Spring 2007
Climate sciences is a young branch of Earth sciences, and you are invited to discover this exciting discipline! We know that climate has natural variability and has changed dramatically in the past. Recent studies of climate change have generated large controversy about the possibility of human induced climate change. Are we entering a period of global warming? What drives the long-term evolution of climate? How does the current climate system work? How can we predict how it will change in the future? The central underlying theme of the class will be the relative roles of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and cryosphere in driving climate variability at different time and space scales. This class will provide a solid understanding for the individual components of climate, and the physical processes taking place in and among these components. We will use both theoretical and observational perspectives to examine the various interactions and to understand how external forcings can alter the climate system.
The format of the class will be primarily lectures, but will also involve short presentations by students on specific subjects.
Class
TuTh, 09:10 am - 10:30 pm
490 INSCC (map)
Instructor
Thomas Reichler
office: 484 INSCC
phone: 585-0040
e-mail: thomas.reichler (at) utah.edu
office hours: after lecture + by appointment + or whenever I am in
Movie "An inconvenient truth" with free pizza at the beginning
Fr 01/26, 2:00-4:00 pm, 110 INSCC
See link for more info.
Required Text
Hartmann, D. (1994): Global Physical Climatology, Academic Press, San Diego.
Corrections to 1st edition [PDF]
Useful Texts
1. Peixoto, J., and A. Oort (1992): Physics of Climate, American Institute of Physics.
2. Houghton, J. T., et al. (eds.) (2001): Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis
(Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge), 881 pp.
[IPCC Working Group I Third Assessment Report].
Out of print, but available on the internet
at this link.
3. McCarthy, J. et al. (eds.) (2001): Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation,
and Vulnerability (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge), 1032 pp.
[IPCC Working Group II Third Assessment Report]
Out of print, but available on the internet
at this link.
4. Metz, B. et al. (eds.) (2001): Climate Change 2001: Mitigation
(Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge), 752 pp.
[IPCC Working Group III Third Assessment Report]
Out of print, but available on the internet
at this link.
5. Holton, J. (2004): An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, 4th edition, Elsevier.
6. Trenberth, K.E., ed. (1992): Climate System Modeling.
7. Wallace, J. M., and P. V. Hobbs (1977): Atmospheric Science,
An Introductory Survey, Academic Press.
8. Houghton, J. (2004): Global Warming.
We will also have selected readings from journal articles that I will let you know about as the semester progresses.
Graduate standing and instructor's consent. The class is aimed primarily at first and second year graduate students in all areas of the earth sciences. Basic knowledge of atmospheric sciences and working knowledge of algebra and calculus will be assumed.
Lecture Notes
I will make available the power point presentation slides after the lecture under the link "Lecture Notes". However, you should be aware that those notes are not meant to be a self contained study material. You need to take your own notes during the lecture and understand the textbook and the papers as the course progresses.
Homework
Homeworks will be assigned on a weekly basis. Check the "Homework" page on the class web page to find your assignments for each week. Homework is usually due every Thursday immeditaley after class. Late homeworks will not be accepted unless you have a pretty good reason. You are encouraged to work in small groups on your homeworks, but make sure you understand what you write down. Each person in the class must turn in an individual written response to the questions.
Grading
Participation in class discussions and raising questions during lecture are strongly encouraged. Grades will be determined from the following formula:
Paper Review and Student Presentations
Each student will be required to give two brief oral presentations (15 minutes) where he presents a specific paper. See the "Paper Review" link for more information. The powerpoint slides for the talk should be sent to me not later than the evening before your talk so that I can download it for presentation and post it on the class web page. This sample (ppt) is a talk that I particularly liked from a previous year's (2005) class.
Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS)
Some of your homework will include the analysis of global gridded data sets in NetCDF-format. This work is most easily done in GrADS, however you can also use your own favorite plotting program (e.g., IDL, Matlab, etc.). Please always hand in your code which you used to plot the problem. Sorry, simply copying somebody else's code is not acceptable.
A good online documentation of GrADS can be found at this link. Also, you might want to print the GrADS Commands Quick Reference Card (pdf) and the Scripting Language Quick Reference Card (pdf).
A GrADS sample script grads_sample.gs and a script to draw colorbars cbarn.gs. can be found at /home/reichler/GRADS/script. You can copy those scripts and use them as basis for your own GrADS code.
Global Gridded NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Data
Some homework problems involve the use of global gridded data, which are located in the following directory: /home/reichler/NNR_monthly/SUBDIRECTORY There is a Readme file (00README), which explains the type and location of the individual files. The reanalysis data are stored in a self describing NetCDF format that can be directly processed by GrADS.
You might also find this electronic Reanalysis Atlas useful.
NOTE: To access the data and to run GrADS you need an account on the computers of the Dept. of Meteorology. If you do not have one, contact our system administrator Bryan White (708A WBB 581-3945, 231-9644 support@met.utah.edu) and ask for an account.