12.842 | Fall 2008 | Graduate

Climate Physics and Chemistry

Lecture Notes

This course is taught by 3 instructors in 6 parts. The first, fourth and fifth parts are taught by Prof. Edward Boyle. The second and sixth parts are taught by Prof. Carl Wunsch. The third part is taught by Prof. Kerry Emanuel. The first 6 lecture notes in Part 1 contain materials provided by Prof. Julian Sachs in University of Washington. Used with permission.

Images from journals published by the American Meteorological Society are copyright © AMS and used with permission.

LEC # TOPICS
Part 1. Paleoclimate
1 The origin of the earth, atmosphere and life (PDF - 1.5 MB)
2 The early geochemical evolution of the earth and the origin of life (PDF)
3 The co-evolution of life, ocean-atmospheric chemistry, and sedimentary rocks (PDF - 1.9 MB)
4 The Faint Young Sun Paradox, the geochemical C cycle and climate on geologic time scales (PDF)
5 Long-term climate cycles and the proterozoic glaciations (“Snowball Earth”) (PDF)
6 Climate on geologic time scales and the CO2-climate connection (PDF)
7 Pleistocene ice age cycles 0-2.65 ma (PDF - 1.9 MB)
8 Ice sheet paleoclimatology (PDF)
Part 2. Time series and random processes in climate
9 Randomness and chaos in the climate system (PDF - 1.2 MB)
Part 3. Role of the atmosphere in climate
10 Climate physics and chemistry (PDF)
11 Radiative transfer (PDF - 3.5 MB)
12 Moist convection (PDF - 1.4 MB)
13 Flux of water (PDF - 1.4 MB)
14 Heat transport (PDF - 2.4 MB)
15 What controls the temperature gradient in middle and high latitudes? (PDF - 1.0 MB)
Part 4. Ocean carbon system
16 Natural and fossil fuel CO2 in the ocean I (PDF - 2.7 MB)
17 Natural and fossil fuel CO2 in the ocean II (PDF - 1.0 MB)
18 Changes in CO2 during the past million years (PDF)
Part 5. Atmospheric chemistry and climate
19 Atmospheric chemistry I: ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and dimethyl sulfide (PDF)
20 Atmospheric chemistry II: methane (PDF)
Part 6. Ocean physics and climate
21 Ocean circulation for climate understanding (PDF - 1.7 MB)

Course Info

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Lecture Notes