Professor Zhengyu Liu originally became interested in studying the ocean through his research on El Nino, which led him to realize the importance of understanding the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere. He is currently researching how climate has evolved since the last glacial maximum 21,000 years ago, including the role of the South Pacific ocean in driving changes to El Nino. Additionally, he is developing a theory to explain Bjerknes compensation, which is the hypothesis that heat transfer between the ocean and atmosphere decreases as the other increases. Liu is also excited about new isotope-enabled climate modeling projects that will allow for better comparison between model simulations and proxy climate records.
Earth Science (Kebumian) Material with Double Language (Bahasa-English)
this material only for Secondary High School Learning or for people want to teach earth science
Changes in systems may occur naturally or may be induced by humans. This presentation introduces Earth as a system. One of the most fruitful areas of environmental research remains the investigation of relationships between physical and biological processes on a global scale.
6. Climate science as body of knowledgeAdam Briggle
The sixth lecture in the philosophy of climate change. It covers ten basic points about climate science, offers one note of caution, and distills two key implications.
The National Middle School Association (NMSA) sponsored this presentation for middle school science teachers. Topics include Earth’s energy budget and climate change; Albedo; Regional temperature and sea ice changes; NSES Standards and Misconceptions; Resources to Enhance Your Content Knowledge; and Science Lessons and Activities.
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as "global warming"
Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record — extending deep into the Earth's past — has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.
Earth Science (Kebumian) Material with Double Language (Bahasa-English)
this material only for Secondary High School Learning or for people want to teach earth science
Changes in systems may occur naturally or may be induced by humans. This presentation introduces Earth as a system. One of the most fruitful areas of environmental research remains the investigation of relationships between physical and biological processes on a global scale.
6. Climate science as body of knowledgeAdam Briggle
The sixth lecture in the philosophy of climate change. It covers ten basic points about climate science, offers one note of caution, and distills two key implications.
The National Middle School Association (NMSA) sponsored this presentation for middle school science teachers. Topics include Earth’s energy budget and climate change; Albedo; Regional temperature and sea ice changes; NSES Standards and Misconceptions; Resources to Enhance Your Content Knowledge; and Science Lessons and Activities.
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as "global warming"
Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record — extending deep into the Earth's past — has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.
Presented by Keyla Soto:
Penetration of Human-InducedWarming into the World’s Oceans
Tim P. Barnett, David W. Pierce, Krishna M. AchutaRao,Peter J. Gleckler, Benjamin D. Santer, Jonathan M. Gregory,Warren M. Washington
This document is all about climate change and its related issues like global warming, ice age, effects and causes best for understanding to non scientists.
Required Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/news/current.html
https://www.congress.gov/
https://www.congress.gov/legislative-process
Geobiology is the study of the interactions that occur between the biosphere and the geosphere. It must include elements of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. When I looked up geobiology a lot of the articles came up about climate change.
Geologists think of the last 50 million years as the recent past, both because they represents only about one percent of the age of the earth. As well as because plate tectonics, the geologic process that controls conditions within the solid part of the earth, has operated without major change during that time period. This is the time period that is most relevant to gaining insights about earth’s climate. Which can be applied to the present-day global warming. Geological record of ancient climate is good. Ancient temperatures can be determined very precisely, because the composition of the shells of corals and other marine organisms varies measurably with it. The plants and animals that lived during a given time and are now preserved as fossils indicate whether the climate was wet or dry. Overall climatic trend has been cooling, from an unusually warm period. This is called the Eocene Optimum. Before like 55-45 million years ago, there was a cool period, colloquially called the Ice Age. It ended just 20,000 years ago. The overall range in temperature was huge it was about 35°F. During the Eocene Optimum it was warm that Antarctica was ice-free. The ice caps did not start to form there until about 35 million years ago. Palm trees grew at high latitudes. As well cold-blooded animals, such as crocodiles, lived in the Arctic. The earth’s climate is highly variable. During the Eocene Optimum and the Ice Age, though in both cases life was more abundant in some parts of the world than in others. The fossil record indicates that forests were common during the Eocence Optimum. But in some areas were vegetated steppes and deserts. While the great glaciers of the Ice Age were lifeless, extremely large mammals inhabited lower latitudes. Some species adapted and others went extinct. Climate during the Ice Age was unstable. Many swings of more than 10°F. The Milankovitch cycles, which is a cycle due to the gravitational influence of the moon and planets. The timing of these swings closely follows regular fluctuations in the tilt of the earth’s axis and the shape of its orbit around the sun. The magnitude can be reliably calculated.
