Kaylas+Notes+and+Research

=Kayla's Notes And Research = toc

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Thursday, August 26, 2010 - Greenhouse Effect
**Version 1 (August 26, 2010)** The Greenhouse effect is the process that is used to help heat us the Earth. Most of the solar rays that reach the Earth are essentially bounced off of the Earth's surface and sent back into space. The problem with this is that now with a excess build up of Greenhouse Gasses, more and more of these "escaping" solar rays are being bounced back towards the Earth. Some of the Greenhouse gases that are causing these effects are CFCs, ozone, nitrous oxide, methane, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. The Greenhouse Effect is appropriately named this because of how the Greenhouse Gases work. This is because the Greenhouse Gases are now effectively working as, essentially, a large Greenhouse covering the Earth. But, over the past decade we have seen an increase in levels of these Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere. This has lead to an overall increase in the Earth's average temperatures, and spells danger for a lot of the natural processes that go on on Earth's surface that require stable temperatures. Today the changes on Earth due to the increase in Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere can be seen through the even more unpredictable weather cycles and the melting of Earth's polar ice caps. If people do not find a way to control these gases and stabilize the Greenhouse Effect once again, then Earth may become too damaged to be fixed.

In Chapter 3 we learn more about Greenhouse Gases and the overall effect on the Earth's temperature. The first thing we learn in this chapter, is about the bare rock model. The bare rock model is a model used to estimate the overall temperature of a planet through calculations based on waves of energy coming in from the Sun. The problem with this model is that it does not calculate the effect of Greenhouse Gases, so the temperatures end up being too cold. Once we learned the bare rock model we, were then able to learn about how to factor in Greenhouse Gases. In this chapter the Greenhouse gases are explained through a diagram. The first diagram contains energy coming from the sun onto the Earth's surface, then the Earth light bouncing back towards space. But once you add in Greenhouse Gases, the diagram changes a bit. In order to show the effect of Greenhouse gases, the atmosphere is added to the diagram (described as a pane of class in the book). This glass is transparent to incoming light, but a black body to IR light. Therefore this glass pane is a almost perfect example of how the Earth uses Greenhouse Gases in order to heat the atmosphere. Another good example used in this book again is the sink metaphor. In this metaphor a penny, blocking a running sink drain, is used to represent Greenhouse Gases. The water level begins to increase slowly as the amount of water entering the model increases, but the amount leaving the system decreases. This is like a Greenhouse Gas because, the penny in the drain filter makes it difficult for the heat to escape Earth. And in the end the temperature of the Earth rises until the fluxes balances again. After reading Chapter 3, I learned a lot more about Greenhouse Gases, and a lot of supporting concepts and equations that help to make understanding Greenhouse Gases a whole lot simpler.
 * Version 2 (October 5, 2010) **

The Earth, Venus and Mars are three planets that are well situated to benefit from the energy output of the sun, yet all 3 have very different atmospheres and surface conditions. Scientists who first probed the potential of increased greenhouse gases effects on Earth’s climate looked for clues about our future by examining the conditions on our nearest neighbors. Complete this table. Be sure to include a complete reference and URL for any sources you use to find the necessary information.


 * Atmospheric Gas || Venus || Earth || Mars ||
 * Carbon Dioxide (percentage) || 96.5% || 0.03% || 95% ||
 * Nitrogen (N2) || 3.5% || 78% || 2.7% ||
 * Oxygen (O2) || Trace Amounts || 21% || 0.13% ||
 * Argon (Ar) || 0.007% || 0.9% || 1.6% ||
 * Methane (CH4) || 0 || 0.002% || 0 ||
 * Surface Pressure - Relative to the Earth ( in bars) || 90 || 1 || 0.007 ||
 * Major Greenhouse Gases (abbreviated to GHG) || CO2 || H2O, CO2 || CO2 ||
 * Actual temperature (C) || 477 || 15 || -47 ||
 * Temperature if no GHG (C) || -46 || -18 || -57 ||
 * Temperature due to GHG ( C) || +523 || +33 || +10 ||

The findings of scientists review evidence about the three planets is often referred to as the “Goldilock’s Principle” after the Fairytale character of that name’s response to each of the items she found in the three bears home while they were out for a walk.

Missing from the table is information about the difference in surface pressures on each of the planets that account for the “amount” of atmosphere that is found on each. Compared to Earth, Venus has 90 times the surface pressure while Mars has 0.007 times the pressure.

From examining the contents of the completed table, what do you think explains the differences between Earth and its neighboring planets?

