AT350: Introduction to Weather and Climate

Final grades are now posted on RAMCT

Fall 2009
Instructor: David W. J. Thompson
TAs: Katie Boyd and Jeremiah Sjoberg
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University

Meeting times:
Tuesday/Thursday, 1:00-1:50 PM, Glover 130

TA Office hours:
Tuesdays 2-3 pm; Thursdays 12-1 pm (In Engineering 204)

Syllabus

EXTRA CREDIT
Send as a PDF file via email to davet@atmos.colostate.edu
DUE: 6PM DECEMBER 15 (it's the end of the semester, so late assignments will not be accepted)

Download the IPCC 4th Assessment Report Summary for Policymakers (SPM).
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf

The document summarizes for policy makers (in government and elsewhere) the current status (as of 2007) of the scientific communities understanding of climate change.
For the extra-credit assignment, please read the document and then summarize in two pages (single spaced text) the following:

1. The observational evidence for climate change
2. The theoretical basis for climate change.
3. Predictions for the future.
4. Why future climate change matters for humans and other animals.
5. Uncertainties in climate change.
6. Mitigation strategies.

The extra-credit assignment is worth UP TO 8 points of your final grade. Feel free to discuss the document with other students, but the write-up must be in your own words. Please do not plagiarize from other students or the SPM.

Homework

Homework 1

Homework 2

Homework 3

Problems from lecture on Oct. 22

Course notes

Set 02: Atmospheric descriptors

Set 03: Composition

Set 04: Radiation

Set 05: Variability in temperature

Set 06: Atmospheric water

Set 07: Cloud development