Lectures Thursdays 9:15-10:45, SG 3-12

The aim of the lecture course is to give an introduction to the scientific modeling of climate dynamics. The main topic will be atmospheric and ocean science, relying on various PDE models from geophysical fluid dynamics such as the rotating Boussinesq equations, the primitive equations and the quasi-geostrophic equations. In particular we will study these equations with a focus on the effect of rotation and stratification as well as the associated wave theory. Rather than building an existence theory for the associated PDE systems, the focus will be on exploring the equations via examples, mostly based on [2,4].


Seminar Fridays 11:15-12:45, A-314

The seminar will be based on selected chapters from the book [1] and is intended to complement the atmospheric/ocean modeling discussed in the lecture course. Participants are required to present a topic from the following list: 1. Global and zonal energy budget models (Ch 2+12) 2. Simple box models for the ocean circulation (Ch 3+6) 3. Basic statistical analysis and the Manua Loa CO2 case study (Ch 9+10) 4. Fourier analysis and the glacial cycle theory (Ch 5+[5]) 5. El-Niño-Southern Oscillation (Ch 16) 6. Cryosphere and sea ice (Ch 17+[7]) 7. Biogeochemistry (Ch 18) 8. Extreme events (Ch 19) 9. Data assimilation (Ch 20). Topics will be distributed at the first meeting on Thursday, 6. April, and the first seminar will be on 21. April.


Requirements: The course does not require any previous knowledge of fluid mechanics or a previous course on nonlinear PDE, but the basic PDE and ODE courses are prerequisites.


Semester: ST 2023