IMPRS-gBGC course: Atmosphere, Ocean & Land 2018

Category: Core course
Credit points: 0.2/course day

1. Date & Place

February 26 - March 9, 2018
start at 9:00 a.m.
Seminar room B0.002

2. Concept

IMPRS-gBGC core courses introduce doctoral candidates to scientific fields relevant to global biogeochemical cycles in which they have no deep knowledge yet. The purpose of those courses is to facilitate interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.

3. Preparation

Please make sure that a working implementation of X windows system is installed on your laptop before the exercises start. For Windows, this could be Cygwin/X, for Mac OS you could use the X11 app. There is a variety of similar applications available, also for Linux systems.

4. Agenda

Legend L = Lecture, P = Practical

Time	Type	Content	Who
Monday, February 26		Basics	Axel Kleidon
9:00-12:30	L, P	Overview of the module: goals, expectations Introduction to the climate system: atmosphere, ocean, land, ice, interior, structure, composition, global biogeochemical cycles, human activity and global change Atmospheric basics: forms of energy and energy transfer, first and second law of thermodynamics, ideal gas law, hydrostatic balance, lapse rate, barometric equation, Carnot efficiency, maximum work
14:00-17:00	L, P	Radiative forcing: basic radiation laws, radiative temperature, variations in solar radiation, greenhouse effect Planetary energy balance: components of the global energy balance, atmospheric heat transport, planetary comparison Biogeochemical cycles: global cycles, residence times, geology and biogeochemical cycles, evolution of atmospheric composition Wrap-up: summary, next steps, feedback
Wednesday, February 28		Radiation	Julia Marshall
9:00-12:00	L, P	Absorption by atmospheric gases black body radiation and the electromagnetic spectrum molecular absorption lines of major constituents of the atmosphere solar and earth spectra at the ground and the top of the atmosphere introduction to simple online radiative transfer model remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases
14:00-15:30	L, P	Attenuation by other atmospheric constituents scattering in the Rayleigh, Mie, and geometric regimes introduction to aerosols and their optical properties direct and indirect radiative effects of aerosols cloud radiative properties testing cloud and aerosol radiative properties with 1-D radiation model multiple scattering
15:30-17:00	P	Further experiments with a 1-D radiation model Following the examples introduced in the previous sections, further experiments will be carried out using the 1-D radiative transfer model, working in teams. Within the model we can test the effect of changing the quantity of various greenhouse gases, the aerosol optical depth, the cloud properties, and the surface albedo, among other things. By the end of the day the participants should have a better feeling of what 1 W/m² means, and the radiative implications of some proposed geoengineering methods and climate feedbacks.
Monday, March 5		Dynamics	Christoph Gerbig
9:00-10:30	L	Motion in atmosphere and ocean, hydrologic cycle global circulation of the atmosphere frontal systems basics of global ocean circulation hydrologic cycle, clouds
11:00-12:30	L	Numerical transport modeling Meteorological observation systems Meteorological data assimilation Reanalysis, reanalysis products Atmospheric tracer transport Application: Atmospheric inversion
14:00-17:00	P	Exercises with numerical transport models We will use a Lagrangian Dispersion Model (LPDM) and a global Transport Model to see how atmospheric transport and mixing of emissions and biosheric fluxes affects the distribution of CO₂ in the atmosphere.
Wednesday, March 7		Surface exchange	Christoph Gerbig, Olaf Kolle, Tarek El-Madany
9:00-10:30	L	Land surface climatology fluxes at the land surface albedo climate feedback biophysical feedback Boundary layer meteorology general characteristics, structure and diurnal cycle atmospheric stability	Christoph Gerbig
11:00-11:45	L	Boundary layer meteorology (cont.) atmospheric turbulence scaling laws	Christoph Gerbig
11:45-12:30	L	Eddy flux measurements turbulent fluxes eddy covariance method measurement technique	Olaf Kolle, Tarek El-Madany
14:00-17:00	P	Application of eddy covariance method: demonstration of eddy covariance measurement system at the institute processing of eddy covariance data	Olaf Kolle, Tarek El-Madany
Friday, March 9		Oceans and Cryosphere	Mathias Goeckede, Karel Castro Morales
09:00-10:30	L	Basic principles on global ocean circulation Drivers of global ocean circulation Large scale surface and deep ocean circulation Large scale features of the surface ocean Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean circulation	Karel Castro Morales
11:00-13:00	L, P	Global ocean carbon cycle Carbonate system and ocean acidification Decadal global trends of oceanic CO2 uptake Climate Oscillations (El Niño and others)	Karel Castro Morales
14:00-15:30	L	Special role of the Arctic in the climate system Arctic amplification Permafrost-carbon feedback with climate change Teleconnections	Mathias Göckede

5. Course material

Slides by Axel Kleidon
Slides by Julia Marshall
Slides by Christoph Gerbig: Dynamics, part 1
Slides by Christoph Gerbig: Dynamics, Numerical transport modeling, part 2
Download link for the material by Tarek El-Madany
Slides by Christoph Gerbig: Land surface climatology and boundary layer meteorology
Download link for the practical part by Karel Castro Morales
Slides by Karel Castro Morales: Global ocean circulation and carbon cycle
Slides by Mathias Göckede: Special role of the Arctic in the climate system

6. Feedback

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