Course 1: CLIMATE (6 hours)
Basics of Climate Science
by Prof. Eli Tziperman, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, USA.
Compressed file (tgz) joining all the materials for the course. Accessible in separate parts from the links in the outline below.
Supporting materials and assignments at Profesor Tziperman web site:
http://www.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/misc/201209-Mallorca/
Course outline:
Day 1: Energy balance and ocean
(1) Energy balance and climate bifurcations, Snowball Earth
1.1 Energy balance (1-energy-balance.ppt)
1.2 Energy balance model, solutions, graphic method stability
(2-energy_balance_0d.pdf). Matlab functions.
1.3 Saddle node bifurcation (3-lecture_02_bif1d1.pdf), two saddle
nodes & hysteresis.
1.4 Snowball earth (4-Boyle-snowball-MIT12.842-abbreviated.pdf)
(2) Ocean meridional overturning circulation (MOC)/ thermohaline
circulation (THC)
2.1 Motivation
(from EPS131: 1a-THC-belt.jpeg
1c-THC-cfc-animation-horizontal.gif
1d-THC-cfc-animation-vertical.mpg
1e-YouTube - The Day After Tomorrow.webloc
1g-Surface_air-T_deviations-from-zonal-mean-Rahmstrof.jpg)
2.2 Stommel 1961 model, bifurcations, multiple equilibria, hysteresis
(from EPS131: 3-notes-THC-Stommel-model.pdf
1h-vellinga-wood-THC-collapse-Hadley-model.pdf
4b-Rahmstorf-et-al-2005-Stommel-bifurcation-GCM-intercomparison.pdf
6c-THC-in-global-warming-Bryden_etal_2005.pdf)
2.3 THC variability
motivation: present day and past climate variability
(from EPS131: 2a-rapid_transports2.png
little ice age: slide #33, EPS-131-lecture-01-intro-2-phys-oceanogr.pptx)
non-normal transient growth, optimal i.c.
non normal excitation of THC variability
(slides #2,3,5,6,7,9 from nonormal_THC_short.pdf)
2.3 THC during Snowball Earth events
Day 2: Atmosphere
(3) Atmospheric superrotation and permanent El Nino
3.1 Pliocene intro (slides)
3.2 vorticity, solid body rotation, planetary vs relative
vorticity, Coriolis parameter, beta plane, Rossby waves
heuristic based on propagation of highs and lows on a beta
plane, group & phase velocities (ripples animation),
teleconnections via R.W (Shaman paper);
[quasi-geostrophy-didn't cover eventually, see
notes-shallow-water-quasigeostrophy.pdf] ,
3.2 atmospheric superrotation: momentum flux u'v' vs energy flux
c_g for Rossby waves.
3.3 permanent El Nino in the Pliocene (2-5 Myr, and in the
future?) (slides)
(4) Convection, clouds, radiation and equable climate
4.1 Arctic cloud feedback, multiple equilibria, warm climate of
the Eocene (50 Million years ago) and relevance to global
warming. (slides, and see also slides under 3-superrotation)
4.2 time permitting: simple convection model