This course introduces students to climate studies, including beginnings of the solar system, time scales, and climate in human history. It also talks about:
- methods for detecting climate change, including proxies, ice cores, instrumental records, and time series analysis
- physical and chemical processes in climate, including primordial atmosphere, ozone chemistry, carbon and oxygen cycles, and heat and water budgets
- internal feedback mechanisms, including ice, aerosols, water vapor, clouds, and ocean circulation
- climate forcing, including orbital variations, volcanism, plate tectonics, and solar variability
- climate models and mechanisms of variability, including energy balance, coupled models, and global ocean and atmosphere models
This course meets with graduate subject 12.842 (Climate Physics and Chemistry), but assignments differ.
For more information: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-842-climate-physics-and-chemistry-fall-2008/syllabus/
Taught By: Prof. Carl Wunsch, Prof. Edward Boyle, Prof. Kerry Emanuel
