Atmosphere Interactions
Atmosphere Interactions
Engage: What does the atmosphere do for you?
1. What is the atmosphere?
2. How do you interact with the atmosphere? List as many ways as possible?
3. What characteristics of the atmosphere affect the behavior of the atmosphere?
Explore/Explain 1: What role does the atmosphere play in the Earth System?
4. Watch this video to see how we are using satellite data to develop a better understanding of the
atmosphere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vgvTeuoDWY
5. Visit the interactive poster found at this
web site:
http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/globe/m
y-nasa-data-globe-digital-earth-systemposter-static/
6. Your teacher will assign your group one
variable with which you will get familiar.
Observe and take note of annual changes
for the variable your group has been
assigned.
7. Answer these questions when presenting your data type to the class:
a. What variable did you examine and what is the range of values shown on the scale bars?
b. Where in the world do you find the highest and lowest values (the extremes) of the data
in your images?
c.
Why do these locations experience the extremes and not other locations?
Atmosphere Interactions
d. Are any patterns in the data noticeable? Are patterns different on different continents?
Different over water than over land? Explain these patterns.
8. Your teacher will assign you a pair of variables to analyze. Your task is to identify a possible
relationship between these variables. Answer these questions during your analysis:
a. What relationship do you see between the two variables?
b. Do the relationships appear to be directly or inversely proportional? Explain.
9. Your teacher will assign you a month. Your task is to look for possible relationships that are
occurring between or among variables for your assigned month. Answer the following
questions during your analysis:
a. Which regions experience the extreme highs and lows for each variable?
b. Which regions don’t experience the extremes? Why do you think this occurs?
c. What differences, if any, do you find between variations of variables over the oceans
versus variations in variables over the continents?
d. What amounts of insolation, surface temperature, cloud fraction, precipitation and
aerosols characterize the world’s most vegetated regions for a particular month? Where
is the greatest concentration of aerosols originating from and how would you
characterize that particular environment based on the six images?
Atmosphere Interactions
10. Your teacher will assign you two months that are six months apart. Your task is to look for
relationships and/or changes that are occurring among the variables. Answer these questions
during your analysis:
a. Which variables change the most over the six-month period? Which variables change
the least? Why do you think this happens?
b. Do you see any relationships among the variables that you didn’t see previously?
Evaluate 1: What role does the atmosphere play in the Earth System?
11. Your group will work together to create one graph per variable (total of six graphs). Each
member of the group is to choose a location for which she/he will graph each variable during
the year. When you are done graphing the data for your location, on the appropriate graph, you
will pass it to your group mate and he/she will plot her/his location’s data. For example, if there
are three members in my group, there will be three lines on each of the six variable graphs. You
should use the same location on each graph and your location should not be within thirty
degrees latitude of any other group member’s.
12. Describe relationships you see among the variables per location.
13. Describe differences you see among the locations per variable.
14. Answer one of these two questions sets (a. or b.). Justify your answers by referencing the
specific variables and months that helped you formulate you responses.
a. Notice that cloud fraction values over the equatorial region of Africa are quite high
throughout the year (>50%.) Also notice that precipitation is high as are vegetation
(NDVI) values. What type of environment might this be? If cloud fraction values were
decreased to less than 25%, what environmental changes would you expect for this
region? Would you expect high precipitation values (e.g. >200 mm) to exist under low
cloud fraction? What about a similar reduction in the Amazon region of South America?
Atmosphere Interactions
What effects would these changes have on the vegetation (NDVI)? Why would you
expect these changes?
b. Follow the pattern visible in the Biosphere images. How are the patterns in the ocean
(Chlorophyll Concentration) similar to the patterns on land (Vegetation)? What time of
year does it seem like the Earth is the “greenest”? How do the other five variables
influence changes in biomass? Explain.
15. Answer one of these two question sets (a. or b.). Justify your answers by referencing the
specific variables and months that helped you formulate you responses.
a. Choose a location where you would like to go on vacation. What is the best month to
visit that location? Why? What activities would you be engaged in? What types of
clothing would you need to pack?
b. If you were only able to go on vacation during the month of May, where would be the
best location for your trip? Answer the same question for the other five months
available.
Atmosphere Interactions
Explore/Explain 2: What is the connection between Arctic sea ice and sea surface temperatures?
