99520 - MODERN CLIMATE CHANGE

Learning outcomes

This course will provide students with the scientific foundation of modern, anthropogenic climate change and its impacts. The course will learn (1) the observational evidence of present climate change, (2) fundamental physical processes that shape climate (e.g. solar variability, orbital mechanics, greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and aerosols), (3) the modern description of climate change (radiative forcing, feedbacks, climate sensitivity) and (4) the physical understanding of predictions of future climate change (for example, how global warming will impact the global water cycle). At the end of the course, students will be able to understand and discuss about material consequences of climate change, like sea level change, variations in precipitation, extreme events and abrupt climate change. This course will also examine the science behind mitigation and adaptation proposals.

Course contents

Introduction: current climate change and earth’s climate history

The instrumental record of temperature. Other evidences of global warming: changes of sea level and cryosphere. Earth’s climate of the past: the paleoclimatological record. Other observed changes of our climate.

Natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change

Possible causes of climate change. Solar luminosity variation. Natural Aerosol. Orbital variations. The greenhouse effect and radiative forcing. Stratospheric cooling. Anthropogenic drivers of climate change. Attribution of modern climate change.

Quantifying temperature changes

Climate sensitivity. Feedbacks. Polar amplification and involved feedbacks.

Clouds and climate

Cloud fundamentals. Cloud microphysics. Cloud feedbacks and climate uncertainty.

Global warming and extremes

Droughts. The response of the hydrological cycle to global warming. Precipitation extremes. Soil moisture. Heat waves. Attribution of climate and weather extreme events.

Sea level

Sea level rise. Global mean sea level changes. Regional sea level changes.

Changes in the cryosphere: sea-ice and ice-sheets

Artic sea ice. Processes and feedback. Detection of climate change. Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.

Readings/Bibliography

The IPCC Assessment reports

Dennis L. Hartmann, Global Physical Climatology

Eli Tziperman, Global Warming Science

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures

Assessment methods

The final exam (average duration: 45 minutes) consist of an oral examination (2-3 questions) to test the student’s level of understanding of the phenomenological, physical and mathematical aspects of the two modules’ contents.

Teaching tools

Blackboard, PC and projector.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Pascale