Martin Stute
(1) Barnard College, Columbia UniversityThe Earth's climate system consists of the atmosphere, cryosphere (ice), hydrosphere (oceans), lithosphere (land), and biosphere (life). Global climate is a result of complex interactions between these components. The incoming radiation, and the concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as water vapor, CO2, and CH4 control the average temperature and precipitation on Earth. Energy is transported across latitudes as sensible and latent heat by winds and ocean currents. Climate change occurs over periods ranging from hundreds of millions of years to a few years. The mechanisms that trigger and control the magnitude of many of these natural fluctuations are still poorly understood. Climate reconstructions using ice cores, ocean and lake sediments, tree rings, corals, cave deposits, and ground water as archives have provided fairly detailed pictures of past states of the Earth's climate, in particular for the past 100,000 years including the last ice age. These studies clearly demonstrate the spatial variability, non-linearity and extreme abruptness of climate change.
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(2) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
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Palisades, NY 10964
martins@ldeo.columbia.edu