Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat

re: The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat
gbaikie — (archived)

The mass of Earth's atmosphere: 5.1 x 10^18 kg
Or 5.1 x 10^15 tonnes
Or 5,100,000,000,000,000 tonnes

What affect would there be if last year Earth lost 1 billion tonnes of atmosphere?
None. Our temperature wouldn't change, and the pressure wouldn't change, and the ocean wouldn't evaporate any faster. Nor would make any noticeable different if we lost a billion tonnes per year for last 10 years, though if this happened for a thousand years:

1,000,000,000,000 tonnes as compared to:

5,100,000,000,000,000 tonnes than you might have something noticeable. A small effect.

Or you could 10 billion tonnes lost per year for 100 year and also get 1.0 x 10^12 tonnes.
Or 20 billion tonnes per year for 50 year. One could get a small effect- probably not easily measured, but *maybe* it might be measurable, maybe one could get as much as .1 C change.

Now if earth lost 1/1000th of this amount: 1 million tonnes per year [1.0 x 10^6 tonnes] for a billion years [1.0 x 10^9] one would lose a about 1/5th the Earth's atmosphere during this time. And in 2-3 billion years lose about 1/2 of Earth atmosphere.
It's probably safe to say that Earth on averages loses 1 million tonnes or less per year- at least in regard to net losses.
So, therefore if Earth is currently losing say 20 billion tonnes per year, that would be at least a 20,000 times increase in rate in compares to Earth's possible average rate. And at that rates loses 1/2 the Earth's atmosphere in 1/20,000th of 2-3 billion years [around 100,000 years].

So with that is mind how much atmosphere do you imagine Earth is losing? And I think the bigger problem than temperature changes would losing the entire atmosphere within a relatively short time.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (65 posts)