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Course Outline ATM S 211, Autumn Quarter 1998  Climate and Climate Change

1.  WHAT IS CLIMATE?
    1.1 climate vs. weather (analogies)
    1.2 can climate change?

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2. THE CLIMATE OF THE PRESENT
    2.1 surface temperature vs. "radiation temperature": Earth, Venus, Mars
    2.2 atmospheric composition
          major constituents
          water vapor, ozone, carbon dioxide
          comparison to other planets
          inventories of water and carbon
    2.3 vertical structure (troposphere, stratosphere, tropopause)
    2.4 north-south temperature gradient
    2.5 clouds and rainfall
          global average perspective (albedo, hydrologic cycle, residence time of water in atmosphere)
          annual mean distribution (ITCZ, storm tracks, deserts..)
    2.6 winds (surface westerlies, tradewinds, the jetstream,
    2.7 climate classifications

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3. CLIMATE PROCESSES
    3.1 Thermodynamics
        3.1.1   basic concepts
        3.1.2   modes of energy transfer (radiation, convection, diffusion)
        3.1.3   why is the atmosphere well mixed?
        3.14   why does temperature decrease with height in the troposphere?
    3.2 Radiation
        3.2.1  basic concepts
        3.2.2   radiation temperature
        3.2.3   why are the outer planets colder? (inverse square law)
        3.2.4   radiative equilibrium of a planet
        3.2.5   ice-albedo feedback
        3.2.6  the cosine law
        3.2.8   the 'greenhouse effect' (radiative transfer through an atm.)
        3.2.9  absorption spectra
        3.2.10   clouds: do they warm or do they cool the climate?
        3.2.11  aerosols (effects of volcanic eruptions, pollution)
        3.2.12  global energy balance
        3.2.13   water vapour feedback
    3.3 Chemistry
        3.3.1   where did the atmosphere come from? (N2, O2, H2O)
        3.3.2   the carbon cycle (fossilized carbon, carbonates)
        3.3.3   the ozone shield: how it protects us
    3.4 Dynamics
        3.4.1   role of heat transport in damping the equator-to-pole temp.gradient
        3.4.2   why do regions at the same latitude experience different climates?
        3.4.3   why are there penguins in the equator?
        3.4.4   El Niño and climate prediction

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4. THE CLIMATE OF THE PAST
    4.1 how do we know about past climate? (tree rings, corals.. isotopes)
    4.2 overview of the history of the earth
        4.2.0  putting time scales into perspective
        4.2.1 climate of the past 1-2 years
        4.2.2 climate of the past 10-20 years
        4.2.3 climate of the past 1-2 centuries
        4.2.4 climate of the past 1-2 milennia
        4.2.5 climate of the past 10-20 milennia
        4.2.6 climate of the past million years
        4.2.7 climate of the past 100-200 million years
        4.2.8 history of climate over the lifetime of the earth

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5. THE CLIMATE OF THE FUTURE
    5.1  recent changes in atmospheric composition
    5.2  the ozone hole
    5.3  greenhouse warming
    5.4  is the climate changing?
    5.5  is the climate changing due to human influences?
    5.6  what do models tell us about future climate?
    5.7  can we believe what models tell us about future climate?
    5.8  what and how serious would be the human impacts of climate change?
    5.9  is global climate change the most serious environmental issue?