Apr 18, 2024  
2016-2017 University Catalog 
    
2016-2017 University Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

EAPS 32000 - Physics Of Climate


Credit Hours: 3.00. Open to majors in the Schools of Science, Agriculture, and Engineering. To understand climate we describe and synthesize physical processes in the atmosphere and their coupling to the ocean, ice, and land. We quantitatively explore climatology with an equal balance of physical principles and scrutiny of available modern data. Topics include: visualization of atmospheric/land surface/oceanographic climatological data sets; theories of climate dynamics; and climate change. Beginning with radiative balance and simple energy balance models, the course progresses toward understanding the effects of radiative-convective forcing and rotation on the fluid envelopes. Analysis of data in an interactive computer-enabled environment is an important part of the course. By the end of this course, the student should know how the Earth System behaves at large scales and grasp the physical understandings of why. Typically offered Spring.