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Erl Happ has started his new blog, which is well worth a read by any student of meteorology, climate and atmospheric science.
From the outset let me say that my investigations suggest that the ‘Greenhouse Effect’ is not something that we have to contend with in atmospheric reality. There is another mode of climate change that appears to be responsible for the change in the temperature of the globe over the period of record. That mode of change is capable of explaining variations in both the short and long term in both directions, both warming and cooling . It can explain warming in one place and simultaneous cooling in another. In short it is very well adapted to explain the climate changes that we observe from daily through to centennial time scales ……. and to do so, exclusively and completely.
Geopotential height is a measure of the elevation of a pressure level in the atmosphere. Low heights indicate low pressure zones where the lower atmosphere is dense and cool. High heights indicate…
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Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Looks interesting
@Erl Happ; Read your dissertation and find it very plausible as the explanation for the development of high and low pressure areas in the atmosphere. One small thing, The cause of the changes in the amount of Ozone. I have often felt that standard explanation for the creation of high and low pressure areas was defective. How does changes in the amount of Ozone Cause these pressure changes?
Back in the early days of high atmospheric Ozone and Ozone holes, the cause of the depletion was thought to be the sunless cold. Then the present Ecoloons jumped on the Theory that man made Chlorinated hydrocarbons was the cause of Ozone depletion. It appears to me that the amount of Ozone created and destroyed is directly tied to the energy levels in the atomic/molecular oxygen. O3 carries more energy, is more dense then O2 and occupies less space as a molecule, …pg
I am aware that ozone creates the tropopause by reversing the lapse rate gradient above that point so that convection in the tropopause can rise no further.
However, I’m not aware of ozone in the troposphere as having any effect on the formation of low or high pressure cells in the way that Erl suggests.
Changing the amount of ozone in the stratosphere will indeed warm the stratosphere and lower the tropopause or cool the stratosphere and raise the tropopause but the convective cells beneath the tropopause come and go or wax and wane solely as a result of uneven surface heating causing density differentials in the horizontal plane which then leads to convective overturning between surface and tropopause.
Erl seems to be saying that ozone in the upper portion of the tropopause controls the formation of high and low pressure cells in the lower part of the tropopause rather than uneven surface heating.
Is that really what Erl is suggesting ?
Hi Guys, I was not aware that comments were posted here. Glad to join you, if belatedly.
PG, I don’t think that there is really much mystery about ozone creates low pressure zones. In high latitudes ozone is present in the atmospheric column between 500 hPa (half way) and the limits of the mesosphere but practically speaking up to 10 hPa that takes in 99% of the atmosphere. Such is the rate of interception of long wave radiation from the Earth by ozone that the upper portion is held in a state of continuous low density…lots of kinetic energy there….sufficient in fact to more than counteract the fact that the lower half of the column is very cold and dense. The consequent reduction in surface atmospheric pressure establishes a localized planetary minimum in surface pressure that persists all year round with a trough in September/October when ozone partial pressure outside the vortex peaks.
Add to that the 15 hPa decline in surface pressure over Antarctica……well, what can be responsible for that but an increase in ozone partial pressure? Add to that the dramatic temperature increase at 10 hPa over Antarctica between 1948 and 1976-8…..and its maintenance at high levels ever since. The evidence is so abundant that it can not be ignored.
You must appreciate that ozone reaches a marked peak in concentration in the winter hemisphere due to low levels of photolysis in winter. See the maps here: http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/gmd/jra/jra25_atlas/eng/indexe_column1.htm
That the ozone concentration in the winter hemisphere depends upon the mixing of mesospheric air is indicated by the fact that the peak is in September/October, rather than in July at the height of the polar night when the pressure of photolysis on the Ozone molecule is least.
Stephen you write: However, I’m not aware of ozone in the troposphere as having any effect on the formation of low or high pressure cells in the way that Erl suggests.
I don’t suggest that. Ozone does not have to be in the troposphere to cause low surface pressure.
Forget about what is troposphere and stratosphere and consider a column of air that has ozone in the upper level. The lowest surface pressure recorded on the planet (apart from a tropical cyclone) is found at 60-70° south latitude. What could cause pressure to be so low there? Remember that the lower portion of that same atmospheric column is about as cold and dense as the air gets, anywhere.
Consider a column of air retained in a glass cylinder that has an open top, The base of this cylinder sits at the surface of the Earth. The top is beyond the limits of the atmosphere in space. If one heats that atmospheric column surface pressure can not change because the air simply rises up the column and can not escape from it.. Truncate the column so that some atmosphere can escape as its rises up the column and atmospheric pressure measured at the base of the column will fall. That heating can occur anywhere in the column. In the Earth’s atmosphere it occurs in the upper portion. The fraction of the whole that is heated by ozone increases between the Equator and the pole so the scope for escape increases with latitude. Ozone partial pressure increases in winter and is greatest in spring. It is in spring that the lowest surface pressure is recorded.
PG Re your statement: Back in the early days of high atmospheric Ozone and Ozone holes, the cause of the depletion was thought to be the sunless cold. Then the present Ecoloons jumped on the Theory that man made Chlorinated hydrocarbons was the cause of Ozone depletion.
Well said. My interpretation too. The sunless cold and the strength of the overturning circulation driven by an ozone peak in September-October brings a narrow tongue of mesospheric air deep into the polar atmosphere…..veritably the hole in the doh-nut. These Ecoloons choose to see the hole, not the do-nut and they have no idea what that do-nut is doing to the atmospheric circulation to create the hole.
Re: It appears to me that the amount of Ozone created and destroyed is directly tied to the energy levels in the atomic/molecular oxygen. O3 carries more energy, is more dense then O2 and occupies less space as a molecule, …pg
There you have lost me. My theory is that creation is a matter of the intensity of short wave radiation and the density of atoms of oxygen running around seeking electrical neutrality. Once formed the ozone molecule is at the mercy of somewhat longer wave lengths that break it apart. The pressure of photolysis of the ozone molecule depends upon the length of the path through the atmosphere that these destructive wave lengths have to travel. As the path gets longer the energy available is simply ‘used up’ just as a torch gets dimmer as the batteries fade. So, at the poles the ozone molecules get a slight reprieve and their life is longer. That enables an increase in concentration. When you look at the polar circulation there is always a hole in the circle that would result from that process. Ozone aggregates in columns of ascending air creating intense convection in the stratosphere. Mesospheric air populates the ‘hole’ and tends to escape through the gap thus created into the wider atmosphere. It brings NOx that is responsible for the destruction of ozone.
It follows that ozone levels in the substantial part of the do-nut rise and fall with the flux in the flow of mesospheric air into the wider atmosphere.