The Earth System
Edition: 4
Copyright: 2022
Pages: 578
Choose Your Format
Ebook
$92.40
The Earth System is revolutionary in its design because it addresses the issues of global change from a true Earth systems perspective. Lessons from Earth’s past allow students to put such modern global change issues in historical context. The book describes how the Earth system “works” and maintains homeostasis, highlighting those events that provide lessons for the future. It describes the effects of humans on the Earth system, emphasizing the global issues of climate change, ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity. Finally, it concludes by discussing the prospect for life on planets outside the solar system and on Earth in its long-term future.
Now available in an accessible and up-to date format through Kendall Hunt Publishing, the NEW 4th edition of The Earth System:
- Features updated research! The new edition features color images and data / figures based on research through the end of 2021 – including the 2022 IPCC report (which was released in draft form in 2021).
- Is practical! Students can learn first-hand the impact of environmental changes through the coverage of human heat stress, new technologies for reducing CO2 emissions, such as electric vehicles, small modular nuclear reactors, wind and solar power.
- Has been reformatted! Chapters have been added / split to discuss the topics of origin and life amid new research, climate stability on Earth-life planets, exoplanets, and on Earth’s long-term future and the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Is student friendly! To aid the learning process, students are presented with Critical-Thinking Problems to encourage students to synthesize concepts to real-life; Useful Concepts, with in-depth presentations of fundamental concepts from the natural sciences essential to our understanding of the Earth system; and Thinking Quantitatively, which emphasizes how mathematics is used to better understand the workings of the Earth system.
- Is flexible! The new edition includes enough material for two one-semester courses, one of which might focus on the present Earth system and near-term environmental problems; and a second one that might cover longer-term changes in the Earth system and implications for life elsewhere.
Dedication
About the Authors
Preface
PART I. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL CHANGE
Introduction
Global Change on Short Time Scales
A Closer Look: Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger with Time?
A Closer Look: The Discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole
Global Change on Long Time Scales
Thinking Quantitatively: Measuring the Isotopes of Hydrogen
PART II. COMPONENTS OF THE EARTH SYSTEM
CHAPTER TWO: DAISYWORLD: AN INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS
The Systems Approach
Thinking Quantitatively: Stability of Positive Feedback Loops
The Daisyworld Climate System
Useful Concepts: Graphs and Graph Making
External Forcing: The Response of Daisyworld to Increasing Solar Luminosity
CHAPTER THREE: GLOBAL ENERGY BALANCE: THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Introduction
Electromagnetic Radiation
Temperature Scales
Blackbody Radiation
Planetary Energy Balance
A Closer Look: Planetary Energy Balance
Thinking Quantitatively: How the Greenhouse Effect Works: The One-Layer Atmosphere
Atmospheric Composition and Structure
Physical Causes of the Greenhouse Effect
Effect of Clouds on the Atmospheric Radiation Budget
Introduction to Climate Modeling
Climate Feedbacks
CHAPTER FOUR: THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION SYSTEM
The Global Circulatory Subsystems
The Atmospheric Circulation
A Closer Look: The Relationships between Temperature Pressure, ad Volume—The Ideal Gas Law
A Closer Look: How Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) Work
Global Distributions of Temperature and Rainfall
Implications for Global Warming
CHAPTER FIVE: THE CIRCULATION OF OCEANS
Winds and Surface Currents
A Closer Look: Vorticity
The Circulation of the Deep Ocean
A Closer Look: The 1982–1983 and 1997–1998 ENSO Events
A Closer Look: The Salt Content of the Oceans and the Age of Earth
Useful Concepts: Isotopes of Carbon
A Closer Look: Carbon-14—A Radioactive Clock
CHAPTER SIX: THE CYROSPHERE
Introduction
River and Lake Ice, Seasonal Snow Cover, and Permafrost
Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover
Permafrost
Glaciers and Ice Sheets
Glacier Flow
Thinking Quantitatively: Movement of Glaciers
Sea Ice and Climate
CHAPTER SEVEN: CIRCULATION OF THE SOLID EARTH: PLATE TECTONICS
Introduction
Anatomy of Earth
A Closer Look: The Principle of the Seismograph
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Plates and Plate Boundaries
A Closer Look: Deep-Sea Life at Mid-Ocean Ridge Vents
The Physiology of the Solid Earth: What Drives Plate Tectonics?
