Environmental Physics

Preface xiii
 
Acknowledgements xv
 
1 Introduction 1
 
1.1 A Sustainable Energy Supply 1
 
1.2 The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change 3
 
1.3 Light Absorption in Nature as a Source of Energy 4
 
1.4 The Contribution of Science: Understanding, Modelling and Monitoring 5
 
2 Light and Matter 7
 
2.1 The Solar Spectrum 7
 
2.1.1 Radiation from a Black Body 7
 
2.1.2 Emission Spectrum of the Sun 9
 
2.2 Interaction of Light with Matter 12
 
2.2.1 Electric Dipole Moments of Transitions 12
 
2.2.2 Einstein Coefficients 14
 
2.2.3 Absorption of a Beam of Light: Lambert-Beer's Law 16
 
2.3 Ultraviolet Light and Biomolecules 19
 
2.3.1 Spectroscopy of Biomolecules 20
 
2.3.2 Damage to Life from Solar UV 21
 
2.3.3 The Ozone Filter as Protection 22
 
3 Climate and Climate Change 31
 
3.1 The Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere 32
 
3.2 The Radiation Balance and the Greenhouse Effect 36
 
3.3 Dynamics in the Climate System 51
 
3.3.1 Horizontal Motion of Air 53
 
3.3.2 Vertical Motion of Ocean Waters 58
 
3.3.3 Horizontal Motion of Ocean Waters 59
 
3.4 Natural Climate Variability 59
 
3.5 Modelling Human-Induced Climate Change 62
 
3.5.1 The Carbon Cycle 63
 
3.5.2 Structure of Climate Modelling 66
 
3.5.3 Modelling the Atmosphere 67
 
3.5.4 A Hierarchy of Models 70
 
3.6 Analyses of IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 70
 
3.7 Forecasts of Climate Change 70
 
4 Heat Engines 77
 
4.1 Heat Transfer and Storage 78
 
4.1.1 Conduction 79
 
4.1.2 Convection 82
 
4.1.3 Radiation 82
 
4.1.4 Phase Change 83
 
4.1.5 The Solar Collector 84
 
4.1.6 The Heat Diffusion Equation 87
 
4.1.7 Heat Storage 90
 
4.2 Principles of Thermodynamics 91
 
4.2.1 First and Second

Egbert Boekeris a retired Professor from the Free University of Amsterdam with a career in which he taught virtually all of the undergraduate courses in physics.
 
Rienk van Grondelle is a Professor in the Department of Biophysics and Physics of Complex Systems at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is performing research in biophysics and teaching not only to physics students but also to biology students. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.