Excel Aerosol Charts

 

 

 

Aerosols Effect on Climate Change

I predict that aerosols will impact climate change in a couple ways. The aerosol particles that are the same size as the sun's energy waves will reflect the suns energy back into the atmosphere. This will reduce the amount of energy that enters earth's atmosphere and become absorbed by the earth's surface. However that does not mean that all of the sun's energy will be reflected.

 Most of the energy will enter the earth's atmosphere and be either reflected by a light surface or absorbed by a dark surface. In urbanized areas of the world, the energy is absorbed and re-emitted as long wave infrared radiation. This causes the urban areas to be much hotter. This radiation, is trapped on earth by aerosols. The more aerosols in the air, the more cloud coverage. According to Aerosols and Climate Change by Mary Hardin and Ralph Kahn, the clouds will trap the radiation on earth causing there to be a hotter climate. A hotter climate means that more moisture is evaporating and being soaked up by the clouds. This causes more rain fall but in various places. To add to the rain fall, the ice caps will melt and the sea levels will rise. 

Summary of Notes

The atmosphere is made up of a variety of gases. Some of which are contributors to the greenhouse effect. These factors are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Because of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide levels have risen 18% since 1958. To better understand the greenhouse effect and the things that contribute to this issue we also have to understand air pressure. Vertical air pressure decreases with height. So the farther you travel into outer space the less vertical air pressure there is to impact you.
Solar radiation involves two concepts, Albedo and Absorption. Albedo is the energy that is reflected back into space. Absorption is not reflected but re-emits the energy as long wave infrared radiation. This is important because this is a major component in the Urban Heat Island Effect. This means where ever there is a city or an urban area, the re-emitted energy is higher there, thus the temperature is higher.  Relative Humidity is the amount of water that the air can hold. Humidity is the water vapor stuck between air molecules.

My Group Analysis

When I worked with my group I found 3 things that I thought we did really well and 3 things I thought we did poorly.
1. Not to make me sound bossy, but I think my gorup took direction really well. I could tell them to do something and they would accomplish it.
2. Our power point was presented really well.
3. We made our calculations as acurate as possible.

1. My group got distracted easily.
2. I think we could have had a stronger work ethic.
3. My group had a problem with just wasting time, so at the last minute we were rushing to get things done because we wasted so much time.

Aerosols

Aerosols are a big part of our ozone. Aerosols are any particles that are suspended in the air. Although the aerosols themselves do not effect the ozone it is the gas inside the aerosol cans that effect the ozone. This gas is called CFC: chloral floral carbon.  This gas has a dangerous effect on our ozone layer. This gas is illegal to use for a propellant and it is illegal to put into the air.

Aerosols should be studied because they are emmitted into our atmosphere and effect our planet. Studying this concept will provide new ideas to solve the issue of our deteriorating ozone. Aerosols effect the amount of rain fall. So if aerosols are studied scientists can learn more about the water cycle. Not only will this study shed some light on the water cycle but also the track the effects of dust storms, volcanic eruptions and pollution across the world.

Why Should Surface Ozone be Studied?

Surface Ozone should be studied for a few reasons. First surface ozone is an issue. What is surface ozone? Ozone occurs naturally in the atmosphere. The stratosphere blocks Ultra Violet rays and the tropospheric ozone is a major part of smog. Smog damages plants, animals, and people. 
Tropospheric ozone is a major part of smog, damages plants, animals, and people.
Ozone is formed from UV reacting with NO2 from natural sources. It can be harmful to the environment. Ozone is made up from different levels of harmful ozone such as smog. In places like LA, smog is very prominent because the there isn't a natural breeze to carry all of the pollutants away. At certain levels of this toxicity, it may become lethal to humans.  The ozone is depleted from free radical catalysts such as, NO, OH, Cl and Br. The ozone can conflict with the plants ability to soak up Carbon Dioxide. This means that if the plants cant soak up the Carbon Dioxide, the gas will remain in the air and contribute to the global warming.

Secondly, we can research this subject we may be able to find ways to correct the problem. In the 70's refridgerators contained CFC's which are very harmful to the ozone.  Know one knew that CFC's were harmful to the ozone and now we know that. We know that through research. If we study this concept further we can know exactly how much ozone is in the atmosphere and know how much of a problem it really is. If we know how bad the problem is, we can know its progress and seek ways to correct this issue.

Transect Procedure

1. Mark off transect area of 100 square meters.
2. Measure circumference of a tree in section.
3. Identify the tree.
4. Calculate top and bottom slope, using a clinometer.
5. Calculate tree value using board feet calculations.
6. Use Arc GIS Software to estimate the amount of land on the HHS campus.
7. Calculate the value of the campus using the timber value from all the transects.