A Closer Look: Radiometric Age Dating of Geological Materials
Recycling of the Lithosphere: The Rock Cycle
Plate Tectonics Through Earth History
CHAPTER EIGHT: RECYCLING OF THE ELEMENTS: CARBON AND NUTRIENT CYCLES
Systems Approach to the Carbon Cycle
Useful Concepts: The Concept of the Mole
The Short-Term Organic Carbon Cycle
A Closer Look: Oxygen Minimum Zone
The Long-Term Organic Carbon Cycle
The Inorganic Carbon Cycle
Useful Concepts: pH
The Carbonate-Silicate Geochemical Cycle
A Closer Look: Biological Enhancement of Chemical Weathering
Links Between the Organic and Inorganic Carbon Cycle
Phosphorus and Nitrogen Cycles
CHAPTER NINE: FOCUS ON THE BIOTA: METABOLISM, ECOSYSTEMS, AND BIODIVERSITY
Life on Earth
Structure of the Biosphere
Ecosystems
A Closer Look: Physiological versus Ecological Optima for Growth
Biodiversity
Diversity of Interactions
PART III. HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND OF LIFE
CHAPTER TEN: ORIGIN OF THE EARTH
Introduction
Formation of the Solar System
A Closer Look: Determining the Age of the Earth
Formation of the Atmosphere and Ocean
A Modern View of the Prebiotic Atmosphere
A Closer Look: Oxidation of the Atmosphere by Escape of Hydrogen
A Closer Look: Mantle Redox Evolution
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Introduction
A Closer Look: What Does It Mean to be Alive?
The RNA World
A Closer Look: The Compounds of Life
CHAPTER TWELVE: EFFECT OF LIFE ON THE ATMOSPHERE: THE RISE OF OXYGEN AND OZONE
Effect of Life on the Early Atmosphere
The Rise of Oxygen
The Great Oxidation Event
A Closer Look: Mass-Independent Sulfur Isotope Ratios and What They Tell Us About the Rise of Atmospheric O2
Oxygen and Ozone Levels During the Proterozoic Eon
Thinking Quantitatively: Carbon Isotopes and Organic Carbon Burial
Variations in Atmospheric O2 During the Phanerozoic
Modern Controls on Atmospheric O2
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LONG-TERM CLIMATE REGULATION
Introduction
The Faint Young Sun Paradox Revisited
The Long-term Climate Record
Thinking Quantitatively: Energy Balance Modeling of the Snowball Earth
A Closer Look: How Did Life Survive the Snowball Earth?
Variations in Atmospheric CO2 and Climate During the Phanerozoic
A Closer Look: The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIODIVERSITY THROUGH EARTH’S HISTORY
The Fossil Record of Biodiversity
Useful Concepts: Taxonomy
The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction
A Closer Look: Causes of the End-Permian Extinction
Extraterrestrial Influences and Extinction
A Closer Look: The K-T Strangelove Ocean
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS
Geologic Evidence of Pleistocene Glaciation
Milankovitch Cycles
Thinking Quantitatively: Kepler’s Laws
Thinking Quantitatively: Effect of the Sun and Moon on Earth’s Obliquity and Precession
Glacial Climate Feedbacks
A Closer Look: Stochastic Resonance and Rapid Climate Change
PART IV. EFFECT OF HUMANS ON THE EARTH SYSTEM
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART ONE: RECENT CLIMATE AND THE CONCEPT OF RADIATIVE FORCING
Introduction
Holocene Climate Change
Carbon Reservoirs and Fluxes
A Closer Look: Three-Dimensional General Circulation Models
CO2 Removal Processes and Time Scales
Other Trace Gases and Total Radiative Forcing
A Closer Look: The Chemistry of CO2 Uptake
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART TWO: FUTURE CLIMATE PROJECTIONS AND IMPACTS
Introduction
Projections of Future Radiative Forcing and Climate
Changes in Sea Level
A Closer Look: Measurements of Polar Ice Mass Loss Made by the GRACE Mission
Human Heat Stress
Additional Human Impacts of Global Warming
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: STRATEGIES FOR SLOWING GLOBAL WARMING
Introduction
Past Policies to Slow Global Warming
Electricity Production in the United States
Reducing CO2 Emissions from Transportation
Dealing with Other CO2 Sources
Specific Climate Policies that Might Be Adopted
CHAPTER NINETEEN: OZONE DEPLETION
Introduction
Ultraviolet Radiation and Its Biological Effects
Ozone Vertical Distribution and Column Depth
The Chapman Mechanism
Catalytic Cycles of Nitrogen, Chlorine, and Bromine
Sources and Sinks of Ozone Depleting Compounds
The Antarctic Ozone Hole
A Closer Look: How the Link between Freons and Ozone Depletion Was Discovered
Evidence of Midlatitude Ozone Depletion
Mechanisms for Halting Ozone Depletion
CHAPTER TWENTY: HUMAN THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY
Introduction
The Modern Extinction
A Closer Look: Other Consequences of Tropical Deforestation
Why We Should Care About Biodiversity
APPENDIX A: UNITS AND UNIT CONVERSIONS
APPENDIX B: TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS
APPENDIX C: PERIODIC TABLE
APPENDIX D: USEFUL FACTS
GLOSSARY
INDEX
James Kasting is an Evan Pugh Professor at Penn State University, where he holds joint appointments in the Departments of Geosciences and in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. He earned an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1979. Prior to coming to Penn State in 1988, he spent 2 years at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and 7 years in the Space Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center south of San Francisco. His research focuses on the evolution of planetary atmospheres and climates and on the question of whether life might exist on planets around other stars. In 2018, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. His semi-popular book, How to Find a Habitable Planet (Princeton University Press), was published in 2010.
