Lectures: Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:15, Bobst LL150
Office Hours: Tuesday 2-3 and Wednesday 11-12, Warren Weaver Hall 911

Course Description

Our goal is to understand the processes that govern the Earth’s climate, with particular focus on the mean state and variability of the atmosphere. Topics will include the global energy balance, atmospheric convection and radiation, the “greenhouse effect,” the impact of planetary rotation, the structure of the atmospheric and oceanic circulations, and how these elements combine to produce our climate. Along the way we’ll come understand exactly what we mean by “climate” (and how this both differs and depends on “weather”), why Earth is a habitable planet, and how our dependence on fossil fuels could change that in the future.

Required Textbooks

• Marshall, J and Plumb, R. A., 2008: Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics, Academic Press, 319 pp.