IMPRS course 'Physical foundations for Earth system science'

1.  General information

Date: September 8, 10 and 12, 2025 from 09:00 - 16:00
Location: MPI-BGC, B0.002
Teacher: Axel Kleidon
Category: Skill course
0.6 CP for the whole course

The course reviews the key physical concepts behind Earth system processes. It relates these concepts to mechanisms, to their mathematical formulation, and demonstrates how these provide first-order estimates of Earth system functioning and climate change.
The goals are to enable the participants to relate Earth system processes to basic physical concepts, to identify the dominant mechanisms, formulate these in equations, and to derive first-order estimates of magnitudes of these processes. To do so, the course will combine short lecture segments with discussions and practical applications, and to work together to derive simple quantitative estimates and discuss how these relate to the physical foundations. A background in physics or math is explicitly not required.

The main focus is on climate over land, hydrological cycling, and global climate change.

2.  Preliminary agenda

September 8 morning: Basic physics of the Earth system
• Review of physical concepts
• Quantum physics vs. classical physics
• Energy, entropy, work
• Disequilibrium and dissipative systems
• Entropy, causality, and the second law of thermodynamics
• Examples and applications

September 8 afternoon: Radiation, temperature, motion
• Absorption and radiation laws
• Energy balances and temperatures
• Heat engines and motion
• Climate effects of motion
• Examples and applications

September 10 morning: Climate over land
• Surface energy balance
• Surface and near-surface air temperature
• Boundary layer dynamics
• Diurnal variations of temperature and relative humidity
• Examples and applications

September 10 afternoon: Water on land
• Physics and hydrological cycling
• Water balance
• Evaporation estimates
• Condensation and precipitation
• Hydrological cycling and climate
• Examples and applications

September 12 morning: Global climate change
• Basics of greenhouse gases
• Radiative transfer and the atmospheric window
• Estimating longwave radiation and its changes
• Patterns of global warming
• Changes in hydrological cycling
• Examples and applications

September 12 afternoon: Complex systems concepts
• Sensitivities and interactions
• Feedbacks and their quantification
• Multiple steady states and tipping points
• Examples and applications

3.  Registration

Please register here.