Lee R. Kump is Professor of Geosciences and John Leone Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He received his A.B. degree with honors in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 1981 and his Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of South Florida in 1986. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Geosciences at Penn State since 1986. Besides The Earth System, he has co-authored Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change with Michael Mann, now in its second edition, and Mathematical Modeling in the Geosciences: A Primer with Rudy Slingerland. He has published over 150 refereed papers and book chapters on a wide range of Earth science topics and given numerous keynote and invited talks to universities and scientific societies. Kump is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the Geological Society of London. He received the Distinguished Service Medal from the Geological Society of America in 2000 and the Robert M. Garrels award of the Geobiology Society in 2017, was the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus of the University of South Florida, and is a member of Sigma Xi. His research has been featured in documentaries that have aired on NOVA Science Now, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC, Australian Broadcast Corporation, and the History Channel.
Robert Crane is Associate Vice Provost Emeritus at The Pennsylvania State University. He was professor of Geography, joining the faculty in 1985, following a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder Colorado. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Reading, England, and his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder. At Penn State, he served as the Associate Dean and interim Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 1993-2007, and as Director of the Alliance for Education, Science Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA) from 2007 to 2015. His research interests are in climate change and variability with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, where he has a long-term collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG). He has published extensively on the microwave remote sensing of sea ice; sea ice-climate interactions, climate downscaling; and regional-scale climate change assessment.
The Earth System is revolutionary in its design because it addresses the issues of global change from a true Earth systems perspective. Lessons from Earth’s past allow students to put such modern global change issues in historical context. The book describes how the Earth system “works” and maintains homeostasis, highlighting those events that provide lessons for the future. It describes the effects of humans on the Earth system, emphasizing the global issues of climate change, ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity. Finally, it concludes by discussing the prospect for life on planets outside the solar system and on Earth in its long-term future.
Now available in an accessible and up-to date format through Kendall Hunt Publishing, the NEW 4th edition of The Earth System:
- Features updated research! The new edition features color images and data / figures based on research through the end of 2021 – including the 2022 IPCC report (which was released in draft form in 2021).
- Is practical! Students can learn first-hand the impact of environmental changes through the coverage of human heat stress, new technologies for reducing CO2 emissions, such as electric vehicles, small modular nuclear reactors, wind and solar power.
- Has been reformatted! Chapters have been added / split to discuss the topics of origin and life amid new research, climate stability on Earth-life planets, exoplanets, and on Earth’s long-term future and the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Is student friendly! To aid the learning process, students are presented with Critical-Thinking Problems to encourage students to synthesize concepts to real-life; Useful Concepts, with in-depth presentations of fundamental concepts from the natural sciences essential to our understanding of the Earth system; and Thinking Quantitatively, which emphasizes how mathematics is used to better understand the workings of the Earth system.
- Is flexible! The new edition includes enough material for two one-semester courses, one of which might focus on the present Earth system and near-term environmental problems; and a second one that might cover longer-term changes in the Earth system and implications for life elsewhere.
Dedication
About the Authors
Preface
PART I. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL CHANGE
Introduction
Global Change on Short Time Scales
A Closer Look: Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger with Time?
