Introduction to Climate Modeling OC 669 CRN 37625

Lecturer: Andreas Schmittner, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences

Time: Mo, Fr 2-3:20 Room: StAg 324

Objectives:

• Fundamental principles and theoretical concepts of simulating Earth’s climate system, its components (atmosphere, ocean, ice, biosphere) and interactions between them
• Practical applications, hands-on programming of simple numerical models (no prior programming knowledge required)
• Overview of model hierarchy and applications to past and future climate changes
• Understanding problems, challenges and uncertainties in climate modeling

Script

Schedule Winter 2009

Date	Topic
January 5	Introduction, The 0D Energy Balance Model (EBM), Theory, Multiple Equilibria, Stability Analysis	pdf
January 9	0D EBM Discretization, Time-Stepping Schemes, Initial Conditions, Programming
January 12	Stochastic Climate Models, Climate Sensitivity, Spectral Analysis (Periodogram)
January 16	The 1D Zonally Averaged EBM, Meridional Transport, Discretization, Spatial Boundary Conditions	pdf
January 23	Numerics 1, Introduction, General Issues, Schemes for the Advection Equation, Euler, Leapfrog, von Neuman Stability Analysis)
January 26	No Class
January 30	Numerics 2, CFL Criterion, Upwind Scheme, Schemes for the Diffusion Equation
February 2	2D EBM & Review
February 6	Mid Term
February 9	Radiative Convective Models	pdf
February 13	Hadley Cell (Held & Hou, 1980)
February 16	General Circulation Models, The Spectral Method, Parameterizations
February 20	Caos and the Lorenz Model (Lorenz 1963)
February 23	A Simple Model of the Thermohaline Ocean Circulation (Stommel, 1961)	pdf
February 27	Ice Sheets (Oerlemans, 1981)
March 2	Vegetation Feedbacks and Daisyworld (Watson & Lovelock, 1983)
March 6	Ocean Ecosystem and Carbon Cycle Models	pdf
March 9	Applications to Past and Future Climate Changes
March 13	Student Papers, Review
March 16	Final