Call number:
AWI A13-12-0036
Description / Table of Contents:
The modeling of the past, present, and future climates is of fundamental importance to the issue of climate change and variability. Climate change and climate modeling provides a solid foundation for science students in all disciplines for our current understanding of global warming and important natural climate variations such as El Niño, and lays out the essentials of how climate models are constructed. As issues of climate change and impacts of climate variability become increasingly important, climate scientists must reach out to science students from a range of disciplines. Climate models represent one of our primary tools for predicting and adapting to climate change. An understanding of their strengths and limitations - and of what aspects of climate science are well understood and where quantitative uncertainities arise - can be communicated very effectively to students from a broad range of the sciences. This book will provide a basis for students to make informed decisions concerning climate change, whether they go on to study atmospheric science at a higher level or not. The book has been developed over a number of years form the course that the author teaches at UCLA. It has been extensively class-tested by hundreds of students, and assumes no previous background in atmospheric science except basic calculus and physics.
Type of Medium:
Monograph available for loan
Pages:
XV, 282 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Edition:
1. published 2011, reprinted 2012
ISBN:
9780521602433
Language:
English
Note:
Contents: Preface. - 1. Overview of climate variability and climate science. - 1.1 Climate dynamics, climate change and climate prediction. - 1.2 The chemical and physical climate system. - 1.2.1 Chemical and physical aspects of the climate system. - 1.2.2 El Niño and global warming. - 1.3 Climate models: a brief overview. - 1.4 Global change in recent history. - 1.4.1 Trace gas concentrations. - 1.4.2 A word on the ozone hole. - 1.4.3 Some history of global warming studies. - 1.4.4 Global temperatures. - 1.5 El Niño: an example of natural climate variability. - 1.5.1 Some history of El Niño studies. - 1.5.2 Observations of El Niño: the 1997-98 event. - 1.5.3 The first El Niño forecast with a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. - 1.6 Paleoclimate variability. - Notes. - 2. Basics of global climate. - 2.1 Components and phenomena in the climate system. - 2.1.1 Time and space scales. - 2.1.2 Interactions among scales and the parameterization problem. - 2.2 Basics of radiative forcing. - 2.2.1 Blackbody radiation. - 2.2.2 Solar energy input. - 2.3 Globally averaged energy budget: first glance. - 2.4 Gradients of radiative forcing and energy transports. - 2.5 Atmospheric circulation. - 2.5.1 Vertical structure. - 2.5.2 Latitude structure of the circulation. - 2.5.3 Latitude-Iongitude dependence of atmospheric climate features. - 2.6 Ocean circulation. - 2.6.1 Latitude-longitude dependence of oceanic climate features. - 2.6.2 The ocean vertical structure. - 2.6.3 The ocean thermohaline circulation. - 2.7 Land surface proeesses. - 2.8 The carbon cycle. - Notes. - 3. Physical processes in the climate system. - 3.1 Conservation of momentum. - 3.1.1 Coriolis force. - 3.1.2 Pressure gradient force. - 3.1.3 Velocity equations. - 3.1.4 Application: geostrophic wind. - 3.1.5 Pressure-height relation: hydrostatic balance. - 3.1.6 Application: pressure coordinates. - 3.2 Equation of state. - 3.2.1 Equation of state for the atmosphere: ideal gas law. - 3.2.2 Equation of state for the ocean. - 3.2.3 Application: atmospheric height-pressure-temperature relation. - 3.2.4 Application: thermal circulations. - 3.2.5 Application: sea level rise due to oceanic thermal expansion. - 3.3 Temperature equation. - 3.3.1 Ocean temperature equation. - 3.3.2 Temperature equation for air. - 3.3.3 Application: the dry adiabatic lapse rate near the surface. - 3.3.4 Application: decay of a sea surface temperature anomaly. - 3.3.5 Time derivative following the parcel. - 3.4 Continuity equation. - 3.4.1 Oceanic continuity equation. - 3.4.2 Atmospheric continuity equation. - 3.4.3 Application: coastal upwelling. - 3.4.4 Application: equatorial upwelling. - 3.4.5 Application: conservation of warm water mass in an idealized layer above the thermocline. - 3.5 Conservation of mass applied to moisture. - 3.5.1 Moisture equation for the atmosphere and surface. - 3.5.2 Sources and sinks of moisture, and latent heat. - 3.5.3 Application: surface melting on an ice sheet. - 3.5.4 Salinity equation for the ocean. - 3.6 Moist processes. - 3.6.1 Saturation. - 3.6.2 Saturation in convection; lifting condensation level. - 3.6.3 The moist adiabat and lapse rate in convective regions. - 3.6.4 Moist convection. - 3.7 Wave processes in the