Understanding Climate Change - Prüfungsnummer 9958393

Scientific basis of global warming

During the last few years, statistical evidence increased that the currently observed climate change is due to human activity. “Burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock are increasingly influencing the climate and the Earth's temperature. This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming” (from: Causes of climate change, European Commission).

In this elective course, we would like to explore the mechanisms behind global warming and climate change in general. We would like to answer questions like: Why are CO2 and N2O greenhouse gases, but not N2 and O2, the two most abundant gases in our atmosphere? Is CH4 worse than CO2? What’s about water in the atmosphere?  Why is it so hard to predict the climate of the future? What makes climate modelling so difficult? What needs to be done in the future and what should be avoided in order to reduce the consequences of climate change?

We will talk about non-linear, complex systems (like the Earth), and how to simulate such systems in a computer. Next to the lectures and exercises, we will try to implement simple numerical models ourselves. We will use them to directly simulate and study the interaction of different components of the climate system.
After completion of this course the students know the main scientific methods and approaches which play an important role in the analysis and assessment of climate change. They know the fundamental principles of climate modelling and can use simple models for a direct simulation of specific effects. The students developed an understanding for the complexity of the Earth system. They are able to estimate the capabilities but also the limitations of the current state-of-the-art of climate science. The knowledge acquired in this course will help the students in discussions about climate change.

Contents:

• Overview of the climate of past times
• A simple model to simulate the occurrence of ice-ages
• Historical emissions of greenhouse gases, current observations
• How greenhouse gases work: introduction to spectroscopy
• The Earth’s atmosphere
• Introduction to climate modelling
• The behaviour of non-linear, complex systems
• Current state, challenges and limitations
• Future action

Target audience: students interested in the fascinating combination of chemistry, physics, mathematics and computational science

Requirements: basic knowledge of physics and mathematics, first programming experience, curiosity

Dozent: Prof. Dr. W. Holger

Stand: 10.08.2023