Virtual Research

NOTE: These tutorials require the use of pop ups. If you are using pop up disabling software, you will be unable to view the tutorials unless you turn off your pop up disabling software!

These online research exercises introduce a broad range of topics that are addressed in paleoclimatological research today. The tutorials are to be conducted on-line; prerequisite software is indicated for output visualization on your desktop. (We are working on Web-based visualization tools to remove this last step.)

Tutorial 1: Solar Irradiance on Earth: Advanced Experiments - Interception of the Sun's energy at the top of the Earth's atmosphere is examined as a function of global location and time of day. This is accomplished through a series of experiments that computes the classical insolation equation for specific latitudes and times. The results will replicate basic space-time patterns of incoming solar radiation, and will highlight 'hidden patterns' that may predominate depending on the sensitivity of the climate system. [Excel]

Tutorial 2: Earth's Zonal Energy Flow: The Classic Budyko-Sellers Model - The Earth's basic climate system parameters can be explored using the one-dimensional climate equilibrium model of Budyko (1969) and Sellers (1969). which permits examination of the sensitivity of global temperatures to changes in the solar constant, and feedbacks imposed by the Earth's variable albedo, surface heat transport, and longwave emission processes. [Java-enabled Web Browser; MS Word; Excel]

Tutorial 3: The Gaia Hypothesis of Climate: Exploring Daisyworld - The Gaia Hypothesis treats the Earth as a "superorganism" that self-regulates itself to sustain life, through feedback mechanisms operating between the geosphere and biosphere. The basic characteristics of the feedbacks are conceptualized in "Daisyworld," a coupled vegetation-climate model consisting of a planet covered with white and black daisies Here, explore Daisyworld by imposing a variety of external perturbations, e.g., an increase in solar luminosity, to cause interesting behaviors to occur in the model. [Java-enabled Web Browser; MS Word; Excel]

Tutorial 4: Wavelet Analysis of Earth's Paleoclimates - The Earth descended into its current ice age with a series of dynamical climate changes over millions of years. Here, analyze 4.8 million year-long global ice volume proxy time series obtained from biogenic sediment deposits in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During this time period the global ice budget waxed and waned in concert with the Earth's orbital rhythms; a tremendous surge in the total ice volume took place over the last 1 million years. Wavelet analysis helps track the dynamics of the global ice budget throughout this time. [Java-enabled Web Browser; Excel]