Radiation and Climate

Catalog description

Elements of earth-sun geometry, radiative transfer, photochemistry, remote sensing of the atmosphere, physical climatology, climate forcing. METEO 436 Radiation and Climate (3)This course covers radiation and how it interacts with the atmosphere and earth's surface to drive motions in the atmosphere. The fundamentals of radiative transfer at the molecular level, including absorption, scattering, transmission, and emission of radiation by matter, are discussed and applied to help describe the earth's energy budget. Crucial to understanding these processes in the atmosphere are the interactions of radiation with water in the vapor, liquid, and solid states. Applications of radiative transfer to the understanding of seasons and of climate and climate change are presented as well.