SOEE3410 : Atmosphere & Ocean Climate Change

This module examines the processes controlling climate change in both the atmosphere and ocean, and the interactions between them. The lectures are split into three broad (and overlapping) groups covering atmosphere-surface interactions; clouds, aerosols, and radiative processes; and oceanographic processes.

Assessed Climate Modelling Exercise

The climate modelling exercise uses a simplified climate model with a web-interface. It is accessible here, but only from machines on the university network.

Lecture Slides

Copies of the lecture slides will be posted on the VLE shortly after each lecture.

Sea-Ice animation

Animation of changes in Arctic sea-ice age over time

Suggested Reading

There are very few texts treating the complex interelated atmospheric and oceanographic processes involved in climate change at a level appropriate for a general undergraduate course. These texts should be accessible to non-specialists:

• IPCC Assessment Reports can be downloaded as PDF files free of charge from:
• http://www.ipcc.ch/
• Human Impacts on Weather and Climate. William Cotton & Roger Pielke, 1995, Cambridge University Press.

The texts listed below are at a rather more advanced level, but sections of them will provide excellent background material, as well as going into considerably more detail than is required here:

• The Physics of Atmospheres. John Houghton, 2002, Cambridge University Press.
• Boundary Layer Meteorology. Roland Stull,1988, Kluwer Academic Press.
• The Atmosphere and Ocean. Neil Wells, 1997, Wiley.

A major international research programme is currently underway to investigate the interactions between the ocean and atmosphere: the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS)(Both Ian Brooks and Ken Carslaw are involved in SOLAS research projects). Parts of the science plan provides an excellent background to the scientic issues covered in this course.

• FOCUS 2: Exchange Processes at the Air-Sea Interface and the Role of Transport and Transformation in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Boundary Layers [PDF]
• FOCUS 3: Air-Sea Flux of CO2 and Other Long-Lived Radiatively Active Gases [PDF]

Hurricanes & Climate:

The papers referenced in the surface-climate feedback lecture on the links between hurricanes and climate, plus other papers of interest are listed below:

• Emmanuel, K. 2005: Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years, Nature, 436, doi:10.1038/nature03906. [pdf]
• Emmanuel, K. 2001: Contributions of tropical cyclones to meridional heat transport by the oceans. J. Geophys. Res., 106, D14, 14771-14781. [pdf]
• Trenberth, K. 2005: Uncertainty in hurricanes and global warming. Science. 308, 17 June, 1753-1754,
  doi: 10.1126/science/1112551. [pdf]

Ocean Processes reading list: [PDF]

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