ATM 693 Climate Journal Club (1 Credit)

Instructors of Record: Dr, Vladimir Alexeev (474-6430, valexeev@iarc.uaf.edu) & Dr. Uma Bhatt, (474-2662, bhatt@gi.alaska.edu)

Meeting Time: 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Friday in IARC 319 (with some exceptions)

Office Hours:  By appointment

Prerequisites: Graduate Standing and a basic knowledge of meteorology and/or oceanography, climate, such that the student is able to read and comprehend current journal articles reasonably well.   

Materials Needed: No Required Text. Reading materials will be available for students/participants to copy.

Expectation and Grading Policy: Students are expected to attend the class, do the required reading, and participate. Each student will lead a discussion for at least one journal article or give a research talk. The class will be graded Pass/Fail.          

Course Overview:

     The "Climate Group" is an informal meeting for researchers, Ph.D. and Masters students to be held at IARC. The meetings will include both progress reports on ongoing research and journal paper discussions.

The main interests include topics in: 

     New (including very raw) ideas, interesting articles, formal and not so formal presentations by locals and visitors will be on the agenda. Participating students will be exposed to a free format discussion of modern ideas in climate related disciplines.

      All students are encouraged to contribute and students taking the course for credit are required to lead at least one discussion during the semester. This may include either presenting a research plan, research results, or leading a discussion of a journal article.

     This semester the course reading will be loosely structured around the following three topics:

 

Expected Proficiencies:

Course Outline: Meeting Dates with Topics

DATE

TOPIC

MEETING ROOM & Snack

3 Sept. 2004 
  • General Class Expectations (U. Bhatt)
  • Ice Dynamics Overview (Bill Hibler)

IARC 319
Brownies

10 Sept. 2004 

  • Multidecadal Variability Discussion (I. Polyakov)
  • Atlantic Climate Variability Overview (U. Bhatt)

IARC 319
Nothing

17 Sept. 2004 

Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Kurt Cuffey, details below

IARC 407
Nothing

24 Sept. 2004 

Stommel Box Model Paper (Led by B. Hibler)

Please READ before class (See Bill to get copies if you did not get them last week):
1) Thermohaline Convection with Two Stable Regimes of Flow, by H. Stommel, Tellus, 1961, p 224-230
2) On the effect of sea-ice dynamics on oceanic thermohaline circulation, Hibler and Zhang, Annals of Glaciology, v 21, 1995.
3) Background can be found in books 'Climate System Modeling' (ed. Trenberth) and 'Global Physical Climatology' (Hartmann).

IARC 319
Cookies

1 Oct. 2004

Paper discussion: Giannini et al. 'The preconditioning role of TAV in the development of the ENSO teleconnection: implications for the prediction of Nordeste rainfall', Climate Dynamics, 2004 - Discussion led by K. Sterling

IARC 319
Cookies and Goldfish

8 Oct. 2004  

"A Model Ensemble Assessment of the Enhancement of Arctic Warming by Sea Ice Retreat" (Research Talk by Colin Murray)

IARC 319
Cookies

15 October 2004 

Climate Predictability Overview (V. Alexeev)

Papers related to this topic:
Climate Predictibility
Chaos

IARC 319
Cookies

22 October 2004

Sensitivity to Resolution in the ARPEGE Climate Model (M. Rawashan)

IARC 319
peanuts

29 October 2004   

Hurricanes Now and in the Future (John Walsh)

IARC 319

5 November 2004

Overview of the Ocean Thermohaline Circulation (H. Simmons)

IARC 319
cookies

12 November 2004 
Question to be explored this week (Think about it before class):
What are the climatic consequences of a seasonally ice-free arctic as is predicted by many models for the latter part of the 21st century? (thanks Markus)

IARC 319

19 November 2004  

Paper discussion: Marshall, John; Schott, Friedrich 1999
OPEN-OCEAN CONVECTION: OBSERVATIONS, THEORY, AND MODELS, Rev. Geophys. Vol. 37 , No. 1 , p. 1
Discussion led by Markus Janout

IARC 319

3 December 2004 

Paper Discussion: C. Mauritzen and S. Häkkinen, On the relationship between dense water formation and the "Meridional Overturning Cell" in the North Atlantic Ocean, Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, Volume 46, Issue 5, May 1999, Pages 877-894.
Led by J. Alanko.

IARC 319

10 December 2004  

Paper Discussion: T. Schmith , & C. Hansen, " Fram Strait Ice Export during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Reconstructed from a Multiyear Sea Ice Index from Southwestern Greenland"
Journal of Climate 2003 16: 2782-2791
Led by X. Zhang

IARC 319

                       

       Prof. Kurt Cuffey, University of California Berkeley (Speaker 17 Sept. 2004 )

Stable Isotopes in Polar Precipitation: A Review.

Analyses of stable isotopes in polar precipitation are an important tool for the global environmental sciences and for studies of polar regions. The venerable history of these analyses is widely recognized but misconceptions about stable isotope systematics and the proper use of stable isotopes are also common. In a series of two lectures, I will discuss (at a general level) the physical controls on the stable isotopic composition of polar precipitation, from the molecular scale upward through the meso-scale to the planetary scale. Next, the usefulness of stable isotopes in ice cores as climatic indicators will be evaluated. Finally, I will show how stable isotopes have been used, in conjunction with other tools, to establish some of the most significant findings of environmental geophysics: the role of biogeochemistry in global climate changes, the sensitivity of global climate to forcings, and the capacity of our planet's climate to change rapidly. A bibliography will be provided for those interested in more extensive exploration of the topics.
This page was last updated 14-Dec-2004 .