ATMO336 - Outline for Third Exam

Climate and the General Circulation

• What is climate? - Definition, Differences between weather and climate - What factors affect a region's climate? - Climate controls; Rainshadow effect - Class notes, web pages.
• Urban climate - Energy characteristics, observed climate of cities; urban heat island - Class notes, web pages.
• General circulation of the atmosphere - Three cell model; names of surface winds and pressure systems - Class notes; web pages.
• Causes of climate change - Feedback mechanisms; Milankovitch theory (eccentricity, precession, and obliquity); changes in atmospheric composition - Class notes.

Climate through Human History

• The Geological Time Scale - timing; relative duration; - web pages.
• Reconstructing past climates - Instrumental records, historical and archaeological records, environmental indicators; oxygen isotope analysis - Class notes, web pages.
• The climate of the Pleistocene - What drives glacial cycles; causes of glaciations; the end of the ice age world - Class notes, web pages.
• Human Evolution and Climate - relative dates; climate forcing - Class notes; web pages.
• The Climate of the Holocene - the Younger-Dryas event, climatic optimum, little climatic optimum, the little Ice Age; the invention of agriculture - Class notes; web pages.
• The Climate of the 20th Century - the 20th century warming - Class notes; web pages.
• Variability of present climate - Volcanic eruptions and ENSO

Climate through Human History

• Weather forecasting - Weather forecast models; sensitivity to initial conditions - Class notes; web pages.
• Climate models - Uses; sources of errors; their prediction of future climate - Class notes; web pages.
• Global Warming - possible consequences;