Geography 4/521:  Advanced Climatology -- Climate Variations
Winter 2011, 2:00-3:20pm Tu & Th, 206 Condon Hall (CRN 26611 (421); 26615 (521))
Instructor:  Patrick J. Bartlein, 154 Condon Hall, x6-4967, bartlein@uoregon.edu, office hours W 1:00-2:00pm
 
Overview:  Climate varies.  This fundamental aspect of the behavior of the climate system can have major societal impacts, and also makes it difficult to exactly project the impact that humans are currently having on climate.  The aim of this course is to review the nature of the climate system and why it varies over time, emphasizing those variations that make one year different from another, as well as those that have taken place over decades, centuries and millennia.

By the end of the course, you will be able to 1) understand day-to-day variations of weather, 2) the longer-term, seasonal and interannual climate variations those weather variations are embedded in, 3) the nature of longer-term climate variations, and 4) how to "diagnose" the controls of climate variations in a particular region using on-line resources.
 
Web Pages:

Prerequisites:  Geog. 321 (Climatology), or consent of instructor

 

Grading:  Undergraduates:  Two exams (40% each) in the fifth and ninth week of class, and a project that involves the analysis of on-line climate data (20%), presented in the last week of class, and with a writeup due during exam week.  Graduates:  Two exams (35% each) and a project that involves the analysis of on-line climate data (20%) (schedule as above), plus an annotated bibliography on a topic related to the diagnosis of climatic anomalies in a particular region (10%)
 

Readings: 

  • .pdfs of book chapters and articles supporting each lecture will be available on the Blackboard web page.
  • The State of the Climate in 2009 published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
  • Other publications
    • IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment, Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 996 pp. http://www.ipcc.ch
    • US Global Change Research Program Scientific Assessments:
      http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments
  • There are also several research-program web pages that feature highlights of recent research on climate variations:
Schedule (Last Revision 17 Feb 2011)
Week

Date

 Day

Topic
1

1-4

T

Introduction—overview of climate variations

  
 

1-6

Th

Climate system components

  
2

1-11

T

Atmospheric circulation and surface weather

  
 

1-13

 Th

The current climate anomaly

  
3

1-18

 T

Introduction to CDC interactive web pages

  
 

1-20

Th

Climate diagnostics

  
4

1-25

T

ENSO and teleconnections

  
 

1-27

Th

Ocean-atmosphere variations and ENSO

  
5

2-1

T

ENSO-generating mechanisms

  
 

2-3

Th

Exam 1

  
6

2-8

T

Other modes of interannual climate variability

  
 

2-10

Th

Decadal climate variations

  
7

2-15

T

20th century climatic variations

  
 

2-17

Th

Climate variations of the last millennium

  
8

2-22

T

Holocene climate variations

  
 

2-24

Th

 Holocene climate variations  
9

3-1

T

Abrupt climate change

  
  3-3 Th

Exam 2

  
10

3-8

T

Climate diagnosis presentations

  
 

3-10

Th

Climate diagnosis presentations

  
 

Expected effort:  Lectures will meet for 1.5 hours each, twice a week.  The project will require on average an additional two hours per week over the course of the term.  In addition to the usual reading and study, it will be beneficial to spend a little time each day to follow the day-to-day variation of the weather and climate, and the progression of the season in a regular fashion.  This latter activity will be "testable" in the sense that insights learned from observations can be used to answer exam questions.
 

How to deal with the readings:  All of the readings will be available as Adobe Acrobat .pdfs.  There are two reasons for this, both related to the pace and nature of research in climate variability and change:  1) there is no single up-to-date textbook (and if one existed, it would cost a fortune owing to the density of color images in would require), and 2) most of research publications and assessments (e.g. from the IPCC, and in journals) are available first (or only) as .pdfs.  Printing every single page in the .pdfs will not be feasible, and so it will be necessary to develop a personalized routine for reading the material online.
 

Other topics:  The visual inspection and interpretation of the maps and images will be important, but accommodation for alternative methods of course-material access may be possible--please see me as soon as possible.  Collaboration on the project and preparing for the exams may be useful, but the write ups and exam answers should be written individually. 

 

Violations of academic integrity, such as cheating and plagiarism, will not be tolerated. Violators may receive an F or N, and violations or suspected violations will be reported to the Director of Student Conduct. For the consequences of academic misconduct, or if you are in doubt regarding what constitutes academic misconduct, please consult the Student Conduct Code at  http://conduct.uoregon.edu , or ask the instructor.

 

No make-up tests will be given unless you provide documentation in advance and for a reason that is valid in the instructor's judgment, or you provide a medical excuse signed by a physician within a week after the test.

 

Also, the support provided by the following may be useful:
     UO Campus Life Resources http://www.uoregon.edu/~stacaf/UGCampus.htm and
     Academic Learning Services http://www.uoregon.edu/~als/index.html