Climate Journal Club Spring 2006

ATM 693 Climate Journal Club (1 Credit) Spring 2006
Focus : Models of the Earth System

Instructor of Record: Uma Bhatt (x 2662, bhatt@gi.alaska.edu) & Dr, Vladimir Alexeev (474-6430, valexeev@iarc.uaf.edu) Meeting Time: 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Friday in IARC 319 CRN 36790
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.
Evaluation and Grading Policy: Students are expected to attend the class, do the required reading, participate and present one lecture. Each student will lead a discussion for at least one journal article or give a research talk. The class will be graded Pass/Fail. A passing grade requires an overall percentage of 80% or greater.

	% of total grade	Grades will be based on the following
Attendance	10%	Come to Class
Participation	40%	Discuss and provide feedback to other participants, Ask questions,
Presentation	50%	1) Technical aspects of presentation 2) Scientific content & critical thinking

Course Overview: The "Climate Group" has evolved from an informal meeting for researchers & graduate students and is held in the IARC building.This semester the class will revolve around the theme of 'Models of the Earth System'. The course will begin with formal lectures from UAF faculty on various topics aimed at the level of students. The topics covered in the formal lectures will include: History of climate modeling, Predictability Limits, Simple Models, General Circulation Models, Land Modeling. Student presentations on topics decided upon in consultation with the instructor will be given in the second half of the semester.

Expected Proficiencies:

Develop a better understanding of climate models
Learn to discuss science in a productive manner (or just throw tomatoes)
Develop skills to read papers critically
Improve the quality of your presentations

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

Course Outline: Meeting Dates with Topics

DATE	TOPIC	MEETING ROOM
20 Jan 2006 class#1	'Historical Overview of Climate Models' by Uma Bhatt	IARC 319
27 Jan 2006 class#2	'Introduction to Modeling of Atmosphere-Land Interactions' by Nicole Mölders	IARC 319
3 Feb 2006 class#3	'Atmospheric Global Climate Models (AGCMs) in a nutshell' by Uma Bhatt	IARC 319
10 Feb 2006 class#4	Discussion of GRL Paper 'Using the current seasonal cycle to constrain snow albedo feedback in future climate change' Uma will lead the discussion.	IARC 319
17 Feb 2006 class#5	'Forest Fires and Climate Variation' by Colin Murray	IARC 319
24 Feb 2006 class#6	'Sea Ice Models for Climate Studies' by Bill Hibler	IARC 319
3 Mar 2006 class#7	'Simple Climate Models' by Vladimir Alexeev	IARC 319
10 Mar 2006 class#8	Colin Murray, Atmospheric Science's student, MS thesis defense titled 'A Model Ensemble Assessment of the Enhancement of Arctic Warming by Sea Ice Retreat.' 3:30pm in 401 IARC	IARC 319
24 Mar 2006 class#9	'Simple Climate Models continued...' and 'Predictibility' by Vladimir Alexeev	IARC 319
31 Mar 2006 class#10	'Sea Ice Observations in the Context of Global Climate Modeling' by Jennifer Hutchings	IARC 319
7 Apr 2006 class#11	'Sea Ice in the 21st century as seen by IPCC GCMs' by Xiangdong Zhang	IARC 319
14 Apr 2006 class#12	'Aerosols and Climate', by Hal Needham	IARC 319
21 Apr 2006 class#13	'Climate Change and Forest Fire Potential in Russian and Canadian Boreal Forest' by Peter Bieniek	IARC 319
28 Apr 2006 class#14	No Class, UAF Springfest	IARC 319
5 May 2006 class#15	Discussion of GRL paper 'Global consequences of interactions between clouds and radiation at scales unresolved by global climate models' of Cole et al. led by C. Murray.	IARC 319

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.