Climate Physics

winter term 2022/2023
Lecturer: Norbert Frank
43 participants

This lecture covers some further fundamentals of climate physics in roughly 12 lectures. We explore the statistical nature of the climate system, energy and mass transfer, its sensitivity to external forcing and internal feedbacks. We explore climate variability on different time and space scales and we study the cycles of water and green house gases relevant to the climate system operation.

This lecture requires the MKEP4 lecture on environmental physics as knowledge or otherwise gained knowledge on geophysical fluid dynamics.

The exercises include reviews of recent scientific literature, classical exercises and calculations, and possibly some numerical exercises using python (or an alternative language R, Mathlab,... ).

Content

Introduction (Goals, Motivation) / System Components / The nature of the Climate System / Fundamental equations /  Eddies and Thermodynamics / Decomposing Circulation /  Observations / Atmospheric Observed mean State (Past/Present/ Future) / Ocean observed mean state (Past/Present/Future) / Cryosphere / Atmosphere Earth Surface Exchange / Biosphere and Carbon Dioxide / Climate Models / Climate Variability
   

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Climate Physics
winter term 2022/2023
Norbert Frank
43 participants
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