Climate Dynamics (METEO 470, 3 credits)

Course Syllabus for Spring 2017

Instructor: Michael E. Mann, Department of Meteorology, 514 Walker Building, mann@psu.edu (office hours: Wed 1:00-2:15 PM)

TA: Dandan Wei, 410 Walker Building, dzw153@psu.edu (office hours: Th 1:30-3:30 PM)

Meeting Time/Place: Tu/Th 10:35-11:50 AM (107 Sackett)

Office Hours: You are encouraged to use email for questions when possible. You are welcome to visit my office for questions during scheduled office hours (Wed 1:00-2:15 PM), or by appointment.

Motivation:

In order to under and model the climate system, we need to understand the balance of energy within the climate system as well as the dynamics of the underlying components of the climate system, including the atmosphere and ocean, and the mechanisms by which these components may be coupled. Topics discussed will include global energy balance, including zero and one-dimensional models of radiative equilibrium, the role of the ocean circulation including the thermohaline and wind-driven components, the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), internal and forced climate variability, and climate change.

Prerequisites: Meteo 300, Meteo 421, and Meteo 431

You are expected to be familiar with the governing equations (momentum and energy conservation, continuity, and equation of state) of the atmosphere on a sphere.

It is also assumed that you have satisfied the statistics requirement for the Meteorology major and therefore are familiar with basic statistical concepts including linear regression.

Webpage

We will regularly draw upon the course homepage as a resource for the course:

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~mann/Mann/courses/METEO470SPR17/index.html

Aside from links to the course syllabus, there will be links to the readings, problem sets, slides from the lectures, and other course-related materials.

Lectures

Attendance of all lectures is expected. You are strongly encouraged to ask questions and participate constructively in class. Copies of slides from the lectures will usually be made available electronically through the course website before or shortly following the lecture.

Textbook

There is no required textbook. Some students might find Peixoto & Oort “Physics of Climate” a useful reference (it has been placed on reserve in the EMS library).

Supplementary readings from various sources will be posted on the course website.

Grading

Problem Sets (50%): There will be 5 problem sets assigned that will involve applications of topics covered in class. You may discuss the problems with each other, but the problem set you turn in should reflect your own individual effort. We will frequently make use MATLAB for assignments (MATLAB is available on the Meteorology Computer Lab Computers)

Mid-Term Exam (20%): There will be an in-class mid-term examination roughly mid-way through the semester (Feb 23).

Final Exam (30%): There will a final examination for the course at the scheduled time and date.

Grade Scale: A: 92-100%; A-: 88-91%; B+: 84-87%; B: 80-83%; B-: 75-79%; C+: 71-74%; C: 63-70%; D: 50-62%; F: <50%

Lecture Schedule (tentative and subject to change):

	DATE	LECTURE TOPIC	ASSIGNMENT
1	T Jan 10	Introduction
		Module 1: Climate Data and Statistics
2	R Jan 12	Normal Distribution	PS1 Assigned
3	T Jan 17	Autocorrelation
4	R Jan 19	Regression-Trends
5	T Jan 24	Regression-Statistical Modeling
		Module 2: Zero-Dimensional Energy Balance Model
6	R Jan 26	Global Energy Balance; Greenhouse Effect
G1	T Jan 31	Guest Lecture: Climate and Tropical Cyclones (Jenni Evans)
G2	R Feb 2	Guest Lecture: Ice Sheets & Climate (David Pollard)	PS1 Due
G3	T Feb 7	Guest Lecture: Earth's Early Climate (James Kasting)
G4	R Feb 9	Guest Lecture: Climate Change in West Africa (Greg Jenkins)
7	T Feb 14	Modeling Historical Temperature Changes and Climate Sensitivity	PS2 Assigned
8	R Feb 16	Projecting Future Warming
		Module 3: One-Dimensional Energy Balance Model
9	T Feb 21	Meridional energy balance
	R Feb 23	Mid-term
10	T Feb 28	Atmospheric heat transport	PS2 Due
11	R Mar 2	Snowball Earth; Hysteresis	PS3 Assigned
	T Mar 7	No Class [Spring Break]
	R Mar 9	No Class [Spring Break]
	T Mar 14	No Class
	R Mar 16	No Class
		Module 4: Role of Ocean Circulation
12	T Mar 21	The Stommel Box Model of the AMOC	PS3 Due; PS4 Assigned
13	R Mar 23	“The Day After Tomorrow”; The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
14	T Mar 28	Stommel Model of Ocean Gyre
15	R Mar 30	Ocean Gyres and Heat Transport; The Pacific Decadal Oscillation
		Module 5: El Nino/Southern Oscillation
16	T Apr 4	ENSO basics	PS4 Due; PS5 Assigned
17	R Apr 6	The Delayed-Oscillator Model
18	T Apr 11	The Cane-Zebiak Model
19	R Apr 13	Climate Change & El Nino
		Module 6: Climate Modeling and Climate Change
20	T Apr 18	Three-Dimensional Coupled Climate Models	PS5 Due; PS6 Assigned
21	R Apr 20	Anthropogenic Climate Change
22	T Apr 25	An Inconvenient Truth (part 1)
23	R Apr 27	An Inconvenient Truth (part 2) + Discussion	PS6 Due