This information is probably useful to casual viewers of this group / list / what have you. It's very elementary in nature.
I've been thinking about the Arctic Ice. This lead me to look up a rather important number that I had forgotten (lack of use). That number is the heat of fusion of water: 6.013 kJ/mol. Each kg of water that melts absorbs about 334 kJ of energy. And each that freezes releases the same amount. The incidence angle of sunlight at the poles is quite low (and non existent in their respective winters). So albedo effects are not nearly what they would be in the tropics. Reason leads me to conclude that the energy that is melting the ice is largely from the convection currents in the oceans. Furthermore, I would expect the rate of melting to accelerate as the surface area to volume ratio increases. Inland ice would have to rely on other sources of energy to melt it. Although any glaciers that have direct access to the sea would get a sizable assist from gravity. Ice flows downhill as the old saying goes. That's a fair amount of energy considering the mass of ice involved. I'm not familiar with the existing climate models. I assume they would take the ice into account as a massive thermal buffer. Another important number for water is the heat of vaporization: 40.63 kJ/mol. Turning a kg of water into vapor would require 2,255 kJ of energy. Some of that vapor would rise to form clouds. The energy that is released during condensation is that much closer to space. I assume the ultimate goal here is to pump heat back into space or prevent it from reaching the ground in the first place. Cloud cover does a fair job of reflecting sunlight back into space. Of course it insulates the ground beneath it too. These facts may lead to some interesting ideas on the use of seawater on a large scale for geoengineering. One just needs to find profitable applications to make it pay for itself. I have a tangential question. Why can't Venus be terraformed? I know the idea borders on fantasy. But why not genetically engineer (or just breed) extremophile Archaea to be seeded in the upper atmosphere of Venus? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
