GGR378H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Kevin E. Trenberth, Spike Lee, Coastal Engineering
Document Summary
Damaging storms & coastal impacts: overview of earth"s climate system, cyclonic storms, winter and summer storms, coastal impacts. Overview: earth"s climate system: the climate system is very complex, driven (primarily) by solar energy, characterized by: Chaos, and extreme sensitivity to initial conditions (the butterfly effect ) Solar energy heats the atmosphere and drives air circulation. There is a surplus of solar energy at the equator and a deficit of solar energy at the poles. The coriolis effect and other factors cause the simple equator-to-pole circulation to break up into a series of cells, shown here. Global atmospheric circulation transfers heat from the equator to the poles. The pressure gradient force causes air to move. Air moves both vertically and horizontally rising air: warm, moist. Warm air rises, cool air sinks: convection: air flows from areas of high to low pressure.