16. Analyze this graph and describe two trends.
17. Analyze this figure and describe two trends.
Atmosphere Interactions
18. Explain the cause of the two trends you identified for item 16 and 17.
19. Analyze these graphs and describe two trends (short term and long term).
Average Sea Surface Temperature
from January to March
Average Sea Surface Temperature
July to September
20. What is the connection between the data displayed in item 16 and 17, and the data displayed in
item 19?
Atmosphere Interactions
Elaborate: What is the connection between albedo, solar energy, Arctic sea ice and sea surface
temperatures?
21. Read this article.
Thermodynamics: Albedo
Albedo is a non-dimensional, unitless quantity that indicates how well a surface reflects
solar energy. Albedo (α) varies between 0 and 1. Albedo commonly refers to the
"whiteness" of a surface, with 0 meaning black and 1 meaning white. A value of 0 means
the surface is a "perfect absorber" that absorbs all incoming energy. Absorbed solar
energy can be used to heat the surface or, when sea ice is present, melt the surface. A
value of 1 means the surface is a "perfect reflector" that reflects all incoming energy.
Albedo generally applies to visible light, although it may involve some of the infrared
region of the electromagnetic spectrum. You understand the concept of low albedo
intuitively when you avoid walking barefoot on blacktop on a hot summer day. Blacktop
has a much lower albedo than concrete because the black surface absorbs more energy
and reflects very little energy.
Sea ice has a much higher albedo compared to other earth surfaces, such as the
surrounding ocean. A typical ocean albedo is approximately 0.06, while bare sea ice varies
from approximately 0.5 to 0.7. This means that the ocean reflects only 6 percent of the
incoming solar radiation and absorbs the rest, while sea ice reflects 50 to 70 percent of
the incoming energy. The sea ice absorbs less solar energy and keeps the surface cooler.
Snow has an even higher albedo than sea ice, and so thick sea ice covered with snow
reflects as much as 90 percent of the incoming solar radiation. This serves to insulate the
sea ice, maintaining cold temperatures and delaying ice melt in the summer. After the
snow does begin to melt, and because shallow melt ponds have an albedo of
approximately 0.2 to 0.4, the surface albedo drops to about 0.75. As melt ponds grow and deepen, the surface
albedo can drop to 0.15. As a result, melt ponds are associated with higher energy absorption and a more rapid ice
melt.
Environment: Trends
Sea ice typically covers 14 to 16 million square kilometers
(5.4 to 6.1 million square miles) in late winter in the Arctic
and 17 to 20 million square kilometers (6.6 to 7.7 million
square miles) in the Antarctic's Southern Ocean. The
amount of sea ice that remains at summer's end is much
less in the Antarctic (3 to 4 million square kilometers, or 1.1
to 1.5 million square miles) than in the Arctic (7 to 9 million
square kilometers, or 2.7 to 3.5 million square miles).
Satellites have shown the fluctuation in sea ice from year to
year since 1972. Data suggest that since then, Arctic ice has
been decreasing at an average rate of about 3 percent per
decade, while Antarctic ice has increased by about 0.8
percent per decade.
Passive microwave-derived (SMMR / SSM/I) sea ice
extent departures from monthly means for the
Northern Hemisphere.
—Image courtesy of Walt Meier, National Snow and
Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Atmosphere Interactions
Satellite data have indicated an even more dramatic reduction in Arctic ice cover in recent years. In September
2002, Arctic sea ice reached a record minimum: 4 percent lower than any previous September since 1979, and 14
percent lower than the average ice extent from 1979 to 2000. In the past, a low ice year would be followed by a
rebound to near-normal conditions, but 2002 was actually followed by two more low-ice years, both of which
almost matched the 2002 record low. When the low ice years of 2002 to 2004 are taken into account, the average
ice extent each September from 1979 to 2004 is decreasing at a rate of 7.7 percent per decade. Scientists theorize
that the gradual reduction in sea ice results from a combination of shifting atmospheric winds that naturally break
up ice cover, as well as higher temperatures, which may be linked to the greenhouse effect.
22. What is albedo and how is it related to the shrinking Arctic Ice Cap?
23. Trick Question! There is a strong connection between albedo, Arctic sea ice and average sea
surface temperatures. Identify the “cause” and the “effect” in this relationship. Explain.
24. After a class discussion write a short explanatory essay that describes the feedback loop
comprised of albedo, solar energy, Arctic sea ice and sea surface temperature. You must use
data from all the relevant resources to support your explanation.
25. So……………..what is the ultimate cause of this feedback loop? Write a hypothesis that predicts
and explains the cause.