Adv Top in Atmosphere

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental principles underlying climate dynamics and change. The course is primarily lecture oriented but with a numerical laboratory component. Lectures focus on introducing the main concepts of atmosphere/ocean dynamics while a limited set of numerical experiments reinforce the material presented in the lectures. Classical models in climate dynamics are presented, in additional discussion on more recent advances. Topics include radiative convective equilibrium, energy balance, and simple stochastic climate models. Throughout the lectures, the interplay between observational, theoretical, and modeling approaches toward the understanding of climate dynamics is highlighted. The laboratory component involves a technical introduction and a series of numerical experiments with the models that also forms part of the assignments. Assignments also explore the theoretical basis for the models studied.