A Closer Look: The Discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole
Global Change on Long Time Scales
Thinking Quantitatively: Measuring the Isotopes of Hydrogen
PART II. COMPONENTS OF THE EARTH SYSTEM
CHAPTER TWO: DAISYWORLD: AN INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS
The Systems Approach
Thinking Quantitatively: Stability of Positive Feedback Loops
The Daisyworld Climate System
Useful Concepts: Graphs and Graph Making
External Forcing: The Response of Daisyworld to Increasing Solar Luminosity
CHAPTER THREE: GLOBAL ENERGY BALANCE: THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Introduction
Electromagnetic Radiation
Temperature Scales
Blackbody Radiation
Planetary Energy Balance
A Closer Look: Planetary Energy Balance
Thinking Quantitatively: How the Greenhouse Effect Works: The One-Layer Atmosphere
Atmospheric Composition and Structure
Physical Causes of the Greenhouse Effect
Effect of Clouds on the Atmospheric Radiation Budget
Introduction to Climate Modeling
Climate Feedbacks
CHAPTER FOUR: THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION SYSTEM
The Global Circulatory Subsystems
The Atmospheric Circulation
A Closer Look: The Relationships between Temperature Pressure, ad Volume—The Ideal Gas Law
A Closer Look: How Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) Work
Global Distributions of Temperature and Rainfall
Implications for Global Warming
CHAPTER FIVE: THE CIRCULATION OF OCEANS
Winds and Surface Currents
A Closer Look: Vorticity
The Circulation of the Deep Ocean
A Closer Look: The 1982–1983 and 1997–1998 ENSO Events
A Closer Look: The Salt Content of the Oceans and the Age of Earth
Useful Concepts: Isotopes of Carbon
A Closer Look: Carbon-14—A Radioactive Clock
CHAPTER SIX: THE CYROSPHERE
Introduction
River and Lake Ice, Seasonal Snow Cover, and Permafrost
Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover
Permafrost
Glaciers and Ice Sheets
Glacier Flow
Thinking Quantitatively: Movement of Glaciers
Sea Ice and Climate
CHAPTER SEVEN: CIRCULATION OF THE SOLID EARTH: PLATE TECTONICS
Introduction
Anatomy of Earth
A Closer Look: The Principle of the Seismograph
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Plates and Plate Boundaries
A Closer Look: Deep-Sea Life at Mid-Ocean Ridge Vents
The Physiology of the Solid Earth: What Drives Plate Tectonics?
A Closer Look: Radiometric Age Dating of Geological Materials
Recycling of the Lithosphere: The Rock Cycle
Plate Tectonics Through Earth History
CHAPTER EIGHT: RECYCLING OF THE ELEMENTS: CARBON AND NUTRIENT CYCLES
Systems Approach to the Carbon Cycle
Useful Concepts: The Concept of the Mole
The Short-Term Organic Carbon Cycle
A Closer Look: Oxygen Minimum Zone
The Long-Term Organic Carbon Cycle
The Inorganic Carbon Cycle
Useful Concepts: pH
The Carbonate-Silicate Geochemical Cycle
A Closer Look: Biological Enhancement of Chemical Weathering
Links Between the Organic and Inorganic Carbon Cycle
Phosphorus and Nitrogen Cycles
CHAPTER NINE: FOCUS ON THE BIOTA: METABOLISM, ECOSYSTEMS, AND BIODIVERSITY
Life on Earth
Structure of the Biosphere
Ecosystems
A Closer Look: Physiological versus Ecological Optima for Growth
Biodiversity
Diversity of Interactions
PART III. HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND OF LIFE
CHAPTER TEN: ORIGIN OF THE EARTH
Introduction
Formation of the Solar System
A Closer Look: Determining the Age of the Earth
Formation of the Atmosphere and Ocean
A Modern View of the Prebiotic Atmosphere
A Closer Look: Oxidation of the Atmosphere by Escape of Hydrogen
A Closer Look: Mantle Redox Evolution
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Introduction
A Closer Look: What Does It Mean to be Alive?
The RNA World
A Closer Look: The Compounds of Life
CHAPTER TWELVE: EFFECT OF LIFE ON THE ATMOSPHERE: THE RISE OF OXYGEN AND OZONE
Effect of Life on the Early Atmosphere
The Rise of Oxygen
The Great Oxidation Event
A Closer Look: Mass-Independent Sulfur Isotope Ratios and What They Tell Us About the Rise of Atmospheric O2
Oxygen and Ozone Levels During the Proterozoic Eon
Thinking Quantitatively: Carbon Isotopes and Organic Carbon Burial
Variations in Atmospheric O2 During the Phanerozoic
Modern Controls on Atmospheric O2
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LONG-TERM CLIMATE REGULATION
Introduction
The Faint Young Sun Paradox Revisited
The Long-term Climate Record
Thinking Quantitatively: Energy Balance Modeling of the Snowball Earth
A Closer Look: How Did Life Survive the Snowball Earth?
