Welcome to the ERTH 330W section 01, Environmental Science, public webpage for the Spring 2024 semester.
I will try to update this page every few days during the semester.

An isolated convective cloud produces rain and virga near Tonopah, Nevada on September 9, 2023. Photo by Shane Mayor.

This course is entirely online and asynchronous. There are no fixed meeting times.

Required book: The Earth System 4th edition by James Kasting, Lee Kump, and Robert Crane.

Week 1: 24 Jan. - 28 Jan.: Chapter 15: Pleistocene glaciations. Read pages 355 - 368.
Week 2: 29 Jan. - 4 Feb.: Chapter 1: Global Change. Read pages 1 - 25.
Week 3: 5 Feb. - 11 Feb.: Chapter 2: Daisyworld: An Introduction to Systems. Read pages 29 - 44. Quiz #1.
Week 4: 12 Feb. - 18 Feb.: Begin Chapter 3: Global Energy balance. Read pages 49-58. Quiz #2 on Feb. 14.
Week 5: 19 Feb. - 25 Feb.: Greenhouse gases, radiation, atmospheric composition and structure.
Week 6: 26 Feb. - 3 Mar.: Conclusion of Chapter 3: clouds, global energy budget, and radiative forcing.
Week 7: 4 Mar. - 10 Mar.: Mid-term exam #1 and begin Chapter 4 on at the atmospheric circulation.
Week 8: 11 Mar. - 17 Mar.: Pressure gradient forces, Coriolis effect, and geostrophic wind.
18 Mar. - 24 Mar.: Spring Break.
Week 9: 25 Mar. - 31 Mar.: General circulation 3-cell model.
Mon., 1 Apr., César Chávez Day (observed). Campus closed.
Week 10: 1 Apr. - 7 Apr.: Lecture on the stratosphere, changes in weather and climate with latitude, and the hydrologic cycle.
Week 11: 8 Apr. - 14 Apr.: Exam on Chapter 4. Begin Chapter 5: The Ocean Circulation.
Week 12: 15 Apr. - 21 Apr.: Continue with ocean circulation: waves, Ekman spiral, gyres, upwelling and downwelling.
Week 13: 22 Apr. - 28 Apr.: Continue with ocean circulation: vorticity, boundary currents, thermocline, El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
Week 14: 29 Apr. - 5 May: Salinity and density of sea water, thermohaline circulation, heat engines vs. heat pumps. Quiz #3
Week 15: 6 May - 12 May: Review week. Essay on role of oceans in Earth's climate due.
13 - 17 May: Comprehensive Final Exam

Dr. Mayor's page

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