Another article stated that the a changing climate has been the norm throughout the 4.6 billion year history of the Earth. Recent geological past, climate swings have given us repeated glaciations separated by warmer intervals. Climate is intimately connected to the evolution of life, to the erosion and formation of rocks, and even to the generation of mountains. The connections is the transfer of carbon from one place is a process known as.
1. HOW DID YOU ORIGINALLY
BECOME INTERESTED IN
STUDYING THE OCEAN?
As a graduate student, I was initially
intrigued by El Nino. I was studying
meteorology before, but realized when
we talk about El Nino, it really de-
pends on both the ocean as well as the
atmosphere, not just one of them at
a time. You have to understand how
they interact.
I thought this was so interesting, so I
knew I had to study some oceanogra-
phy if I wanted to come back to ex-
plore the complete ocean-atmosphere
system. That’s how I ended up with a
Ph.D. in oceanography.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY
RESEARCHING?
I’m working along several lines. One
is how the climate has evolved since
the Last Glacial Maximum, about
21,000 years ago. Global climate
has changed dramatically in the last
21,000 years, including El Nino. I
studied the first climate model sim-
ulation of El Nino evolution in the
last 21,000 years and found that the
change of El Nino can be traced to the
South Pacific Ocean, where the water
temperature is changed by the chang-
ing solar radiation.
In short, we are studying how El Nino
is excited locally in the equatorial
Pacific, or remotely, from outside the
tropical Pacific.
I’m also working with some interna-
tional collaborators in China to study
Bjerknes compensation, or how the
ocean and atmosphere transfer heat
from tropical latitudes to our high lat-
itude. The current hypothesis [named
for meteorologist Jacob Bjerknes, the
first to make this suggestion] is that
when one transfer increases, the other
transfer will decrease, as a compensa-
tion.
That, however, is only a hypothesis,
and there has never been a theory to
explain why that happens, and under
what conditions it happens, so we’re
developing a theory that might ex-
plain it. We’re also verifying it with
complex models. It’s a fundamental
issue in understanding the climate.
This has been a classical problem
for many years; the first time it was
raised was in 1964.
ARE THERE NEW PROJECTS ON
THE HORIZON THAT YOU’RE
ESPECIALLY EXCITED ABOUT?
I’ve recently started working on the
first set of isotope-enabled Earth Sys-
tem Model simulations of the tran-
sient climate and isotope evolution.
In collaboration with other scientists,
I am building a new generation of this
state-of-the-art climate model that
incorporates key isotopic geotracers
— notably, water isotopes and carbon
isotopes.
This is important because an iso-
tope-enabled climate simulation will
allow for a direct comparison of proxy
data [from natural recorders of past
climate conditions, such as ice cores
and fossil pollen] with the model, and
therefore reduce the great uncertainty
of proxy interpretation. This marks a
new era of model-data comparison.
Lallensack is a senior at UW-Madison
majoring in environmental studies and
journalism.
B
ecause Professor Zhengyu Liu’s
background is concentrated
in oceanography, some people
wonder how he ended up in
Madison.
“They say, ‘That’s really weird. There
are no oceans in the Midwest,’” Liu
joked.
That doesn’t prevent Liu from
applying an oceanic perspective to
his climate research. He studies
the interaction between the
atmosphere, the ocean system
and the climate.
This comprehensive
approach comes through in his
expansive knowledge of El Nino
— the weather pattern now
gathering steam in the
Pacific Ocean, portending
a range of global
impacts, including
the warm, dry
winter Madison
will likely
experience this
year.
With that in mind,
the Nelson Institute
Center for Climatic
Research has
been a perfect
fit for Liu for
the past 22
years. As a past
director of the
center, he has
helped maintain
CCR’s record as
a world leader
in historical
climate
modeling and
improving the
models’ predictive
power.
Liu recently
chatted about
how his work
began and where
it’s headed.
Liu leads new era of model-data
comparison in simulating
Earth’s climate
BY RACHAEL LALLENSACK