In this table, you can see that Earth has a larger amount of Nitrogen and Oxygen, but also has very little Carbon Dioxide, in comparison to Venus and Mars. The differences in combination of gases in the atmosphere is the planets leads me to believe that although some gases, like Argon, were not mentioned as "Greenhouse Gases", that they do have some effect on the overall temperatures of the planets. I believe this because when you look at the amount of Argn located in the atmospheres you see that Venus has the least and Mars has the most (percentage wise). After considering this I feel as if maybe Argon, maybe even in the presence of other gases, can help to cool a planet down. The final factor that could explain the differences between Earth and its neighboring planets is distance from the sun. Venus is closest to the sun and is also the hottest planet, while Earth is in the middle and has the middle temperature, and finally Mars is the farthest from the sun (of these three planets) and is also the coldest planet.

"Activity 1 Teacher Guide: The Goldilocks Principle." ucar.edu. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <[]>.
 * References: **

Sunday, September 26, 2010 - Chapter 3 Questions: The Bare Rock Model Part I
Fin is the amount of energy that is coming from the sun to the Earth. Fout is, essentially the exact opposite, the amount of energy coming from the Earth outwards into to space.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1) What does Fin = Fout mean in this model? Use your own words. **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">You measure the size of the shadow cast by the Earth when the sun shines onto it to calculate the intensity of the energy heating the Earth because the level of intensity of the sunlight is determined by the angle at which the incoming sunlight hits the Earth.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 2) Why do you measure the size of the shadow cast by the Earth when the Sun shines on it to calculate the intensity of the energy heating the Earth? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> TP= Temperature of Planet <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> TP = 4√((1-α)*Iin/4*ε*σ) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Iin = ε*σ *Tsun4*R2/DP2 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">DP = Total distance from the sun to the planet <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">R= Radius of the sun. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> TP = Tsun*4√((1-α)* √ (R/2DP).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 3) Show the calculations to determine the temperature of Venus and Mars using the data in TABLE 3.1. Are these the measured temperatures on Venus and **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Mars? Why or Why not?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Tvenus = 5780K*4√ (0.30)* √ (696*10^6/(2*108*10^9))=242K = -31º C <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tmars = 5780K*4√ (0.85)* √ (696*10^6/(2*228^10^9))=217K = -56º C

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">These are not the measured temperatures of Venus and Mars. This is because this model does not take into consideration things such as greenhouse gases. This model only takes into consideration the planet’s temperature as if it were nothing more than a bare rock. Because of this the temperatures we calculated were too low (with the temperature of Mars at -56º C and the temperature of Venus at -31º C). From the chart on page 23 we know that the observed temperatures of Mars and Venus were higher (-33º C for Mars and 427º C for Venus.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Monday, October 5, 2010 - Chapter 3 Questions: The Bare Rock Model Part II
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. Verify in your own words and, if you would like, with a diagram, that the budget equation for the layer model of the earth’s overall energy is equal to the sum of the budget equations for the ground and the atmosphere. Why is it important that this be true for our model calculations? (See explanation between pages 23 and 25). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This model assumes that the energy budget is in a steady state (energy in = energy out). Which means the energy budget for the atmosphere is: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Iup,atmosphere+ Idown,atmosphere=Iup, ground <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Or <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2εσT4atmosphere= εσT4ground <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Now the budget for the ground is different from before because we now have energy also flowing down from the atmosphere. The energy budget for the Earth is: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">εσT4ground=((1-α)/4) Isolar+εσT4atmosphere <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Finally the budget for the Earth is: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">εσT4atmosphere=((1-α)/4) Isolar <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In this problem you can use any two of the three budget equations to solve for Tground or Tatmosphere. The third equation is simply a combination of the first two equations. The overall budget of the Earth is just the sum of the budget equations for the ground and the atmosphere. This is important that is true for our model calculations because we cannot expect the total budget of the Earth to be larger than that of its two comprising parts of the budgets of the atmosphere and the ground. So, in order to calculate the total budget of the Earth combing the budgets if the atmosphere and the ground would produce a solvable equation to answer.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. What is the “skin temperature” of the Earth, and why is it significant to the development of the layer model? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The skin temperature of the Earth is the temperature of the place in the Earth system where the temperature is most directly controlled by the rate of incoming solar energy is the temperature at the location that radiates into space. This is significant to the development to the layer model because the ground temperature must always be warmer than the skin temperature (by a factor of 1.189).

