Climate Dynamics (METEO 470, 3 credits)

Course Syllabus for Spring 2018

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

TA: Yuting He, 413 Walker Building, yzh120@psu.edu (office hours: Mon 2:00-3:30 PM)

Meeting Time/Place: Tu/Th 10:35-11:50 AM (214 Hammond)

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/METEO470SPR18/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 6 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 9	Introduction
		Module 1: Climate Data and Statistics
2	R Jan 11	Normal Distribution	PS1 Assigned
	T Jan 16	No Class
3	R Jan 18	Autocorrelation
4	T Jan 23	Regression-Trends
5	R Jan 25	Regression-Statistical Modeling
		Module 2: Zero-Dimensional Energy Balance Model
6	T Jan 30	Global Energy Balance; Greenhouse Effect	PS1 Due
7	R Feb 1	Modeling Historical Temperature Changes and Climate Sensitivity	PS2 Assigned
8	T Feb 6	Projecting Future Warming
G1	R Feb 8	Guest: Antarctica & Sea Level Rise (Dave Pollard/Don Voigt)
		Module 3: One-Dimensional Energy Balance Model
9	T Feb 13	Meridional Energy Balance
G2	R Feb 15	Guest: Climate change & Tropical Cyclones (Jenni Evans)
G3	T Feb 20	Guest: Ethics of Climate Change (Peter Buckland)
	R Feb 22	[canceled guest lecture]	PS2 Due
	T Feb 27	Mid-term
10	R Mar 1	Atmospheric heat transport	PS3 Assigned
	T Mar 6	No Class [Spring Break]
	R Mar 8	No Class [Spring Break]
11	T Mar 13	Snowball Earth; Hysteresis
		Module 4: Role of Ocean Circulation
12	R Mar 15	The Stommel Box Model of the AMOC
	T Mar 20	No Class	PS3 Due
13	R Mar 22	“The Day After Tomorrow” scenario; the PDO	PS4 Assigned
14	T Mar 27	Stommel Model of Ocean Gyre
G4	R Mar 29	Guest: Climate Change in West Africa (Greg Jenkins)
15	T Apr 3	Ocean Gyres and Heat Transport; The Pacific Decadal Oscillation
		Module 5: El Nino/Southern Oscillation
16	R Apr 5	ENSO basics	PS4 Due; PS5 Assigned
17	T Apr 10	The Delayed-Oscillator Model
18	R Apr 12	The Cane-Zebiak Model; Skype Discussion w/ special guest
19	T Apr 17	Climate Change & El Nino	PS5 Due; PS6 Assigned
		Module 6: Climate Modeling and Climate Change
20	R Apr 19	Three-Dimensional Coupled Climate Models
21	T Apr 24	Anthropogenic Climate Change
22	R Apr 26	Anthropogenic Climate Change	PS6 Due