Geography 475/602: Climate Change
Fall 2000
Dr. Sara Pryor.
Meeting time: MW 4:00-6:00pm. Meeting place: SB131
Contacting the instructor:
Geography (Student Building) 310.
E-mail: spryor@indiana.edu.
Office hours: MW 10:30-11:30am.
www: http://php.indiana.edu/~spryor/g602.html
Course content:
See over for a
schedule and readings.
Assignments:
For G475 students only:
1.
Two
numerical exercises. Each 10% of final grade.
2.
Paper
review. 10% for in class (10 minute) presentation. 10% for one page type
written summary.
3.
Project.
30% of final grade.
4.
Final. 30%
of final grade. The final exam will incorporate both essay questions and
calculations.
For G602 students only:
1.
Two
numerical exercises. Each 10% of final grade.
2.
Paper
review. 10% for in class (10 minute) presentation. 10% for one page type
written summary.
3.
Annotated
bibliography on topic of your choice. 15%.
(bibliography
should contain no more than 12 papers and no less than 8 papers).
4.
Project.
20% of final grade.
5.
Final. 25%
of final grade.
Note: Each
person will be required to make one in-class presentation on a paper of your
choice. You will need to declare the paper you are going to review in week 3 of
the class.
To receive a
passing grade for this class you MUST have completed all assignments and the
final examination.
Grading scale: (figures are percent of total available points)
D-:
40-45. D: 45-50. D+: 50-55. C-: 55-60. C: 60-65. C+:
65-70. B-: 70-75. B: 75-80. B+: 80-85. A-:
85-90. A: 90-95. A+: 95-100.
Readings:
The text for the
class is:
·
Bradley.
1999 Quaternary Paleoclimatology (2nd Edition) Academic Press.
Additional
readings will be placed on reserve in the Geography and Map Library. They are
taken from:
·
Crowley and
North. 1991. Paleoclimatology. Oxford
University Press.
·
Hartmann.
1994. Global Physical Climatology. Academic Press.
·
IPCC. 1996.
Climate Change 1995: The Science of
Climatic Change. Cambridge University Press.
·
Robinson
and Henderson-Sellers. 1999. Contemporary Climatology. Longman.
·
van Andel.
1994. New Views on an Old Planet. Cambridge University Press.
And relevant
journals.
Some friendly reminders:
1.
Turn up to
class. The lectures will not be directly from the readings.
2.
Do your
readings. They are designed to enhance the learning experience not to
needlessly burden you.
3.
Hand in
assignments in on time. Late submissions will be penalized by a 10% deduction
for each 24 hour period.
4.
Attend the
exam. I will ask you fair questions based on the course material (there will be
no surprises!).
5.
The
University has policies regarding cheating and plagiarism. Please be aware of
those policies, I will adhere to them without exception.
6.
I expect
all students to show courtesy to myself and each other during class periods.
Brief outline of topics
covered (and an approximate time-line)
|
Lecture # and date |
Topic and principal readings. The
readings listed here maybe supplemented. Assignments and other notes. |
|
1+2 28/8 30/8 |
OVERVIEW OF
THE CLIMATE SYSTEM: Current
climate and weather. Atmospheric structure and circulation patterns. Energy
in our atmosphere. Simple models of the climate system. ·
Chp 2: The Global energy balance.
Hartmann ·
Chp 7: The general circulation and
global climate. Robinson and Henderson-Sellers . ·
Chp 2: Climate and climate variations.
Bradley |
|
3+4 4/9 6/9 |
Class
cancelled. |
|
5+6 11/9 13/9 7 18/9 |
CLIMATE
FORCING: Evolution of
the atmosphere. Orbital variations. Plate tectonics and ocean circulations. Catastrophic
events and short-term perturbations. Internal regulation (biochemical cycles
and the Gaia hypothesis). ·
Chp 11: Natural climate change.
Hartmann ·
Chp 10: Other times and other oceans.
Van Andel ·
Charlson et al. Nature 326 p655. ·
Chp 2: Climate and climate variations.
Bradley Student
presentations Declare topic
and paper to be reviewed (due 11/9). Assignment
1 due 13/9. Assignment 2 distributed 18/9. |
|
8 20/9 9 25/9 |
INTRODUCTION
TO PALEOCLIMATE TECHNIQUES: Concepts key
to developing chronologies. ·
Chp 3 and 4: Dating Methods. Bradley. Specifics of
the inferences we can draw from: ice core, ocean sediments and tree rings.
Including; temporal and spatial scales and possible sources of inaccuracies. ·
Chp 5, 6 and 10. Bradley. HISTORICAL
CLIMATOLOGY: What are the
written sources of data prior to instrumentation? ·
Chp 11: Documentary data. Bradley. Guest
lecture by Dr. Todd A.
Thompson |
|
10 27/9 11 2/10 |
CLIMATE
AND ENVIRONMENTAL ‘PERIODS’: Climate during
the geological record. Century- to millennium-scale climatic variability
during the Late Quaternary. Climate variability on the 10-100 year time
scale: observations and possible causes. Ice ages and warm epochs. Initiating
and terminating mechanisms and feedbacks. ·
Chp 4 and 5: Portrait of an ice age.
Van Andel. ·
Chp 5: Historical climate fluctuations.
Crowley and North. Student presentations |
|
12 4/10 13 9/10 |
ATMOSPHERIC
CHANGE WITHIN THE INSTRUMENT RECORD: What have we
observed: How? Why? Where? ·
Chp 3 in Climate Change 1995: The
Science of Climatic Change (by Nicholls et al.). Guest lecture by Dr. Scott Robeson. Student presentations Project due 9/10. |
|
14 9/10 15 16/10 |
FUTURE
CLIMATE: Development of
future climate scenarios. Modeling past and future climate. Biotic impacts
and possible feedbacks. ·
Chp 9
and Chp 10 in Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climatic Change (by Melillo
et al. and Denman et al.). ·
Chp 12 Paleoclimate models. Bradley.
Student presentations |
|
16 18/10 |
Final exam |