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Informationen zum Autor 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. Klappentext Environmental Physics, Third Edition serves as an introduction to physics in the context of societal problems such as energy supply, pollution, climate change and finite resources of fossil fuels and uranium. The emphasis of this text is on physics, i.e. the concepts and principles that help in understanding the ways to produce energy efficiently or to mitigate climate change. Extra attention is given to photosynthesis due to its importance in the field of renewable energy.This thoroughly revised and updated third edition focuses on the utilization of sustainable energy and mitigating climate change. The text explains the physical mechanisms behind climate change and discusses the physics of renewable energy options. Nuclear power is treated in a separate chapter because of its social and political importance. In the final chapter political and social aspects of 'renewable energy and climate change' are reviewed.A distinguishing feature of the text is the discussion of spectroscopy and spectroscopic methods, again from basic concepts, as a crucial means to quantitatively analyze and monitor the condition of the environment, the factors determining climate change and all aspects of energy conversion.This textbook will be invaluable to students in physics and related subjects such as physical chemistry and geophysics. It assumes a basic knowledge in physics and mathematics, and all equations are derived from first principles and explained in a physical way.Supplementary material including sections from earlier editions of this book, a description of environmental experiments for a student's labs and computer codes to expand some of the books' content are available from www.few.vu.nl/environmentalphysics Zusammenfassung * An introduction to physics in the context of societal problems as energy, pollution, climate change and finite resources of fossil fuels and uranium. * Emphasis in the book will be on physics, on the concepts and principles that help in understanding the ways to produce energy or to mitigate climate change. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface xiiiAcknowledgements xv1 Introduction 11.1 A Sustainable Energy Supply 11.2 The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change 31.3 Light Absorption in Nature as a Source of Energy 41.4 The Contribution of Science: Understanding, Modelling and Monitoring 52 Light and Matter 72.1 The Solar Spectrum 72.1.1 Radiation from a Black Body 72.1.2 Emission Spectrum of the Sun 92.2 Interaction of Light with Matter 122.2.1 Electric Dipole Moments of Transitions 122.2.2 Einstein Coefficients 142.2.3 Absorption of a Beam of Light: Lambert-Beer's Law 162.3 Ultraviolet Light and Biomolecules 192.3.1 Spectroscopy of Biomolecules 202.3.2 Damage to Life from Solar UV 212.3.3 The Ozone Filter as Protection 223 Climate and Climate Change 313.1 The Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere 323.2 The Radiation Balance and the Greenhouse Effect 363.3 Dynamics in the Climate System 513.3.1 Horizontal Motion of Air 533.3.2 Vertical Motion of Ocean Waters 583.3.3 Horizontal Motion of Ocean Waters 593.4 Natural Climate Variability 593.5 Modelling Human-Induced Climate Change 623.5.1 The Carbon Cycle 633.5.2 Structure of Climate Modelling 663.5.3 Modelling the Atmosphere 673.5.4 A Hierarchy of Models 703.6 Analyses of IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 703.7 Forecasts of Climate Change 704 H...
