
Understanding climate forcing is actually easy. Force is generally understood as strength or energy, the cause of motion or change, or active power. This could be a person pushing a shopping cart or an engine that powers a car. For example, gravitational force is how the moons gravity causes the tides to change. Radiative forcing caused by greenhouse gases in our atmosphere keeps the earth from being a frozen ball in space, because the sun provides energy, and the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere trap the heat on earth... a positive forcing.
That's it!
To understand the climate forcing, you just add all the components of forcing that are positive and negative and you end up with a view of the total forcing in the climate system of earth.
In our case, the sun provides our heat energy, the Milankovitch forcing is the general regulator of climate forcing over 100k year time scales. That combined with terrestrial components, such as greenhouse gases, aerosols, land use
Energy absorption (how much energy we get form the sun) and energy radiation (how much we radiate back out into space) part of the climate system. According the the Stefan Boltzmann Law, we receive on earth 240 W/m2 and we radiate the same back to space.
Earth regulators include thermal inertia of the ocean, land use, and greenhouse gases & aerosols in the atmosphere. These things determine the speed of climate change in combination with the above factors, in general.
Some of the effects are faster and some are slower.
All these parts of the system, once measured and modeled reasonably give you an idea of the amount of forcing each imposes on the climate system. Some forces are positive and others are negative.
NASA/GISS
Links
General
- 2009 http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/04/yet-more-aerosols-comment-on-shindell-and-faluvegi/
- 2005 Planetary Energy Imbalance Gavin Schmidt
- Aerosols: The Last Frontier? RealClimate Group
- What is a first-order climate forcing? Gavin Schmidt
- 2005 July 6 – Climate sensitivity and aerosol forcings Gavin Schmidt
- 2005 January 18 – Global Dimming Gavin Schmidt
- 2005 January 19 – Global Dimming II RealClimate Group, Beate Liepert
- NASA/NCDC/NOAA What are climate forcings?
- NASA/NOAA Aerosol Indirect Effect on Clouds: Climate Implications - 2003, 2000
- NASA/NCDC/NOAA Causes of Climate Change Over the Past 1000 Years Published July 14, 2000 Science, 289: 270-277.
- NASA/NOAA Aerosol Climate Forcing - 1997 Patricia Quinn & Timothy Bates Derek Coffman, Drew Hamilton, Jim Johnson, & Theresa Miller
- NASA: Water Vapor Confirmed as Major Player in Climate Change - Nov. 2008
- RealClimate: Water vapour: feedback or forcing?
- 2005 July 15 RealClimate: The lure of solar forcing Gavin Schmidt
- Wikipedia: The Stefan Boltzmann Law
- Stefan-Boltzmann Constant
- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EnergyBalance/page7.php
Climate sensitivity:
- 11ºC warming, climate crisis in 10 years? (
) (
) - Climate sensitivity and aerosol forcings
- Natural Variability and Climate Sensitivity
- Richard Lindzen's HoL testimony
- Climate sensitivity: Plus ça change…
- Runaway tipping points of no return (
) () - Climate Feedbacks
- The CO2 problem in 6 easy steps
- Climate Insensitivity
- The certainty of uncertainty
- Target CO2 (
) () - Simple Question, Simple Answer… Not () (
) (
) (
) ()
Aerosols:
- Global Dimming? () ()
- Global Dimming II () ()
- Pollution-Climate Connections () ()
- Global Dimming may have a brighter future () ()
- Climate sensitivity and aerosol forcings
- An Aerosol Tour de Forcing
- Global Dimming and climate models
- Current volcanic activity and climate?
- Aerosols: The Last Frontier? (
) () - Ozone impacts on climate change
- Perspectives from China
- Global dimming and global warming
- Aerosols, Chemistry and Climate
