3 credits
Fall 2025 Lecture Upper Division
To understand climate we describe and synthesize physical processes in the atmosphere and their coupling to the ocean, ice, and land. We quantitatively explore climatology with an equal balance of physical principles and scrutiny of available modern data. Topics include: visualization of atmospheric/land surface/oceanographic climatological data sets; theories of climate dynamics; and climate change. Beginning with radiative balance and simple energy balance models, the course progresses toward understanding the effects of radiative-convective forcing and rotation on the fluid envelopes. Analysis of data in an interactive computer-enabled environment is an important part of the course. By the end of this course, the student should know how the Earth System behaves at large scales and grasp the physical understandings of why. Previous course work in Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry are required as building blocks for this course, and knowledge from these areas will be called upon frequently. Should you be missing this background, please speak with your instructor as soon as possible.
Learning Outcomes1Quantitatively describe climatology, climate variability, and climate change through physical principles and modern climate data.
2Use radiative equilibrium, radiative-convective equilibrium, and energy balance models to make predictions of climate change and compare with observations.
3Describe and synthesize atmosphere and ocean dynamics, large-scale circulation patterns, and interactions with ice and land surfaces.
4Analyze major contemporary atmospheric science problems and phenomena, such as global warming, ozone hole, El Nino, etc., and the information provided by past climates on Earth.
Prerequisites
made by Purdue students.