Module VI..Atmospheric Systems

Essential Question...How are the Earth, atmosphere and cultures all connected?

Explore:

Here is an intriguing bit of information that I had not considered...it is a great example of how animals and atmosphere are connected. When contemplating the subsistence lifestyle of many Native Alaskans, the topic also has implications on native culture. A study was done on the effect of whaling and the atmosphere. Dr. Andrew Pershing from the University of Maine said "Whales, like any animal or plant on the planet, are made out of a lot of carbon." "And when you kill and remove a whale from the ocean, that's removing carbon from this storage system and possibly sending it into the atmosphere." I believe that it is impossible to explain atmospheric phenomenon without including oceanic concepts. The vast amounts of carbon being used by living things, along with oceanic currents (and other factors), play a role in atmospheric temperature and thus makes the oceans an integral part of the "atmospheric system". In the studies initial calculations, the team worked out that 100 years of whaling had released an amount of carbon equivalent to burning 130,000 sq km of temperate forests, or to driving 128,000 Humvees continuously for 100 years. These numbers are astonishing, though the subsistence whaling done by Alaska Native groups would only represent a small fraction in these numbers, it would still have an impact. I write this, not to imply anything negative for the whaling subsistence practice, but to assist in the understanding that what we do in and with our oceanic biomass has an effect on our atmospheric conditions and greenhouse gases percentage, specifically carbon amounts in our atmosphere. It goes without saying that worldwide illegal taking of whales and the countries that do not regulate the amount of whales taken would presently be the largest contributors of this dramatic "deforestation" of the oceans!

Explain:

In both my Geology and Physics courses I have students compare Earth's atmosphere with that of Venus. Astonishing to consider a nearly constant temperature (night or day) of about 350 degrees C coupled with an atmospheric pressure 92 times that of earth!

I also discuss the greenhouse effect in terms of an automobile with its windows up tight on a hot summer day. For example, we have all heard the news stories of people leaving their children or pets in a vehicle while they run into a store. They have been driving with the air conditioner on so the vehicle is cool. Those that I have seen interviewed state something similar to "the baby was asleep and the car was cool. When I came out of the store, which took longer than expected, the baby/pet was dead." High frequency infrared from the sun is transmitted through the glass. As the interior of the vehicle (seats, floors, etc.) begin to warm they emit lower frequency infrared back into the air in the automobile that does not transmit through the glass and exit the car...it is reflected by the glass and is trapped inside the vehicle with a resulting dramatic temperature increase that can kill. Knowing a little applied physics can be beneficial to those who take the time to learn and possibly tragic for those who don't! (A little common sense is also a good practice!)

Personally, like any other technology (or nearly anything for that matter), it becomes exciting when I understand what its uses are for and figure out how to use it...case in point is this GE snapshot (now that I have learned the process) of South America on March 4th, 2010. It distinctly shows the convection cells moving towards and away from the equator...in this case (southern hemisphere) the colder air from the Antarctica area flows toward to equator (2nd Law of Thermodynamics...thermal energy always flows, unless energy is put into the system, from higher temperature to lower temperature) and the warmer, closer to the equator air, moves up in latitude (down in relation to the equator) as it moves towards the South Pole. The Polar Front Jet Streams are quite obvious in this image! I am dumbfounded when I see and am able to use this type of technology...when I went through school, including college, without the use of even a computer, let alone the internet, I realize how students today have so much information readily available at their fingertips. The data at our disposal, nearly instantly, both now visual (satellite photos) and now proven, by today's technology, is mind boggling!

Extend:

Above is a beautiful picture of our Mt. Redoubt taken on February 17, 2009. Another consideration for atmospheric carbon is volcanic activity. We know geologically that volcanic activity has been globally fairly consistent over that past several millennia as humans have been recording events. How much does this add to our climate change in relation to human activities...namely the burning of fossil fuels. According to the United States Geologic Survey and the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), while 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide was released by volcanoes on land and underwater volcanoes (which is a lot), the global fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions for 2003 was 26.8 billion tonnes. Conclusion...volcanic activity contributes less than 1% of the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere that the burning of fossil fuels.

Evaluate:

Even after 18 years of teaching Geology and Physics, along with having a personal interest in the concepts, I am still in awe as to how thin and fragile our atmosphere really is. I have for many years stated to my students, as was read in this weeks module, that we live at the bottom of a (relative to the diameter of earth) "shallow" ocean of air. It helps students to better understand density, air pressure and how close we live to "real space". The notion of how small it is versus it's complexity is challenging to teach and often difficult for students to comprehend. The idea that what one country contributes to the atmosphere, effects the atmosphere of the entire earth, thus could and is by many believed effecting cultures today. The concept of climate change is most pronounced in the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere, thus is effecting cultures that have existed for centuries and requiring them to change their way of life in order to survive. Northern (especially) Native Alaskan communities (several TD video clips) have changed the way they go about maintaining their subsistence life style and because of living off of the land have been put in harms way as the oceanic and atmospheric currents bring with them industrial pollution from the southern, more populated regions. Climate change has also resulted in hunting manner...boating farther out into the Arctic and Bering to find walrus and other species that they require for foodstuffs are just the beginning of what is happening today!