atmosphere and ocean. - 3.7.1 Gravity waves. - 3.7.2 Kelvin waves. - 3.7.3 Rossby waves. - 3.8 Overview. - Notes. - 4. El Niño and year-to-year climate prediction. - 4.1 Recap of El Niño basics. - 4.1.1 The Bjerknes hypothesis. - 4.2 Tropical Pacific climatology. - 4.3 ENSO mechanisms I: extreme phases. - 4.4 Pressure gradients in an idealized upper layer. - 4.4.1 Subsurface temperature anomalies in an idealized upper layer. - 4.5 Transition into the 1997-98 El Niño. - 4.5.1 Subsurface temperature measurements. - 4.5.2 Subsurface temperature anomalies during the onset of El Niño. - 4.5.3 Subsurface temperature anomalies during the transition to La Niña. - 4.6 El Niño mechanisms II: dynamics of transition phases. - 4.6.1 Equatorial jets and the Kelvin wave. - 4.6.2 The Kelvin wave speed. - 4.6.3 What sets the width of the Kelvin wave and equatorial jet?. - 4.6.4 Response of the ocean to a wind anomaly. - 4.6.5 The delayed oscillator model and the recharge oscillator model. - 4.6.6 ENSO transition mechanism in brief. - 4.7 El Niño prediction. - 4.7.1 Limits to skill in ENSO forecasts. - 4.8 El Niño remote impacts: teleconnections. - 4.9 Other interannual climate phenomena. - 4.9.1 Hurricane season forecasts. - 4.9.2 Sahel drought. - 4.9.3 North Atlantic oscillation and annular modes. - Notes. - 5. Climate models. - 5.1 Constructing a climate model. - 5.1.1 An atmospheric model. - 5.1.2 Treatment of sub-grid-scale processes. - 5.1.3 Resolution and computational cost. - 5.1.4 An ocean model and ocean-atmosphere coupling. - 5.1.5 Land surface, snow, ice and vegetation. - 5.1.6 Summary of principal climate model equations. - 5.1.7 Climate system modeling. - 5.2 Numerical representation of atmospheric and oceanic equations. - 5.2.1 Finite-difference versus spectral models. - 5.2.2 Time-stepping and numerical stability. - 5.2.3 Staggered grids and other grids. - 5.2.4 Parallel computer architecture. - 5.3 Parameterization of small-scale processes. - 5.3.1 Mixing and surface fluxes. - 5.3.2 Dry convection. - 5.3.3 Moist convection. - 5.3.4 Land surface processes and soil moisture. - 5.3.5 Sea ice and snow. - 5.4 The hierarchy of climate models. - 5.5 Climate simulations and climate drift. - 5.6 Evaluation of climate model simulations for present-day climate. - 5.6.1 Atmospheric model climatology from specified SST. - 5.6.2 Climate model simulation of climatology. - 5.6.3 Simulation of ENSO response. - Notes. - 6. The greenhouse effect and climate feedbacks. - 6.1 The greenhouse effect in Earth's current climate. - 6.1.1 Global energy balance. - 6.1.2 A global-average energy balance model with a one-layer atmosphere. - 6.1.3 Infrared emissions from a layer. - 6.1.4 The greenhouse effect: example with a completely IR-absorbing atmosphere. - 6.1.5 The greenhouse effect in a one-layer atmosphere, global-average model. - 6.1.6 Temperatures from the one-layer energy balance model. - 6.2 Global warming I: example in the global-average energy balance model. - 6.2.1 Increases in the basic greenhouse effect. - 6.2.2 Climate feedback parameter in the one-layer global-average model. - 6.3 Climate feedbacks. - 6.3.1 Climate feedback parameter. - 6.3.2 Contributions of climate feedbacks to global-average temperature response. - 6.3.3 Climate sensitivity. - 6.4 The water vapor feedback. - 6.5 Snow/ice feedback. - 6.6 Cloud feedbacks. - 6.7 Other feedbacks in the physical climate system. - 6.7.1 Stratospheric cooling. - 6.7.2 Lapse rate feedback. - 6.8 Climate response time in transient climate change. - 6.8.1 Transient climate change versus equilibrium response experiments. - 6.8.2 A doubled-CO2 equilibrium response experiment. - 6.8.3 The role of the oceans in slowing warming. - 6.8.4 Climate sensitivity in transient climate change. - Notes. - 7. Climate model scenarios for global warming. - 7.1 Greenhouse gases, aerosols and other climate forcings. - 7.1.1 Scenarios, forcings and feedbacks. - 7.1.2 Forcing by sulfate aerosols. - 7.1.3 Commonly used scenarios. - 7.2 Global-average response to greenhouse warming scenarios. - 7.3 Spatial patterns of warming for time-dependent scenarios. - 7.3.1 Comparing projections of different climate models. - 7.3.2 Multi-model ensemble averages. - 7.3.3 Polar amplification of warming. - 7.3.4 Summary of spatial patterns of the response. - 7.4 Ice, sea level, extreme events. - 7.4.1 Sea ice and snow. - 7.4.2 Land ice. - 7.4.3 Extreme events. - 7.5 Summary: the best-estimate prognosis. - 7.6 Climate change observed to date. - 7.6.1 Temperature trends and natural variability: scale dependence. - 7.6.2 Is the observed trend consistent with natural variability or anthropogenic forcing?. - 7.6.3 Sea ice, land ice, ocean heat storage and sea level rise. - 7.7 Emissions
Location:
AWI Reading room
Branch Library:
AWI Library
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