Earth, Climate and Energy

Reading the Planet in Watts per Square Metre in 22 chapters — from “Weighing the Earth: gravity, the figure of the planet, isostasy and flexure” to “Grids, variable renewables and the electrified system”.

Chapters

  1. Weighing the Earth: gravity, the figure of the planet, isostasy and flexure
    • Surface gravity and the mass of the Earth
    • Rotation and flattening
    • J2​ and the moment of inertia
    • Gravity anomalies and the geoid
    • Airy and Pratt isostasy
    • Flexure and the elastic thickness
    • Satellite geodesy and gravitational energy
    • Summary
    • Problems
  2. Stress, strain and the waves that map the interior
    • Stress and strain in rock
    • P and S wave speeds
    • Travel times and the turning ray
    • The shadow zone and the liquid core
    • Attenuation and the low-velocity zone
    • Earthquake energy as a global flux
    • Summary
    • Problems
  3. Clocks and heat: radioactive decay, terrestrial heat flow and a cooling planet
    • Fourier's law of conduction
    • The decay law as a clock
    • Radiogenic heat production
    • The measured surface heat flux
    • The cooling half-space
    • The Earth's heat budget and the Urey ratio
    • Summary
    • Problems
  4. The geomagnetic field, the geodynamo and the record in the rocks
    • The geomagnetic dipole
    • Inclination and palaeolatitude
    • The non-dipole field and secular variation
    • The magnetic Reynolds number
    • What the geodynamo costs
    • Thermoremanence in cooling rock
    • Reversals and the sea-floor stripes
    • Summary
    • Problems
  5. Plate tectonics as an energy budget: convection, rheology and the driving forces
    • Rock rheology and the Maxwell time
    • Mantle viscosity from rebound
    • The Rayleigh number and the onset of convection
    • Boundary-layer scaling and the plate
    • Ridge push and slab pull
    • The closed heat budget
    • Summary
    • Problems
  6. The hydrostatic atmosphere: scale height, adiabats and stability
    • The atmosphere as a column of mass
    • Hydrostatic balance in a compressible atmosphere
    • The dry adiabatic lapse rate
    • Potential temperature
    • Static stability and the buoyancy frequency
    • The observed profile and the tropopause
    • Summary
    • Problems
  7. The planetary energy balance: 340 watts on every square metre
    • The solar constant
    • The factor of four
    • Albedo and what reflects sunlight
    • The emission temperature
    • The measured top-of-atmosphere budget
    • Insolation and the required poleward transport
    • Equilibrium temperature as a tool
    • Summary
    • Problems
  8. The greenhouse effect: emission height, radiative equilibrium and forcing
    • Selective absorption: transparent in, opaque out
    • The one-layer grey atmosphere
    • Many layers and the fourth-root law
    • Optical depth and the emission height
    • The greenhouse effect stated correctly
    • Radiative equilibrium and why it fails
    • Radiative forcing and the no-feedback response
    • Summary
    • Problems
  9. Rotating fluids: geostrophic balance, Taylor-Proudman and the thermal wind
    • The Coriolis parameter
    • The Rossby number
    • Geostrophic balance on a weather map
    • Ekman friction and the surface wind
    • The Taylor-Proudman theorem
    • The thermal wind relation
    • What geostrophy cannot do
    • Summary
    • Problems
  10. The general circulation and the poleward transport of heat
    • Trade winds and the required poleward transport
    • The single cell and why it is impossible
    • The Hadley cell and the trade winds
    • Baroclinic eddies as carriers
    • The three-cell picture and its honest status
    • Closing the transport budget
    • The atmosphere as a heat engine
    • Summary
    • Problems
  11. Water in the climate system: the moist adiabat, clouds and the hydrological cycle
    • Saturation and the Clausius-Clapeyron relation in logarithmic form
    • Measuring water in air
    • The lifting condensation level
    • The saturated adiabat and the lapse rate
    • Conditional instability and deep convection
    • The global water budget
    • The cloud radiative effect
    • Summary
    • Problems
  12. Atmospheric electricity: the global circuit, charge separation and lightning
    • The fair-weather field
    • The leakage current and the relaxation time
    • The global circuit
    • Charge separation by graupel and ice
    • The discharge and the Carnegie curve
    • Summary
    • Problems
  13. The carbon cycle, atmospheric composition and the palaeoclimate record
    • The reservoirs of carbon
    • Fast and slow cycles
    • The Keeling curve and identifying the source
    • Ocean uptake and the airborne fraction
    • The silicate weathering thermostat
    • The ice-core archive and orbital pacing
    • Summary
    • Problems
  14. Feedbacks, radiative forcing and climate sensitivity
    • The feedback parameter and the Planck feedback
    • The water vapour feedback and the lapse rate
    • The surface albedo feedback and the cloud feedback
    • The sensitivity and its skewed distribution
    • Summary
    • Problems
  15. Models, projection and the observed record
    • What a climate model is
    • The model hierarchy
    • The instrumental record and attribution fingerprints
    • Three constraints on sensitivity
    • Cumulative emissions and the carbon budget
    • Summary
    • Problems
  16. The solar resource and solar thermal conversion
    • The rated panel and its annual yield
    • From the top of the atmosphere to the ground
    • Collector geometry and tilt
    • The flat-plate collector
    • Concentration and its limit
    • The solar thermal plant
    • Power per unit of land
    • Problems
  17. Wind and water: the physics of a flow through an area
    • The kinetic energy flux of a moving fluid
    • The Betz limit
    • The power curve and the capacity factor
    • Wakes and array spacing
    • Hydroelectric power as a potential energy flux
    • The area yield of hydro, and pumped storage
    • Summary
    • Problems
  18. Wave, tidal and geothermal resources
    • The energy flux of a surface wave
    • The wave resource in national terms
    • The tidal range resource and tidal streams
    • Geothermal power from the flux and the store
    • The renewable flows compared
    • Problems
  19. Fuels: fossil carbon, biomass and fission
    • Specific energy and energy density
    • The thermal power station and its Carnot bound
    • The emissions factor of a fuel
    • Biomass as stored photosynthesis
    • Fission energy density
    • The fuel cycle and carbon capture
    • Problems
  20. Fusion as an energy source: the power balance a reactor must win
    • The deuterium-tritium reaction and the ignition condition
    • The triple product and the gain
    • Wall loading and tritium breeding
    • Fusion in the Part IV table
    • Problems
  21. Storing energy: densities, round trips and what each store is for
    • The four numbers that describe a store
    • Mechanical stores
    • Electrochemical stores
    • The round trip and thermal stores
    • Chemical stores and hydrogen
    • The power-to-energy ratio and the storage requirement
    • Problems
  22. Grids, variable renewables and the electrified system
    • The national demand profile
    • Frequency balance and inertia
    • Transmission losses and high voltage
    • Capacity credit and the three answers to variability
    • Heat pumps and electrification
    • The system account in watts per square metre
    • Summary
    • Problems