Course Information
Instructor: U. Bhatt (474-2662, usbhatt@alaska.edu), IARC 307
When: T-Th  9:45-11:15PM, IARC Room 407
Office Hours: T-Th – 12:00-1:00PM and by appointment  (send email)
Course Web page: ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/usbhatt/Teaching/ATM656/atm656.fall09.html
Registration information: ATM 456/ 656 CRN: 86289 / 86310
Course Prerequisite:  Graduate level: ATM 601 or equivalent or permission of instructor, and basic computer skills.  Undergraduate level: ATM 401 or equivalent or permission of instructor, basic computer skills.

Final Exam: No Final Exam but there will be a Final Project

IMPORTANT INFORMATION DURING SEMESTER
Blackboard Enabled Class
Course Calendar: click here, includes homework assignment lists and due dates.
Useful Links: click here

Course Syllabus as a pdf is available here (version posted 9/2/2009) and is shown as text below:

Course Description:
This course covers the basics concepts of climate variability and change. We will cover the topics from Chapters 1-12 of Hartmann and supplement these topics with chapters from the 2007 IPCC report and various advanced climate texts.  A detailed schedule of topics is available on the course web page under ‘Course Calendar’.

Materials Needed:
Recommended Text: Global Physical Climatology (The International  Geophysics Series, Vol 56) by Dennis Hartmann, Academic  Press, 1994, ISBN: 012328530-5. List Price:  $83.95.

Other Tools:

• IPCC Report: Climate Change 2007: The Scientific Basis, downloadable pdfs (available on-line)

• Ruddiman, W. F., 2001, “Earth’s Climate: Past and Future”, Freeman Press, 465 pp.

• R. Pierrehumbert text in progress: ‘The Climate Book’ is available on his web page at http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/ClimateBook/ClimateBook.html
  
  
• J. Marshall and A. Plumb, 2007: Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Volume 93: An Introductory Text (International Geophysics).
  
  
• Books on reserve in Mather Library (see below)
  

Course Goals:
Students will gain a fundamental knowledge of key processes in the Climate System (Climate Dynamics).

Student Learning Outcomes:
Students who take this class, participate, do the homework, and attend regularly are expected to have the following skills:

• Understand basic concepts in climate such as: Global energy balance, Surface energy balance, Hydrological cycle, Atmospheric and Oceanic general circulation as related to climate, Past climate, climate feedbacks, and Natural and Anthropogenic climate variability/change

• Ability to read climate papers in  mainstream climate research literature

• Ability to discuss current climate change issues critically

• Apply concepts from this class to their research (if applicable)

• Pass the Climate and Climate Change Comprehensive Exam (if applicable).

Instructional methods: This course is based on lectures, which will cover the major topics, emphasizing and discussing the important points. They are not sessions to regurgitate material already written in the text (though they sometimes may be!). Your personal participation is important, and it is will help you learn more efficiently to read the assigned material before lecture. There will be some homework assigned, a midterm exam to cover the lectures and a final project.
   The class overheads will be available for download from the course web page. They will contain key figures that we discuss in class. Text explaining the material will be left off of these slides so that you can write your own notes from the class lecture.

Course Policies:
Homework: There will be a few homework sets early in the semester to reinforce the basic building blocks discussed in class.
Late problem sets will have grade lowered by 10% per day late.

Exams: Exams will cover class lecture material.

Complaints and Concerns: You are always welcome to talk to me to express complaints and concerns about the class. I will listen, though I do not guarantee that I will change the way I am doing things.

Plagiarism etc: Plagiarism and cheating are matters of serious concern for students and academic institutions. This is true in this class as well. The UAF Honor Code (or Student Code of Conduct) defines academic standards expected at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which will be followed in this class. (Taken from the UAF plagiarism web site, which has many links with good information about this topic).

Evaluation: The course grade will consist of the following components.

	ATM656	ATM456
Attendance/Participation	10%	10%
Homework	15%	20%
Exam 1	25%	25%
Exam 2	25%	25%
Final Project	25%	20%

Final letter grades for ATM 656 will be based on the scale below while final letter grades for ATM 456 will be based on an adjusted scale.

Grade	ATM656	ATM456
A+	98-100%	96-100%
A	93-97%	89-95%
A-	90-92%	86-88%
B+	87-89%	83-85%
B	83-86%	79-82%
B-	80-82%	76-78%
C+	77-79%	72-75%
C	73-76%	69-71%
C-	70-72%	66-68%
D+	67-69%	60-65%
D	63-66%	56-59%
D-	60-62%	50-55%
F	<59%	<50%

Additional References:

Basic Climate Texts (Overviews)
Peixoto, J. P. and A. H. Oort, 1992:” Physics of Climate”, AIP Press, 520 pp.

Specific Climate Texts (& Special Topics)
Barry, R. and A.M Carleton, 2001, “Syonptic and Dynamic Climatology”, Routledge Press, 620 pp.
Bigg, G., 1996, “The Oceans and Climate”, Cambridge Press, 266 pp.
Grotjahn, R. 1993, “Global Atmospheric Circulations: Observations and Theories”, Academic Press, 430 pp.
Hastenrath, S., 1991: “Climate Dynamics of the Tropics”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 488 pp.
McGuffie K. and A. Henderson-Sellers, 1997, “A Climate Modeling Primer”, 253 pp.
National Research Council Publications:
            “Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises”
            “Natural Climate Variability on Decade-to-Century Time Scales”

Presentation References
Dr. Jim Callen's Preparation of Effective Scientific Talks (Univ. of Wisconsin)

General Advice:
Understanding Climate and Climate Change requires that you pull together all your knowledge in different areas. Climate 'Dynamics' begins the description of a certain phenomena and then works towards understanding the processes are responsible for this variability. Here are some suggestions for how to study climate.
1.      Read the material prior to lecture, to familiarize yourself.

• Listen carefully to the lecture and take notes, ask questions and participate. This is 10% of your grade and could mean the difference between a letter grade in the end. Also, this is a good opportunity for you to practice how science is done.

• There is a two step process in learning this material well. First you must to some extent memorize climate maps and phenomena and be able to describe them verbally. Then the second step is to understand the physical and chemical basis for why they occur. Some of you may not need to memorize the phenomena because understanding why they occur will help you remember the description of the phenomena.

4.         A significant portion of your grade will be a class project, which will entail doing 'research' on a topic that you and I have agreed upon. This means finding key papers on the topic and synthesizing the results into a coherent story that is presented orally to the class and written up in the form of a short term paper (less than 10 pages).

Disabilities Services:
The Office of Disability Services implements the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and insures that UAF students have equal access to the campus and course materials. We will work with the Office of Disabilities Services (203 WHIT, 474-7043) to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities.