GEOL 150Lg Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Sea Level Rise, Permafrost, Radiometry
Document Summary
Most viable explanaion of where water came from is the asteroid belt. Solar constant: 1367 wats/m2 amount of energy reaching earth. Because the earth is round, only about 342 w/m2 actually hits it. If the amount of incoming/outgoing energy is unbalanced the earth will warm or cool. There"s now an imbalance of about . 75 w/m2. More energy is coming in than is going out. Most of suns energy is in uv and vl wavelengths, some in x-ray. Satellites can monitor radiaion like air temperature (microwaves), sea surface temp, etc. Absolute accuracy of satellite radiometry is only ~1 c. Earth is about . 4 c warmer than it was in the mid part of 20th century. Only sheet ice will afect sea level. Sea level change is normal, ocean expands and contracts due to plate tectonics. Ice and snow covers 10% of land surface. Accelerated retreat could lead to ice free aric by 2030, irst ime in 1million years.
