ESE 136: Climate Models

Instructor

Prof. Tapio Schneider
516 S. Catalina Ave
tapio@caltech.edu

Texts

Schedule

Lectures
Thursdays 2:30-3:55pm, 162 S. Mudd

Grading Policy

  • Class participation and presentations: 100%

Schedule and Handouts

  • Week

    Description

    Reading/Handouts

  • 04/04

    Historical overview, components of a climate model

  • 04/11

    Fluid envelopes: atmosphere, oceans, and the physical laws governing them

    Goosse, chapter 3.3 (online notes)

  • 04/18

    Key concepts in the numerical solution of differential equations: spatial discretization and time stepping methods; computational complexity

    Goosse, chapter 3.4 (online notes)

  • 04/25

    Numerics (continued). Parameterization of unresolved processes

    Goosse, chapter 3.4 (online notes)

    Parameterizations (McFarlane 2011)

  • 05/02

    Parameterization overview (continued). Ocean parameterizations.

    Gettelman and Rood, chapter 6.

    Presentation by Ignacio (Gent-McWilliams parameterization).

  • 05/09

    Land modeling: biosphere and hydrology

    Gettelman & Rood, chapter 7.

    Presentations by Sophia (human land use effects), Rui (ecosystem modeling), and Ariana (glacier modeling)

  • 05/16

    History of Earth system modeling; coupling of components

    Atmosphere-ocean coupling (Stocker, chapter 8) (Katrina, Ben)

    Spencer Wears, Climate Modeling History (Emmet)

  • 05/23

    Model evaluation

    IPCC AR5, chapter 9 (Natalie, Newton, Kaleigh)

  • 05/30

    Climate predictions

    IPCC AR5, chapters 11 and 12 (Elyse, Brigitte, Clare)

Class Feedback

Please type your comments and click “Submit” to send anonymous feedback to Tapio Schneider: