MAINTENANCE OF THE EARTH'S CLIMATE SYSTEM
www.atmos.washington.edu/honors_220/220.html
Professor:David
Battisti
e-mail: david@atmos.washington.edu
Phone: (206) 543-2019
Office: Room 718 in the Atmospheric Sciences
Building
Office hours:
By appointment
Teaching Assistant:Martha
Stevens
e-mail: martha@atmos.washington.edu
Phone: (206) 543-4595
Office: Room 420 in the Atmospheric Sciences
Building
Office hours:
By appointment
Course Description In this course we will explore the climate system of the planet Earth. Our goals are to understand how the Earth's climate system works, and to identify the processes that are responsible for the natural variability in the climate system. To this end, we will examine the natural Greenhouse Effect, how the energy of the Sun is utilized to drive the climate system, and the important role of biology in regulating the Earth's climate. We will explore how and why there are large "natural" variations in the climate system on time scales that are both very long (e.g., the ice ages) and short.
Throughout this course we will be discussing the changes in the climate system that are due to the activity of humans. These "anthropogenic" climate forcings include Greenhouse Warming, desertification, acid rain and increased atmospheric aerosols. We will also discuss the global depletion of ozone and the "Ozone Hole."
The course format will be as follows. I will present three lectures per week to introduce and discuss important new material and introduce important tools; discussions and questions are encouraged during these lectures. One hour per week will be devoted to demonstrations, discussion of readings that have been assigned, presentation of results from the laboratory projects, etc.
Throughout the course we will be reading and discussing articles from general science journals (e.g., Science and Nature). To facilitate our discussion of these papers, you will provide a brief (1-3 page) critique of each paper that will include a brief statement of the salient results, a discussion of potential problems/uncertainties with the results, and issues that remain confusing to you.
In addition to these critiques, there will be several homework assignments, two quizes, and a research paper. The evaluation will be weighted as follows:
See the syllabus
for a more detailed description.
Last
Updated:
02/23/2001