ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 47: Thermostat, General Circulation Model, Paleosol

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Monika Havelka

Document Summary

Lecture 47 climate and the global commons ii. Net irradiance = the balance in your bank account. Net irradiance = input + output of the earth"s energy. There are internal processes that have to do with the gh effect and the composition of the atmosphere. Forcing processes are external to the earth"s systems. We would normally be going into the next glacial period; that"s where climatologists thinks we would be going, but instead we seem to be going upwards into a warm period, that is unexpected. The climate system is loaded with feedbacks; and we must balance out the feedbacks. Feedback: output that feeds back into the system into a vicious cycle. Positive: self-reinforcing i. e: evaporating water vapour which leads to more warming and evaporation in the atmosphere. Negative: thermostat in the house; initiates the process of calming back down.