The Earth's Hydrological Cycle

The Earth's Hydrological Cycle
Author: L. Bengtsson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2014-05-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401787891
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This book gives a comprehensive presentation of our present understanding of the Earth's Hydrological cycle and the problems, consequences and impacts that go with this topic. Water is a central component in the Earth's system. It is indispensable for life on Earth in its present form and influences virtually every aspect of our planet's life support system. On relatively short time scales, atmospheric water vapor interacts with the atmospheric circulation and is crucial in forming the Earth's climate zones. Water vapor is the most powerful of the greenhouse gases and serves to enhance the tropospheric temperature. The dominant part of available water on Earth resides in the oceans. Parts are locked up in the land ice on Greenland and Antarctica and a smaller part is estimated to exist as groundwater. If all the ice over the land and all the glaciers were to melt, the sea level would rise by some 80 m. In comparison, the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is small; it amounts to ~ 25 kg/m2, or the equivalent of 25 mm water for each column of air. Yet atmospheric water vapor is crucial for the Earth’s energy balance. The book gives an up to date presentation of the present knowledge. Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 35, No. 3, 2014

The Oceans and Climate

The Oceans and Climate
Author: Grant R. Bigg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2003-12-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780521016346
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The oceans are an integral and important part of the climate system. The Oceans and Climate introduces the multi-disciplinary controls on air-sea interaction - physical, chemical and biological - and shows how these interact. It demonstrates how the ocean contributes to, and is affected by, climate processes on timescales from seasonal to millennial and longer. Past, present and future relationships between the ocean and climate are discussed. The new edition of this successful textbook has been completely updated throughout, with extensive new material on thermohaline processes in the ocean and their link to both abrupt climate change and longer-term climate change. It will prove an ideal course and reference book for undergraduate and graduate students studying earth and environmental sciences, oceanography, meteorology and climatology. The book will also be useful for students and teachers of geography, physics, chemistry and biology.