After completing this course students are able to:

 

The climate is a complicated physical system, the properties of which affect our everyday lives and impact virtually all things ecological and economic. The basic principles that govern the interaction between the climate's main constituents, the atmosphere and oceans, can be described by the methods of physics.
 
This course introduces the fundamentals of the physics of the atmosphere and related climate. We start with atmospheric composition and static stability. Students learn about the vertical distribution of mass (pressure), temperature, the role of moisture in the atmosphere (clouds) and radiation transport. After the midterm brake we turn our attention to the dynamical atmosphere to see how pressure gradients and the Coriolis force affect air motion (wind). We apply our knowledge to simple models of the atmosphere to discuss large scale and small scale flows. Finally, we discuss detection and attribution of climate change and sea level rise.

 

 

Format
The first class meeting of each week treats basic material using PowerPoint presentations. Students participate actively, answering pop-quiz questions during lectures. During the second class meeting each week, students engage in a more in-depth study of the material before attempting to solve problem sets.
 
Students are expected to spend approximately fourteen hours per week on the course. At the end of the course, they give an oral presentation on a pre-selected topic on a recent major advance in meteorological, oceanographic or climate research.