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. Respond to question #1 on page 27

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Question: The moon with no heat transport .The layer model assumes that the temperature of the body in space is all the same. This isn’t very accurate, as you know that it is colder at the poles than it is at the equators. For a bare rock with no atmosphere or ocean, like the Moon, the situation is even worse because fluids like air and water are how heat is carried around on the planet. So let’s make the other extreme assumption, that there is no heat transport on a bare rock like the moon. What is the equilibrium temperature of the surface of the moon, on the equator, at local noon, when the sun is directly overhead? What is the equilibrium on the dark side of the moon? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tmoon= 4√((1-α)*Iin/4*ε*σ) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> α= .12 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Iin= 13116 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">σ= 5.67*10^-8 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Tmoon=4√((1-.12)( 13116)/(4*5.67*10^-8) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Temperature With Sun Overhead: 209K <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Temperature On Dark Side: Absolute Zero

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - Lab Daisy World: Questions
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The purpose of these questions is only to suggest games to play with the simulator. Do what's fun.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The death rate decreases the daisies’ ability to control their environment’s temperature. This means that as the death rate increases, the overall effect of the daisies on the temperature decrease and vice versa. The death rate decreases the species mix. This means that as the death rate increase the amount of species mix decreases also.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. In the first scenario, "DaisyWorld in 3 species", you'll notice that the living area ("total daisies") doesn't exceed 70%. Look at the Parameters of this scenario. The deathrate is set to 0.3, which may explain the living percentage being no more than 0.7. Play with this parameter. What does the deathrate do to the daisies' ability to control their environment's temperature? To the species mix? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When the insulation increases from 0 to 1.0 (by 0.2’s in this simulation), the daisies' overall ability to control the planetary temperature decreases. As the insulation gets closer and closer to the number 1, we see the daisies’ causing the temperature on DaisyWorld with the daisy to be comparable to that of the temperature of DaisyWorld with the barren land. This is because if the insulation is higher on DaisyWorld then more heat can be trapped in which causes an increase in temperature.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. Using a multispecies scenario you like, run the insulation from 0 to 1.0 by .2's. What effect does this have on the daisies' control of the planet temperature? Why? If DaisyWorld had spatial structure, neighboring patches of daisies, and the neighbors were more influential (lower insulation) than the planetary temperature, what might be different? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The switch from 1000 to 5 in “max per” seems to just affect the "Percentage (%)" area of the white daisies. It also affects the daisies’ ability to control the temperature of DaisyWorld over the solar luminosity interval ( of about .8 to .85). The increase in the " max per" steps by increments of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 50, and 10 shows the maximum value increases while the number of daisies represented in the graphs is equal (at almost all of the luminosity values). One thing that is fairly noticeable is the slight increase of solar luminosity values in which more daisies can be seen surviving.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. Another parameter is "max steps per". At each luminosity increment, DaisyWorld runs "to convergence", or a maximum of "max steps per" calculations at that luminosity, before plotting a point. Try setting this down from 1000 to 5. Where does the result differ from the original scenario? Try DaisyWorld in 5 species with max steps set to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 50, 100. Speculate on what's going on. (Note: this is a deterministic simulation, no random component. The exact same parameters yield identical results.) **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When the number of black daisies is the majority, the temperature is above that of the barren temperature constant. When the white daisies are in the majority, the temperature is below that of the barren temperature. So it only makes sense, that when the barren temperature is even with that of the daisy dependent temperature, then the black daisies and white daisies have reached a state of equilibrium. Although this tends to be true in most models, this gets a little bit trickier once we try to add more than just black and white daisies (3-color base scenario, black, white, barren).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">6. Going back to the 3-color base scenario, play around until you can characterize when the living world temperature crosses from above to below the dead world temperature. Does your story have predictive power? Try your predictions on a different scenario. **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We can see that the surfaces with a higher albedo, particularly snow, tend to be cooler temperture wise. This is because a higher albedo tend to reflect lsunlight more. Because the sunlight is reflect and not absorbed then the temperature will stay cooler because the heat is not transfered to the surface. This to me seems like a never ending cycle. The temperature is low enough to produce snow. When the snow falls to the ground, because it has a low albedo, it keeps the temperature cooler. Because of this lower temperature more snow is able to fall. I think this also explains why people get tans whenever they go skiing. And now that I know about snow's low albedo, I understand why they get tans even though it is cold.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">7. Here are some albedo values for planet Earth. Play around with them, perhaps with the 3-species scenario, using desert values for "barren", since barren is all that is not daisies. Learn anything? **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ground Cover || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Albedo ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Deep Water || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.05-.20 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Desert || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.20-.35 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Short Greenery || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.10-.20 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Dry Vegetation || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.20-.30 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Summer Conifers || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.10-.15 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Deciduous Forest || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.15-.25 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Snowy Forest || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.20-.35 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Dry Snow || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">.60-.90 ||