Variations in Atmospheric CO2 and Climate During the Phanerozoic
A Closer Look: The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIODIVERSITY THROUGH EARTH’S HISTORY
The Fossil Record of Biodiversity
Useful Concepts: Taxonomy
The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction
A Closer Look: Causes of the End-Permian Extinction
Extraterrestrial Influences and Extinction
A Closer Look: The K-T Strangelove Ocean
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS
Geologic Evidence of Pleistocene Glaciation
Milankovitch Cycles
Thinking Quantitatively: Kepler’s Laws
Thinking Quantitatively: Effect of the Sun and Moon on Earth’s Obliquity and Precession
Glacial Climate Feedbacks
A Closer Look: Stochastic Resonance and Rapid Climate Change
PART IV. EFFECT OF HUMANS ON THE EARTH SYSTEM
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART ONE: RECENT CLIMATE AND THE CONCEPT OF RADIATIVE FORCING
Introduction
Holocene Climate Change
Carbon Reservoirs and Fluxes
A Closer Look: Three-Dimensional General Circulation Models
CO2 Removal Processes and Time Scales
Other Trace Gases and Total Radiative Forcing
A Closer Look: The Chemistry of CO2 Uptake
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART TWO: FUTURE CLIMATE PROJECTIONS AND IMPACTS
Introduction
Projections of Future Radiative Forcing and Climate
Changes in Sea Level
A Closer Look: Measurements of Polar Ice Mass Loss Made by the GRACE Mission
Human Heat Stress
Additional Human Impacts of Global Warming
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: STRATEGIES FOR SLOWING GLOBAL WARMING
Introduction
Past Policies to Slow Global Warming
Electricity Production in the United States
Reducing CO2 Emissions from Transportation
Dealing with Other CO2 Sources
Specific Climate Policies that Might Be Adopted
CHAPTER NINETEEN: OZONE DEPLETION
Introduction
Ultraviolet Radiation and Its Biological Effects
Ozone Vertical Distribution and Column Depth
The Chapman Mechanism
Catalytic Cycles of Nitrogen, Chlorine, and Bromine
Sources and Sinks of Ozone Depleting Compounds
The Antarctic Ozone Hole
A Closer Look: How the Link between Freons and Ozone Depletion Was Discovered
Evidence of Midlatitude Ozone Depletion
Mechanisms for Halting Ozone Depletion
CHAPTER TWENTY: HUMAN THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY
Introduction
The Modern Extinction
A Closer Look: Other Consequences of Tropical Deforestation
Why We Should Care About Biodiversity
APPENDIX A: UNITS AND UNIT CONVERSIONS
APPENDIX B: TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS
APPENDIX C: PERIODIC TABLE
APPENDIX D: USEFUL FACTS
GLOSSARY
INDEX
James Kasting is an Evan Pugh Professor at Penn State University, where he holds joint appointments in the Departments of Geosciences and in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. He earned an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1979. Prior to coming to Penn State in 1988, he spent 2 years at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and 7 years in the Space Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center south of San Francisco. His research focuses on the evolution of planetary atmospheres and climates and on the question of whether life might exist on planets around other stars. In 2018, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. His semi-popular book, How to Find a Habitable Planet (Princeton University Press), was published in 2010.
Lee R. Kump is Professor of Geosciences and John Leone Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He received his A.B. degree with honors in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 1981 and his Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of South Florida in 1986. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Geosciences at Penn State since 1986. Besides The Earth System, he has co-authored Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change with Michael Mann, now in its second edition, and Mathematical Modeling in the Geosciences: A Primer with Rudy Slingerland. He has published over 150 refereed papers and book chapters on a wide range of Earth science topics and given numerous keynote and invited talks to universities and scientific societies. Kump is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the Geological Society of London. He received the Distinguished Service Medal from the Geological Society of America in 2000 and the Robert M. Garrels award of the Geobiology Society in 2017, was the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus of the University of South Florida, and is a member of Sigma Xi. His research has been featured in documentaries that have aired on NOVA Science Now, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC, Australian Broadcast Corporation, and the History Channel.
Robert Crane is Associate Vice Provost Emeritus at The Pennsylvania State University. He was professor of Geography, joining the faculty in 1985, following a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder Colorado. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Reading, England, and his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder. At Penn State, he served as the Associate Dean and interim Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 1993-2007, and as Director of the Alliance for Education, Science Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA) from 2007 to 2015. His research interests are in climate change and variability with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, where he has a long-term collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG). He has published extensively on the microwave remote sensing of sea ice; sea ice-climate interactions, climate downscaling; and regional-scale climate change assessment.