Syllabus
 

Joop Varekamp                    Teaching Assistants: Festo Lugolobi
 

The role of CO₂ in earth processes is very large relative to the modest quantities of it that are present in the atmosphere. In this course we will study all aspects of the role of CO2 in Climate Change, which involves the physics, chemistry and biology of CO₂. The class has four class projects: atmospheric CO2 monitoring, plant growth and its impact on atmopsheric CO2,  air-water CO2 exchange and computer models of the carbon cycle.

The E&ES CO₂ monitoring site will begin collecting data when the course starts. We will compare the Wesleyan CO₂ record with those from elsewhere and interpret variations in measured CO₂ contents at different time scales (day/night; weekly, seasonal, long-term) in terms of local and regional fluxes of CO₂. We will extract CO₂ databases from the WEB and replot them with our data, calculate fluxes of absolute amounts from data series, and other computer exercises.
We will also do some class lab exercises with the program SIMEARTH - you can manipulate the intensity of the sun, the extent of the biosphere, atmospheric CO₂ and more, and create your own ice ages and global warming scenarios.

Student groups will create scenarios of global warming for emission densities of CO₂ in the world, and write essays or give presentations on scientific and political aspects.
 

Topics that will be addressed in this course:
What is the role of CO₂ in global climate (greenhouse gas)?
How does photosynthesis work?
How does CO₂ acidify surface waters?
How has atmospheric CO₂ varied over the course of earth's history?
How much CO₂ is arriving at the earth surface from volcanic activity?
How much CO₂ is there on other planets?
What should we do to prevent further global warming - the Kyoto treaty

SOME USEFUL WEB LINKS:

Carbon EMISSION TRENDS
GLOBAL WARMING
EPA's Global Warming Site
ENN
Ocean warming
CLIMATE AND CO2
photosynthesis diagrams
Lecture notes PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Urinary bicarbonate effects
CO2's relationship with pH
planetary CARBON inventory
CO2 and Global Climate Change
CO2 Cycling
SNOWBALL EARTH
CLIMATES OF THE PAST
A TEMPERATURE RECORD
PLANTS
THE WEATHERING NOTES
Kyoto protocol

To learn more about Earth Science go to the UC Berkeley Geology website

To learn more about photosynthesis in the oceans, go to Emiliani Huxleyi
 

Problem Sets.

I. Calculate the "blackbody temperatures" of Venus, Earth and Mars, using Wien's Law, Boltzmann's Law, the inverse-square relationship between radiation of the sun and distance to the planets and the 'colour' of the sun (lambda =0.48 micrometer). You obtain the blackbody temperature of a planet by stating: heat-IN = heat-OUT and neglecting albedo and greenhouse effects.

Wien's Law :  l_max T = C_{w  (T in degrees Kelvin)
Boltzman's Law:  E = s T}⁴  _{(E in W/m}²_{) - This law gives the energy emission density for a spherical, black body at a given temperature T.  So once you determine the solar constant for the different planets, you have to smear the solar heat out over the whole spherical surface. After you have done that, you will obtain the amount of heat absorbed from the sun per m2 per time unit averaged over a year.  Then solve for T(planet) by using that energy,  applying IN = OUT.
s = 5.67 10}^-8 _W/m² _K^-4
C_{w = 0.289 cm K
Sun radius = 700,000 km, Sun-Venus = 108 million km, Sun-Earth = 150 million km,
Sun - Mars = 228 million km.
Observed mean surface temperatures: Venus: 430 C, Earth: 15 C, Mars: -45 C}
 
 
 

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Course Outline :
==>Introduction  on climate change, time scales of climate change, external forcings, response times on forcings, Venus-Earth-Mars: 3 planets - three climates    READING: climate on planets.

==> CLIMATE FUNDAMENTALS (HANDOUTS+TEXTBOOK)
notes on climate fundamentals   Climate.html

Ellen Thomas lecture on climate proxies, Carbon and Oxygen isotopes, and her snowball earth lecture

Lecture notes Ellen Thomas on Clathrates and Paleocene warming

==> The earth climate record (long-term) and variations in atmospheric CO₂
(articles)

==> CO₂  Forms of CO₂ on earth - CO₂ gas, H₂CO₃ and other  species in water; carbonate equilibria; limestone  Lecture notes 1 + 2 

==> The carbon cycles: The long and the short carbon cycle, limestones, chemical weathering Lecture notes 3+4 .  The long carbon cycle - readings

 Ocean CO2 issues

==> The Black Sea - an environment loaded with organic carbon
second black sea link

==> The photosynthetic process, C₃ and C₄ pathways, energy, chemistry

==> The isotopes of carbon ¹⁴C, ¹³C and ¹²C,  formation, applications
Isotopes of Carbon

Geochemical markers

==> The human impact: Increase in CO₂ levels since AD 1850, ice core records, comparison with last 20,000 years
 

Monitoring CO₂ Techniques for monitoring, analytical devices, computer data storage

Local versus global signals, mixing times of the atmosphere, problems with public policies
 

Limiting CO₂ emissions The CO₂ treaties (Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto)
 

CO₂ disposal Burial in aquifers, deep ocean storage
CO2 sequestration in the deep ocean

 Sequestration of anthropogenic carbon

Conclusions
  

websites that deal with IPCC forecasts, local effects and skeptics (your handout) 
 

False colour images of the world indicating the abundance of chlorophyl ("plants") on land and in the oceans
Upper figure-Terrestrial Productivity: green areas have high biomass density, orange have few plants
Lower Figure-Ocean Productivity: red zones: highest chlorophyl concentrations; blue lowest chlorophyl concentrations