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As the surface of DaisyWorld heats up, it becomes more habitable for the black, hot pink, pink, yellow orange, yellow green, blue green, light blue green, turquoise, purple, magenta, then finally the white daisies. As time goes along each of these daisies are competing with the daisy population that is there when they begin to form. As of two populations (that are competing with each other) reach equilibrium, so too does the surface temperature of DaisyWorld. This means that the temperature settles on a value most comfortable for both populations. But because the group that was there previously has a darker color, and a higher albedo (ability to reflect light) they can no longer stay cool. They soon begin to die off and the next color daisy begins to take over, until the solar luminosity becomes too high for them, and they too are replaced. This process repeats until the highest albedo flower, the white daisy, takes over until the sun's rays have grown so powerful that soon even the white daisies can no longer survive. At a certain luminosity (1.6 in this simulation), the white population crashes, and the dead and barren DaisyWorld, is no longer able to reflect the sun's rays, rapidly heats up. The evolutionary reason behind a decrease in each of the colors may be from a mutation. Normally the mutations would die off or stay relatively low in population numbers because of the lower fitness in that specific environment. But because the solar luminosity is increasing, the new color has a selective advantage over the older color. This allows it to be more competitive in the current environment and this increase the fitness of the new color and decreases the fitness of the old color. Overall, this leads to loss of one color and a overpowering of the next color.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">9. Try the scenario of DaisyWorld in 12 species. Pose an evolutionary argument for species succession in this scenario. **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">An argument against this theory is that it is not very likely that all of these mutations occurred within the same species of daisies. (This is assume that the daisies are the same species with different phenotypes). This would mean that this whole DaisyWorld expirement is flawed due to the fact that it is not possible for the
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">10. Refute your evolutionary argument above. Having argued both sides, which is "right"? How could you tell? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The peaks of color are due to a shift in fitness among the flower colors in which, the newer color develop a higher fitness than the last. While, the last dies off due to a lower fitness caused by overheating due to a lower albedo.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">11. In the many-color worlds (9 and above), there are sometimes pre-peaks of a color before its decisive succession. Can you come up with a story about that? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I think that it would be easy to tell a "just so story" from a valuable on when reading a scientific paper. A valuable story would have graphs, statistics, other theories, and other proven facts to help back up the claims. Whereas a "just-so story" would consist of reasons that could possibly explain why a phenomenon occurred.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">12. Stories like the ones you're inventing here are sometimes called "just-so stories". Do you think you could tell a "just-so story" from a valuable one when reading a scientific paper? How do you think people develop that kind of discernment? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sunday, October 19, 2010 - Chapter 4 Questions: Greenhouse Gases
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. **//Methane.// Methane has a current concentration of 1.7 ppm in the atmosphere, and it is doubling at a faster rate than CO2.** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> a. Adding 10 ppm of methane is more significant than adding 10 ppm of methane because a molecule of methane is 30 times more powerful than a molecule of carbon. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. Methane absorbs around approximately 1300 cycles/cm. It would take approximately 01.-0.2 w/m^2 to begin saturating this band. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> c. No because concentrations do not matter, but this means that because CO2 in in the Earth's radiation range, it will have a greater affect. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> d. Approximately 70 ppm of CO2 would lead to the same change in outgoing IR radiation energy flux as doubling methane.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sunday, October 24, 2010 - Duke FACE Site Questions
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1.What are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced in this project? How did you overcome them? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. How long do you think this project will be continued until? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. What do you hope to gain from this project? Do you think any significant information will come from this? Do you think this will have a major effect on society? If so what do you think it will do?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sunday, October 31, 2010 - Chapter 4 Questions (Continued): Greenhouse Gases
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. **//Earth Temperature.// Our Theory of climate presumes that an increase in the temperature at ground level will lead to an increase in outgoing IR energy flux at the top of the atmosphere.**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">a. The Iout increases 3.674 w/m2. It increases from 287.844 to 291.518.The overall change ins output is 3.674 w/m2. The ground temperature has no effect on the shape of the outgoing IR spectrum.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">b. The out going IR energy flux is higher, the change in output is 2.198. This is because when the model holds water vapor at a constant relative humidity, this causes a lower outgoing IR energy level. This means that the earth is more sensitive to CO2 increases because a would be necessary in order to show any significant increases in the outgoing IR flux. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">c. Original: Iout, W / m2 = 287.844 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Adjusted: Iout, W / m2 = 287.498 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Raising the temperature 1C in both constant water vapor pressure and at constant relative humidity take the temperature over the original. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Constant Water Vapor Pressure: Iout, W / m2 = 291.141 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Constant Relative Humidity Pressure: Iout, W / m2 = 289.696 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Basically, by placing the model at a constant vapor pressure, it can be observed that thetemperature increase needed to bring the flux of IR back to the original value was approximately .1 Celsius. While at a constant relative humidity, the temperature increases is needed to be approximately .2 Celsius.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - Plausible Research Questions
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. How do the windows on NCSSM campus effect the amount of IR that is adsorbed/released into the environment? Is there a way to reduce this and by how much could this be reduced? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. How do the materials of the roofs on two campus compare to the amount of IR that is absorbed/released into the environment? What is the best way to reduce the amount of IR emitted and which materials would be the most beneficial to the NCSSM campus? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. Work with another student (most likely Marissa) to create carbon footprints for our two separate schools. then work to identify the major causes for tese differences in carbon footprints.