Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Climate Change Challenges

  • Published:
Surveys in Geophysics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change has emerged as one of the major challenges for mankind in the centuries to come. The strongly modified composition of the atmosphere, due to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosol particles, leads to an enhanced greenhouse effect and also intensified backscattering of solar radiation by aerosol particles. The resulting global mean warming will have a major impact on the entire cryosphere, with global consequences via mean sea level rise and redistributed precipitation. This introductory presentation will summarize the emergence of the topic, its already observed consequences for the cryosphere, and it will also discuss issues in climate policy making when dealing with the climate change challenge.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Archer D (2006) Global warming: understanding the forecast. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrhenius S (1896) On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science (fifth series) 41:237–275

  • Bengtsson L, Hodges KI, Roeckner E (2006) Storm tracks and climate change. J Climate 19:3518–3543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bengtsson L, KI Hodges, N Keenlyside (2009) Will extra-tropical storms intensify in a warmer climate? J Climate 2276–2301

  • Callendar GS (1939) The composition of the atmosphere through the ages. Meteorol Mag 74:33–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Church JA, White NJ (2011) Sea-level rise from the late 19th to the early 21st Century. Surveys in Geophysics (Accepted)

  • Dyurgerov M, Meier MF (2005) Glaciers and the changing earth system: a 2004 Snapshot. Occasional paper 58. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

    Google Scholar 

  • Fourier J (1824) Remarques Générales sur les Températures du Globe Terrestre et des Espaces Planétaires. Annales de Chimie et de Physique 27:136–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Fröhlich C (2010) Solar irradiance variations: what have we learned from the past three solar cycles? Lecture Notes for the Summer School in Alpbach 2010; World Radiation Center, CH-7260 Davos-Dorf, Switzerland

  • Hansen J, Sato M, Kharecha P, Russell G, Lea DW, Siddall M (2007) Climate change and trace gases. Phil Trans R Soc A 365:1925–1954. doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007a) Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, 2007. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KB, Tignor M, Miller HL (eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA

  • IPCC (2007b) Summary for policymakers. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KB, Tignor M, Miller HL (eds) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • NOAA (2010) File NOAA sea level trend 1993 2010.png assessed on 22 12 2010 from Wikipedia

  • Ridley JK, Huybrechts P, Gregory JM, Lowe JA (2005) Elimination of the Greenland ice sheet in a high CO2 climate. J Climate 18:3409–3427. doi:10.1175/JCLI3482.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridley J, Gregory JM, Huybrechts P, Lowe J (2010) Thresholds for irreversible decline of the Greenland ice sheet. Climate Dynamics 35:1065–1073. doi:10.1007/s00382-009-0646-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith JB, Schneider SH, Oppenheimer M, Yohe GW, Hare W, Mastrandrea MD, Patwardhan A, Burton I, Corfee-Morlot J, Magadzaj CHD, Füssel H-M, Pittock AB, Rahman A, Suarez A, van Ypersele J-P (2009) Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) “reasons for concern”. PNAS 106(11):4133–4137. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812355106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svensmark H, Friis-Christensen E (1997) Variation of cosmic ray flux and global cloud coverage—a missing link in solar-climate relationships. J Atmos Sol Terr Phys 59:1225–1232

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyndall J (1863) On the transmission of heat of different qualities through gases of different kinds. Proc Royal Inst Great Britain 3:158

    Google Scholar 

  • WBGU (Global Change Advisory Council of the German Federal Government) (2006) The future oceans: warming up, rising high, turning sour. Berlin ISBN 3-936191-14-X

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany

    Hartmut Grassl

Authors
  1. Hartmut Grassl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hartmut Grassl.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Grassl, H. Climate Change Challenges. Surv Geophys 32, 319–328 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-011-9129-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-011-9129-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation