[thedoc (OP)]

Nathan Haas asked the Naked Scientists:
   
I've heard that global warming is expected to cause expansion of the oceans, but I haven't heard if there is expected to be a significant expansion of the atmosphere as well.  Should the warming be localized at the surface without much impact to the upper atmosphere and overall volume, or can we expect significant expansion and possibly an increased loss of the upper atmosphere to space?  Could a loss of atmosphere produce a noticeable evaporative cooling effect, or would the earth warm up even faster from increased solar radiation?

Thanks for all you do and keep up the good work

Nathan,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

p.s. My local government tells me that global warming doesn't exist, so obviously we won't be affected here, but I'm still curious about what people who live in the real world will experience
What do you think?

[Tim the Plumber]

Yes, but not so anybody will notice. It might be of slight accademic interest.

[yor_on]

Radiation goes primarily into the ocean, which then becomes our biggest 'heat sink', then land. The atmosphere will warm up and with that you should be able to expect a 'expansion' but as it only are few (2- 5?) degrees Celsius we're taking of I don't think we will notice it much over a whole planet. although there might be regions that will heat up much more locally. Maybe we will lose a little more atmosphere to space, it seems reasonable to me at first sight. It's the 'heat sinks' that will accelerate global warming, combined with the way we seem to produce more and more CO2, no matter what we tell each other. But no, losing atmosphere is about the highest layers having the least kinetic energy so the heat transport isn't that big to space. Normally there exist a equilibrium between the heat produced by the sun Earth etc, and space, but for the moment that balance isn't there, due to us

[tkadm30]

Ozone depletion is caused by man-made global warming. A decrease in atmospheric ozone is correlated to higher temperatures and CO2 levels.

[Tim the Plumber]

Ozone depletion is caused by man-made global warming. A decrease in atmospheric ozone is correlated to higher temperatures and CO2 levels.

During past times when the earth was considerably warmer was there a lack of ozone which caused the surface to be exposed to intense UV?