Climate Journal Club Spring 2008

Focus : Several Thematic Topics

Regular Organizer : Uma Bhatt (x 2662, bhatt@gi.alaska.edu)

Meeting Time: 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Friday in IARC 319 CRN 35488

Class Syllabus available in pdf, here.

Meeting Overview:

  The "Climate Journal Club " has evolved from an informal meeting for researchers, Ph.D and Masters students that was held at IARC.

This spring we will try to broaden our views with more interdisciplinary presentations. Student presentations are welcome (even if you are not registered for the class).

We are working out the schedule with scientists according to our topic progression and their availability but the following topics will be presented during the semester:

Course Outline: Meeting Dates with Topics

DATE

TOPIC

25 Jan. 2008

class#1

  • Syllabus and Class Expectations (briefly)
  • 'What is the future of Climate Science?' with a focus on Climate Services. Discuss PNAS paper "An approach to designing a national climate service" by Miles et al., pdf available here.

1 Feb. 2008

class#2

  • M. Mesquita will present a talk titled: "Bayesian Probability - an Approach to Understanding Extreme Wind Events"
  • Informal abstract: The objective of my talk is to present the Bayesian Approach as an alternative tool in climate research. We (as scientists) are still clung to the frequentist approach where a number of trials are necessary. When we analyze extreme wind data we need all the data we can find in order to better predict a future extreme wind event. The frequentist approach may not be the 'best' one for extreme analysis. How can we predict extreme winds for the next 100 years, if we do not have enough data? The Bayesian Approach allows us to do just that. And we are going to see how during the talk!

8 Feb. 2008

class#3

  • M. Brown, AMS 2008 New Orleans trip report (~20 minutes)
  • Read and discuss paper Steele et al., 2008 'Arctic Ocean surface warming trends over the past 100 years' Geophy.Res.Letters.

15 Feb. 2008

class#4

  • Read and discuss Deser, C., and H. Teng (2008), Evolution of Arctic sea ice concentration trends and the role of atmospheric circulation forcing, 1979–2007, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L02504, doi:10.1029/2007GL032023, 22 January 2008.

22 Feb. 2008

class#5

  • We are going to eat brownies and discuss the following paper: Parker, D., C. Folland, A. Scaife, J. Knight, A. Colman, P. Baines, and B. Dong (2007), Decadal to multidecadal variability  and the climate change background, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D18115, doi:10.1029/2007JD008411. (ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/usbhatt/CJC/Parkeretal_2007.pdf)

29 Feb. 2008

class#6

  • We are going to eat something sugary and discuss the following paper to continue on the topic of the MOC and how it may be impacted in a changing climate: Vellinga, M., and P. Wu, 2008: Relations between Northward Ocean and Atmosphere Energy Transports in a Coupled Climate Model. J. Climate, 21, 561-575. (ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/usbhatt/CJC/Vellinga_Wu_2008.pdf)

7 Mar. 2008

class#7

  • Everyone will bring their 'plot of the day' or 'week' to discuss, defend and show off. Please share your research results with the group.

14 Mar. 2008

 

  • NO CLASS Spring Break!

21 Mar. 2008

class#8

  • Informational meeting about upcoming NASA/NOAA field campaigns of ARCTAS and ARCPAC. The major goal is to understand the role of Arctic haze in climate better. There will be some soot and halogen chemistry measurements. So come hear about this campaign and find out more!

  • The discussion will be lead by Bill Simpson.
    Meet Room 401 IARC. 3:30-4:30PM!

28 Mar. 2008

class#9

  • Becky Baird will lead a discussion of the paper 'Satellite-observed photosynthetic trends across boreal North America associated with climate and fire disturbance' by S. J. Goetz* et al. PNAS, 2005. available here.

4 Apr. 2008

class#10

  • Ellen Trainor will lead a discussion on 'Effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on insect-plant interactions'. by M. Hunter in Aguricultural and Forest Entomology (2001), pdf here.

11 Apr. 2008

class#11

  • Loose discussion on the topic of 'Strategies for Professional Development as a Scientist'. An email has been sent out with the discussion points to think about.

18 Apr. 2008

  • NO CLASS Friday Fling

25 Apr. 2008

class#12

  • Read and discuss Daisyworld paper,
    Wood, A. J., G. J. Ackland, J. G. Dyke, H. T. P. Williams, and T. M. Lenton (2008), Daisyworld: A review, Rev. Geophys.,46, RG1001, doi:10.1029/2006RG000217.

2 May. 2008

class#13

                      


This page was last updated 24-Apr-2008 .