This page describes courses taught at UCLA by Prof. Alex Hall. Here you can also find links to syllabi and course web sites.

2004-2005 Academic Year

AOS 200B Introduction to the Dynamics of the Earth System

Lecture and discussion, four units. Fall quarter 2004. Overview of general circulation of atmosphere and ocean; global energy balances; coupled circulations (such as El Niño); mesoscale, synoptic, and tropical phenomena; boundary layers, clouds, and convection; biogeochemical cycles; climate variability and change. Letter grading.
Mon/Wed 9:00-10:30AM
syllabus

AOS 1 Climate Change: from Puzzles to Policy
link to official course web site

Lecture and discussion, four units. Special laboratory option 1L, one unit. Spring quarter 2005. Overview of the fundamentals of earth's climate, including the greenhouse effect, water and chemical cycles, outstanding features of the atmospheric and ocean circulation, and feedbacks between different system components. Exciting and contentious scientific puzzles of the climate system, including the causes of the ice ages, greenhouse warming, and El Nino/La Nina. The importance of climate science and prediction to society, with emphasis on science's role in identifying, quantifying, and solving environmental problems such as the ozone hole and greenhouse warming.
Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:45AM
syllabus

Past Courses 

AOS 281 Special Topics in Dynamic Meteorology: Climate Sensitivity

Lecture, 3 units. Fall Quarter 2001.
How much will the earth warm for a given increase in greenhouse gases? What is the climate's sensitivity to other kinds of external forcings, such as volcanic eruptions or changes in the distribution of sunshine due to changes of the earth's orbit? These timely issues are the topic of this course. We will examine the main mechanisms thought to control climate sensitivity and the geographical distribution of climate response, including temperature, lapse rate, water vapor, cloud, and ice/snow albedo feedbacks. In addition, we will examine processes modulating the transient response of the climate to an external forcing, such as the ocean circulation. Finally, we will study how the hydrologic cycle, an element of climate of comparable importance to temperature, might change in response to an external forcing. Letter grading.
Tu/Th 10-11:30
syllabus

AOS 244 Radiation and Climate

Lecture/Discussion, 4 units. Spring Quarter 2002.
This quarter, AS244 was offered as a special research seminar on the role of the diurnal cycle in determining the mean state of the climate system. Letter grading.
Tu/Th 3-4:30PM
schedule
reading list