Welcome to the GEOS 498, Global Climate Change, webpage for the Fall 2018 semester.

Click here for the course advertisement.

Syllabus

This page will be updated every few days as the course progresses...

Fall 2018 Lectures: MW, 4:00 - 5:15 PM. Location: PHSC 213

Office hours: TBD or by appointment. (Please e-mail me to schedule something.)

Mon., 27 Aug., Review syllabus. Begin: Distinctions between weather and climate.
Weds., 29 Aug., Class cancelled. (instructor ill)
Mon., 3 Sept., Labor Day. No classes.
Weds. 5 Sept., Begin Chapter 1: Composition of air, ideal gas law, hydrostatic equation, barometric law.
Mon., 10 Sept., Lapse rates and static stability.
Weds. 12 Sept., Class cancelled
Mon., 17 Sept., Latent heat, derive dry adiabatic lapse rate, three-cell general circulation model.
Weds. 19 Sept., Semi-permanent highs and lows, monsoons, then ocean-atmosphere comparison, gyres, Ekman.
Mon., 24 Sept., Ocean circulation and begin the cryosphere.
Weds. 26 Sept., Quiz #1: Pages 1-25 (sections 1.1 - 1.4) Finish cryosphere.
Mon., 1 Oct., Begin Chapter 2. Section 2.1: The Earth's energy budget.
Weds. 3 Oct., Continue Chapter 2. Pages 30-44, Figs. 2.1 - 2.15.
Mon., 8 Oct., Brief discussion of new IPCC report. Then emissivity, graybody, and absorption spectra.
Weds. 10 Oct., Student presentations of IPCC summary for policy makers.
Mon., 15 Oct., Heat capacity/storage (pages 44-45) and flux-gradient relationships.
Weds. 17 Oct., Class cancelled.
Mon., 22 Oct., Student presentations on the carbon cycle: pages 58-70.
Weds. 24 Oct., Complete Chapter 2: Mean global energy budget and hydrologic cycle.
Mon., 29 Oct., Student presentations on IPCC Physical Basis for Climate Change AR5 SPM.
Weds. 31 Oct.,
Mon., 5 Nov., Student presentations on AR5 SPM section E: Future Global and Regional Climate Change
Weds. 7 Nov., The basis for GCMs: the equations of motion (Section 3.3.1 on pages 85-89)
Mon., 12 Nov., Classes cancelled due to Camp Fire.
Weds. 14 Nov., Classes cancelled due to Camp Fire.
Mon., 19 Nov., Thanksgiving break. No classes held.
Weds. 21 Nov., Thanksgiving break. No classes held.
Mon., 26 Nov., Lecture: continuation on the equations of motion, the advective terms and the Eulerian reference frame.
Weds. 28 Nov., SETs. Then Lecture: Equations of motion and the Reynolds terms: parameterization of turbulent transport.
Mon., 3 Dec., Lecture on Milankovitch cycles, ocean sediment cores, ice cores, sunspots, and solar intensity.
Weds. 5 Dec., Student presentations on Chapters from the Vol II of the 4th National Climate Assessment.
Mon., 10 Dec., Student presentations: Michal, Jim, Trenton, Jillian, and David.
Weds. 12 Dec., Student presentations: Daniel, Greg, Chris, Ryan, and Breanna.
Mon. 17 Dec., Final Exam week begins

Dr. Mayor's page

---