Energy and Environment –
Life Under the Pale Sun
Lecture 2 5x04
H A&S 220c Autumn 2004
Peter Rhines
Billy Brazelton
Eric Lindahl
Energy Environment
Global: Arctic:
forms of energy atmosphere geography, climate,
astronomy
conservation ocean natives: settlement
transmission/movement land surface Europeans: exploration,
transformation ice assimilation, exploitation
degradation (and entropy)
storage
carbon cycle, photosynthesis
human use of energy
Global climate change: driven both by
human activity and natural cycles of variability
Today:
I. Review solar radiation
demonstrate refraction of light rays by a ‘slow’ medium (like glass)
Introduce energy and power: units, numbers….
II. Introduce the major forms of energy and look at some common ‘energy events’:
particularly with thermal, mechanical, chemical and electromagetic forms of energy in
mind.
III. The 20th Century and the development of energy resources
McNeill’s rats and sharks
‘energy slaves’
IV. Describe European exploration of the Arctic
goals: Northwest Passage, North Pole, fur, whales…eventually oil.
Frobisher, Hudson, Franklin, Amundson.
Vikings and the sagas
Vinland and Aix le Meadow
later day: Hans Egede
V. Some Spherical Cow problems.
NY Times, August 2004
Seattle Times:
26 Sept. 2004
Deconstructing the rainbow
Atmospheric pressure at the sea level (black curves are
constant pressure isobars) and above (half-way up to the
level of the jet-stream). Hurricane Jeanne sits over Florida
Greenland
The following 5 images from Prof. Konrad Steffen, Univ. of Colorado
Let’s remove the ice (only temporarily)
l
nne
Cha Petermann Gletscher
y
ed
nn
Ke Humboldt Gl.
Petermann
Gletscher
* Humboldt AWS
Kane Basin
* * GITS AWS
Dundas (Thule AFB)
Greenland Ice Sheet – northern part
er
ch Petermann Gletscher:
ts
le
tG Discharge area: 71,580 km2
ld
bo Velocity at grounding line ~ 3 m d-1
m
Hu Ice thickness at grounding line ~ 500 m
Floating tongue ~ 60 x 20 km
MODIS image
Grounding Line
GPR profile across glacier flow line at the Petermann Camp
GPR 50 MHz antenna, with 362 MHz sampling frequency, 8 stacks, time window 4134 ns
Delta surface height: ~ 26m
Delta ice thickness: ~ 160 m
Ratio ~ 6
Bottom of floating ice tongue
550 m profile length
…. and what happens?
Humboldt, Petermann, 79
North and Jakobshavn glaciers
are the “plugs in the bathtub”
If the grounding line of these
glaciers retreat further, and
increase in ice flux is possible.
This scenario has now been
observed at Jakobshavn
Isbrea increase in velocity,
surface lowering, and retreat
of grounding line.
…. and what’s next?
Whaling by the Inupiat natives of Alaska’s north slope (image by
Charles Wohlforth, author of The Whale and the Supercomputer. These
bowhead whales weight about 100,000 lbs and may live in excess of
200 years. This says something about the stability of their environment.