Climate as a problem of physics
A.S. Monin,
Yu.A. Shishkov
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Krasikova 23, Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation
The logical fundamentals of the theory of climate are outlined: (1) the climate system OLA (ocean-land-atmosphere) is defined; (2) analogously to the theory of turbulence, the notion of climate is defined as a multicomponent random function in the OLA space-time (or, equivalently, as a statistical ensemble of states the OLA system passes through in a period of several decades); (3) the solar climate, i.e. the distribution of solar radiation at the upper atmosphere boundary, is determined, to be employed as the boundary condition for the OLA system; (4) the ’horizontal’ heat and mass transfer processes between the equatorial and polar zones are described; (5) the ’vertical’ processes of radiative-convective heat and mass transfer, among them the greenhouse effect of water vapor and small gas admixtures, are discussed; (6) the ’vertical’ radiative heat transfer processes in an aerosol-containing atmosphere is considered, including the anti-greenhouse effect of volcanic and smoke aerosols, and the ’nuclear night’ and ’nuclear winter’ scenarios.
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