C244A. Radiation and Climate. (4) Lecture, three hours.
Requisites: courses C203C/C165 or instructor's consent

Introduction to solar and thermal radiation in the Earth's climate; Radiation budgets determined from satellites; Radiative and convective atmospheres and one-dimensional climate models for temperature perturbation study associated with increases in greenhouse gases and aerosols, the role of clouds; One-dimensional energy-balance models for paleoclimate study; Introduction to general circulation models for climate research; Cloud radiative forcing, greenhouse warming, and feedback; Aerosol radiative forcing; Radiation in El Nino and Southern Oscillation. (Offered every other year).

Textbook: An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Academic Press, 2002, Chapter 8; additional references will also be provided.

Letter grades: students are required to write a term paper on a subject of radiation and climate of interest to them and present it in class

Outline of the course

• INTRODUCTION: the meaning of climate; external radiative forcing; radiative equilibrium

• RADIATION BUDGET OF THE EARTH-ATMOSPHERE SYSTEM: satellite observations; cloud radiative forcing; atmospheric heating and cooling rates; surface radiation budget

• RADIATIVE-CONVECTIVE CLIMATE MODELS: radiative and convective equilibrium; heat budget of the earth-atmosphere system; convective adjustment; increase in greenhouse gases and temperature perturbation; radiative forcing consideration

• ENERGY-BALANCE CLIMATE MODELS: atmospheric and surface energy budgets; linear and diffusion approaches; solar constant and solar insolation perturbations

• INTRODUCTION TO GLOBAL CLIMATE MODELS: cloud radiative forcing in global models; greenhouse warming and cloud feedback; aerosol radiative forcing and indirect effect; radiation in interannual variability