Basics of Climate Modeling

ABOUT THE COURSE:Climate change is a very important and current topic. While almost all students are aware of the phenomenon, in general, it will be highly beneficial for them to be aware of the basic concepts behind climate change such as thermodynamic principles, energy balances, and what goes behind some of the modeling. This course will introduce the students to the concepts of climate change, and how one can model climate change. This course will cover the earlier simpler and basic models of climate change, and will provide an introduction to the other more complex models that may be taken up in an advanced course.INTENDED AUDIENCE:1. Students (PG and senior UG).2. Working professionals in the general field of climate change.3. Junior scientists and engineers of pollution control boards and climate missions.PREREQUISITES: Basic physics, chemistry, mathematics (class 10 to 12 level).

Syllabus

Week 1: Climate trends (earth observations), components of the climate systems (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, land surface)
Week 2:Radiate balance, a simple greenhouse model of earth, radiative forcings, radiative-convective framework
Week 3:Climate sensitivity, climate feedback: ice-albedo, water vapor, clouds, lapse rate
Week 4:Hydrological cycle, carbon cycle and reservoirs, Non-CO2 greenhouse gases and associated cycles
Week 5:Introduction to types of climate models (energy balance, intermediate complexity, general circulation). Introduction to earlier energy balance climate models considering only atmosphere (using the scientific papers, e.g. by Budyko (1969) The effect of solar radiation variations on the climate of the earth Tellus Vol. 5; Sellers (1969) A global climate model based on the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system J. Applied Meteorology Vol. 8)
Week 6:Oceans and their role in regulating the climate. Early atmosphere-ocean coupled models. (e.g. Wigley and Schlesinger (1985) Analytical solution for the effect of increasing CO2 on global mean temperature Nature Vol. 315; Harvey and Schneider (1985) Transient climate response to external forcing on 100 – 104 year time scales Part - 1 J. Geophysical Research Vol. 90))
Week 7:Describing transport of energy and matter, parameterization
Week 8:Introduction to numerical methods used in climate models, and presentation of primer for complex models