Climate Dynamics 440: Climate Dynamics (Introduction to the Physical Climate System)

Course Syllabus Spring 2022

Course Instructor: David M. Straus

Contacts: D. Straus dstraus@gmu.edu

Map of Annual Mean Precipitation (ECMWF)

Zonal Mean of Potential Temperature ECMWF

Zonal Mean of Diabatic Heating ECMWF

Class location: Research Hall Room 121. Also available on Zoom.
Note: From Thu. Mar 3 through Thu. Apr 28 the class will be entirely on Zoom.

Class time: Tuesday - Thursday 1:30 PM to 2:15 PM

Primary Required Reading (Course Notes):
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dstraus/CLIM_440_syllabus.htm
Note: Course Notes also available on Blackboard.

Primary Reference Books:

Supplementary Reading:

Course Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

Student Work Components

  1. Mid-Term Exam = 20% percent of grade
  2. Final Exam = 20% percent of grade
  3. Four Homework Sets = 30% percent of grade
  4. Paper Presentations = 20% of grade Suggested Journal Articles
  5. Personal Class Journal =10% of grade

Homework Policy

    Course Topics

    (Note: Content of lectures subject to updating!)

    Introduction
  1. Global Energy Balance
  2. Atmospheric Thermal Structure

Journal Entries due

    Radiation and Climate Part I
  1. Satellite Radiation Maps
  2. Planck Function and Blackbody Radiation
  3. Radiation: Observations and simple models

Journal Entries due

    Radiation and Climate Part II
  1. Radiative Transfer
  2. Short Wave Radiation Distribution
  3. Radiative-Convective Equilibrium

Journal Entries due

    Thermodynamics
  1. Microscopic Approach to Temperature and Ideal Gas
  2. Thermodynamics: General Ideas
    Enlarged Figures for Thermodynamics Part 1
    Entropy and the First Law
  3. Thermodynamics: Application to Moist Ideal Gas

Journal Entries due

    Thermodynamics (supplementary material)
  1. Thermodynamics Notes Part 1
  2. Thermodynamics Notes Part 2
  3. Thermodynamics Figures 2

    Atmospheric General Circulation
  1. Atmosphere General Circulation: Introduction
  2. Hadley and Ferrel Cells
  3. Energy Transport
  4. Rotational vs. Divergent Flow
  5. Isentropic_Hadley_Cell

Journal Entries due

    Atmospheric Circulation: Mid-latitude Disturbances
  1. Transient Fluctuations
  2. A direct look at Baroclinic Transients
  3. Extra-Tropical Energy Flux

Journal Entries due

    Role of Precipitation
  1. The Hydrological Cycle
  2. The Indian Monsoon

Journal Entries due

    Oceans and Climate
  1. Oceans and Climate

    Paleoclimate
  1. Paleoclimate: Observations, Theory and Modeling

Journal Entries due

Brief Review

Academic Integrity

George Mason is an Honor Code university. The principal of academic integrity is taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely.
When you as the student are responsible for a task, you will perform that task.
When you rely on someone else's work in an aspect of the performance of that task, you will give full credit in the proper, accepted form.
The homeworks and exams in this course are designed to be undertaken independently.
You may discuss your ideas with others and conference with peers on drafts of the work.
But you are responsible for making certain that the work you hand in is your own.
Please see the Academic Integrity website