CLIM 690 Scientific Basis of Climate Change
Dr. Jim Kinter (ikinter at gmu dot edu), 284 Research Hall
Dr. J. Shukla (jshukla at gmu dot edu), 105 Research Hall
Complete Syllabus (Spring 2014)
Lectures:
Thursdays, 4:30-7:10pm, Innovation Hall 338
Goals of Course
This graduate course will survey the scientific issues
associated with global climate change. The course will examine physical
phenomena that determine the Earth's climate, its variability, and how
it changes in response to changes in the external influences and the
composition of the atmosphere. The course will cover the latest
available scientific information about global climate change,
using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report
as a primary source. The variability and change observed over the past 150
years and projected by climate model simulations for the next century
will be the main focus, although some attention will be paid to climates
of the distant past (paleoclimate).
This class will discuss:
- How society has been changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere over the last century
- How Earth's climate has warmed and otherwise changed during the same period
- Why scientists believe global warming is due to changes in atmospheric composition via the greenhouse effect
- How global warming fits into the context of other climate mechanisms and variability
- Probable future climate change
Student Presentations
In addition to participating in class lectures and discussions,
students will have the opportunity to do some research on recent
findings in climate change. Each student will give a brief presentation
that contains a summary of a selected paper from the current
scientific literature and may also include an analysis of
observational data and climate model output. One set of student
presentations will be before the midterm and the second set will be
after the midterm. A list of possible topics/papers from which
students may choose will be made available for each half of the
semester.
The presentations should include, as appropriate:
- Authors and Affiliations
- Data and Methods
- Hypothesis
- Experiments
- Results
- Conclusions
- Relevance, Importance, Impact (student's opinion)
Lecture Notes
(N.B. Lecture notes will be posted as they become available.
The order and titles of lectures may depart from the listing shown.)
- Introductory Lecture
- Observed Changes in the Oceans and Cryosphere
- Observed Changes in the Atmosphere
- Observed Changes in Atmospheric Composition
- The Greenhouse Effect
- Radiative Forcing Since 1750
- Understanding and Attributing Climate Change
- Paleoclimate
- Climate Sensitivity
- Evaluating Climate Models
- Near-Term Climate Change Projections
- Long-Term Climate Change Projections & Sea Level Change
- Climate Phenomena & Atlas of Climate Change Projections
Problem Sets
Climate Dynamics Graduate Courses
Last modified: January 2016