Course Objectives: 

This course is designed to build a foundation of climate science and bring students to the level at which they can find, read, understand and synthesize climate science information presented in climate change assessment reports like the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme) or other national assessment reports. 

This course will prepare students for capstone project courses (e.g. ENVR 402) in which they would mobilize this knowledge and associated resources to make their own climate change assessment adapted to a specific environmental question.

To this aim, students will:

1. Understand the energy balance of the planet. 
Explain how the greenhouse effect works in terms of energy flow. 
Identify forcing factors, describe feedback loops, and critically evaluate the relative importance of various external forcings and feedbacks at different timescales.
Critically evaluate evidence from models and paleoclimate data to quantify the climate sensitivity, and associated uncertainties.

2. Understand the basic features of the global climate system. 
Recognize the different climate zones, and relate observations to atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Identify the location of fronts, and appreciate the non-linearity and lack of spatial homogeneity in the temperature field.

3. Describe and apply the metrics of the climate change literature: choice of variables, climatology, natural variability, significance of projected changes. Understand the IPCC “likelihood” wording.

4. Critically evaluate evidence of anthropogenic impact on climate, and appreciate the magnitude and speed of the projected change compared to past climates. 

Course format

This is an in-person course, with two 1.5hr lectures per week. Classes use active learning techniques, with numerous i-clicker questions spread throughout the lecture. Each class will also include a 15-20 min discussion of observational data, either in the form of an open discussion (as a brainstorm to introduce lecture concepts), or a worksheet (at the end of the lecture, to apply concepts discussed). Some lectures, especially towards the end, will include longer data analysis assignments giving students ample practice with the analysis of climate change projection data. 

How much math is there? Computation is not a central part of this course, but it is a 3rd year science course, and we expect you to be able to read graphs, compare numbers, and be able to understand and apply the concepts of mean, standard deviation (or variance) and trends. In this course, we want to be able to say whether 2°C of global warming is a lot of warming, or not too different from year to year variations. 

Course Schedule:

       (A tentative schedule of the topics to be covered on a weekly basis) 

Module 1: The Energy Balance of the planet

• 1.1 The Radiative balance at the top of the Atmosphere
• 1.2 Aerosols, short lived climate forcers
• 1.3 The greenhouse effect
• 1.4 Forcings and feedbacks
• 1.5 Application to ice age cycles
• 1.6 Climate Sensitivity

By the end of this module, students should have an appreciation for what a 2°C warmer world is like: evaluate the difference between pre-industrial climate and 2-3°C warmer or colder climates. 

This module will be followed by a mid-term test in class.

Module 2: Dynamics

• 2.1 The general circulation of the atmosphere
• 2.2 Expansion of the Hadley cell with global warming
• 2.3 Wind driven ocean circulation
• 2.4 Density driven ocean circulation: AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation)
• 2.5 Ocean-atmosphere interactions: the monsoon
• 2.6 Ocean atmosphere interactions: ENSO (El Niño, Southern Oscillation)
• 2.7. Natural climate variability.

By the end of this module, students should be able to relate the spatial features of the mean climate to processes in the atmosphere and ocean, and identify the dominant mechanisms responsible for internal climate variability.

This module will end with an in-class mid-term test.

Module 3: Global climate change

• 3.1 Human activities are impacting the climate system
• 3.2 The Carbon cycle
• 3.3 Climate change projections
• 3.4 Projected temperature change and attribution

By the end of this module, students should be able to evaluate evidence that climate is changing and compare the magnitude of observed or projected climate change with natural variability. This module ends with a graded climate atlas project. 

Module 4: Regional climate impacts

Each of the following lectures will have the same structure: Students will use the IPCC climate atlas to quantify the changes in the variable of interest, in the region of interest, compare it to natural variability, and build on their learning of the content of the class up to now to identify important mechanisms at play, with a special emphasis on identifying important feedback loops.

Students will submit 1 of the 5 data analysis assignments for a grade, and the other 4 for participation. 

• 4.1 Projected changes in the monsoon (AR6, chapter 4.4.1.4 and 4.5.1.5, 8.3.2.2 )
• 4.2 Arctic climate change (AR6, chapter 12.4.9, Atlas 11.2)
• 4.3. Weather and climate extremes: heat waves (AR6, chapter 11.3)
• 4.4 Weather and climate extremes: droughts (AR6, chapter 11.6)
• 4.5 Sea level rise (AR6, chapter 9.6)

Assessments:

• Clicker Question Participation    5%
• Surveys (participation) - bonus    +1%
• Worksheets (participation)    10%
• Data analysis assignments    25%
• Tests (in class)    20%
• Final Exam    40%