The Atmosphere and Climate Modeling - Introduction to Carbon Capture and Sequestration - page 48

Section 1
Introduction

In the next chapters, we focus on the climate and the carbon cycle.
These topics are not directly related to the science and technology of
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Yet, it is exactly these two
fi elds that make the scientifi c case for why we have to be concerned
about future CO 2 levels. These topics are much discussed in the media,
and it is our experience that discussions about CCS inevitably invite
questions about climate change. We therefore include this topic in our
CSS book. Lectures given by two of our colleagues, Professors Ron
Cohen and William Collins, on the atmosphere and on climate modeling,
respectively, along with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) reports, provide the basis for the material presented in this
chapter.

Section 2
The earth with and without
an atmosphere

We can do a very simple calculation to illustrate the role of the atmos-
phere in controlling the temperature of the surface of the earth. The earth
receives its energy from the sun. The amount of energy is given by
Stefan-Boltzmann's law , which relates the energy of a radiating body J
to its surface temperature:

Sun

JT =σ