Jennifer I'll take the first steps and see if they are interested.
If not there isn't any point going into other details.

This doesn't answer any particular questions but I think it is very thought-provoking.

From Rober E Stevenson ... "an oceanography consultant based in Hawaii, trains the NASA astronauts in oceanography and marine meteorology. He was Secretary General of the International Association for the Physical Science of the Oceans from 1987 to 1995, and worked as an oceanographer for the U.S. Office of Naval Research for 20 years. A member of the scientific advisory board of 21st Century, he is the author of more than 100 articles and several books, including the most widely used textbook on the natural sciences."

At http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/ocean.html.

Don't be distracted by the occasional reference to events and papers at the time it was written, mid 2000.

cheers

Hi BigMal and others

William Kininmonth (formerly head of Australia's National Climate Centre and a member of Australia's delegations to the Second World Climate Conference and the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change) emailed me answers to BigMal’s original two questions. The answer to the first question is much too long to post (exceeds 350 words) but I will work on a cut down version. The answer to Question 2 was only marginally too long, a slightly abbreviated version follows.

Please note the reference in the following answer to “an increase of solar radiation by 1 W/m2” is within the range of what would be expected from sunspot activity.

Q. 2 If the sun is partially responsible as many now believe, how can such small variations in energy of w/sqmetre falling on the earth cause such temperature variations?

Answer: The earth preferentially receives solar radiation over the tropics. There is already excess solar energy compared to longwave radiation loss to space over the tropics. The surface temperatures (and hence tropospheric temperatures) are largely contained by evaporative cooling and so the radiation loss to space (a function of fourth power of temperature) is also largely contained. Excess solar energy is transported to middle and high latitudes where temperatures can more readily respond and where polar ice sheet volumes can fluctuate. The surface area of the tropics is of order 3*10^^14 m2 and an increase of solar radiation by 1 W/m2 represents an increase of the incoming solar energy of 3*10^^14 W. The annual average peak poleward transport of energy is 5*10^^15 W at about lat 35 in each hemisphere. Assuming half of the increased solar input is transported poleward in each hemisphere (no storage in the tropics for the reasons given) we are looking at a 3 percent increase in the average poleward transport in each hemisphere. … a 3 percent increase (obviously an upper limit) is a significant increase to the input of energy over polar regions and likely to have dramatic impact on surface temperatures…

Cheers,

Anyone catch Catalyst to night?

Look at my web site where I have described how the emissions of carbon dioxide is automatically reduced to a specific equivalence level depending on how natural forces such as thermodynamics and gravitation acts on the properties of the carbon dioxide which varying its density dependent of the pressure.

Ingvar Astrand, Sweden
ingvar_astrand@yahoo.se
http://www.theuniphysics.info