Core course: Atmosphere & Ocean

Date & Place

May 02-06, 2011
start on Monday at 10 a.m., on the other days at 9 a.m.
Seminar room B0.002

Preparation

Please make sure that a working implementation of X windows system is installed on your laptop before the exercises start. For Windows, this could be Cygwin/X, for Mac OS you could use the X11 app, there is a variety of similar applications available, also for Linux systems.

Outline

More information will follow after April 15, 2011.
Legend L = Lecture, D = Demonstration, P = Practical, E = Excursion

Time	Type	Content	Who
Mon		Basics	Axel Kleidon, Christoph Gerbig
10:00-10:20	L	Overview of the module: goals, expectations
10:20-11:00	L	Introduction to the climate system: atmosphere, ocean, land, ice, interior, structure, composition, global biogeochemical cycles, human activity and global change
11:00-12:30	L, P	Atmospheric basics: forms of energy and energy transfer, first and second law of thermodynamics, ideal gas law, hydrostatic balance, lapse rate, barometric equation, Carnot efficiency, maximum work
14:00-14:45	L, P	Radiative forcing: basic radiation laws, radiative temperature, variations in solar radiation, greenhouse effect
14:45-15:30	L, P	Planetary energy balance: components of the global energy balance, atmospheric heat transport, planetary comparison
15:45-16:30	L, P	Biogeochemical cycles: global cycles, residence times, geology and biogeochemical cycles, evolution of atmospheric composition
16:30-17:00		Wrap-up: summary, next steps, feedback
Tue		Radiation	Dietrich Feist, Julia Marshall
9:00-10:30	L	Absorption by atmospheric gases black body radiation and the electromagnetic spectrum molecular absorption lines of major constituents of the atmosphere absorption coefficient and opacity continuous and discrete radiative transfer equation solar and earth spectra at the ground and the top of the atmosphere	Dietrich Feist
11:00-12:30	L	Attenuation by other atmospheric constituents scattering in the Rayleigh, Mie, and geometric regimes introduction to aerosols and their optical properties direct and indirect radiative effects of aerosols cloud radiative properties multiple scattering	Julia Marshall
14:00-17:00	P	Exercises with a 1-D radiation model Using an online version of a real one-dimensional radiative transfer model, various experiments will be undertaken. This will allow one to test the effect of changing the quantity of various greenhouse gases, the aerosol optical depth, the cloud properties, and the surface albedo, among other things. It should provide the students with a better feeling of what 1 W/m² means.	Julia Marshall and Dietrich Feist
Wed		Surface exchange	Ute Karstens, Olaf Kolle
9:00-10:30	L	Land surface climatology fluxes at the land surface albedo climate feedback biophysical feedback Boundary layer meteorology general characteristics, structure and diurnal cycle atmospheric stability	Ute Karstens
11:00-11:45	L	Boundary layer meteorology (cont.) atmospheric turbulence scaling laws	Ute Karstens
11:45-12:30	L	Eddy flux measurements turbulent fluxes eddy covariance method measurement technique	Olaf Kolle
14:00-17:00	P	Application of eddy covariance method: demonstration of eddy covariance measurement system at the institute processing of eddy covariance data	Olaf Kolle
Thu		Dynamics	Christoph Gerbig, Christian Roedenbeck
9:00-10:30	L	Motion in atmosphere and ocean, hydrologic cycle global circulation of the atmosphere frontal systems basics of global ocean circulation hydrologic cycle, clouds	Christoph Gerbig
11:00-12:30	L	Numerical transport modeling Meteorological observation systems Meteorological data assimilation Reanalysis, reanalysis products Atmospheric tracer transport Application: ``Atmospheric inversion''	Christian Rödenbeck
14:00-17:00	P	Exercises with numerical transport models We will use a Lagrangian Dispersion Model (LPDM) and a global Transport Model to see how atmospheric transport and mixing of emissions and biosheric fluxes affects the distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere.	Christoph Gerbig and Christian Rödenbeck
Fri		Climate, Feedbacks and Change	Axel Kleidon, Martin Heimann
09:00-10:30	L	The global ocean carbon cycle	Martin Heimann
10:45-12:15	L	climatology, feedbacks, climate modelling	Axel Kleidon
14:00-17:00	L, P	Application: Global Change anthropogenic and natural drivers impact on radiative forcing detection and attribution of climate change climate projections for this century long term (millenia) climate change mitigation geoengineering