PHY2502H F specialized:  Climate System Dynamics

Topics

The course will focus upon the dynamics of the climate system and therefore upon the coupled evolution of the atmosphere and oceans including also the inter-linkage of these primary system components to the cryosphere and to land surface processes.

Topics will include:

1. Solar forcing and its intrinsic temporal variability as well as it apparent variability due to variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
2. Simple energy balance models of the variations of the amplitude and phase of the seasonal cycle due to the distribution of continents and oceans.
3. The general circulations of the atmosphere and oceans as represented by modern coupled atmosphere -ocean general circulation models
4. The monsoon circulations
5. The El Nino Southern Oscillation phenomenon
6. The North Atlantic Oscillation/ Arctic Oscillation and the polar "annular modes"
7. Ice ages and paleoclimatology including the "snowball" Earth phenomenon of the deep geological past.

Credit will be earned primarily through the development of a term paper that will be presented both orally and in written form at the end of the term.