AS.270.103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Water Vapor, Subtropics, Lapse Rate
23 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Lowest values of albedo are in the open ocean (dark regions) Highest values of albedo are in the polar regions where there is a lot of snow and ice. Top of the clouds are brighter and reflect light. Net radiation is the balance between incoming and outgoing radiation. Heat transport is driven by air and water circulation (coupling between atmosphere and ocean) Cloud formation (when air rises) is associated with precipitation: coupling between circulation and rainfall, moist tropics and dry subtropics. Coupling: flow of information from one component to another. Feedback: self-perpetuating mechanism of change and response: negative feedback: any perturbation is made smaller and ends up in its original state, positive feedback: perturbation to system is amplified. Major climate feedbacks: water vapor, lapse rate, cloud. Low cloud will have a cooling effect and high cloud will have a warming effect (can get a positive or negative feedback)
