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Overview

"Several sciences are often necessary to form the groundwork of a single art" - Mills, 1843

"Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something it is an art to deal with it" - Knuth, 1974

In the spirit of Mills and Knuth, this class will develop an approach to modeling complex systems, such as those of climate, based on the rigorous understanding of the underlying processes we understand and on exploiting our insight and creativity for those we do not. We will explore and use various numerical methods, develop computing skills, and deal with data handing as a means to and end of quantifying climate system behavior.

Download syllabus and CU policies document.

Instructor: David Noone<dcn@colorado.edu>

When: Spring 2006; Tuesday (lecture) 2:30-3:45pm,  Thursday (lab) 2:30-4:45pm

Where: Stadium 136C (Hart lab)

Prerequisites: ATOC 5050 (5720), ATOC 5060 desirable

Grading: in-class labs (20%), mid-term assignment (30%), modeling project (50%)

Office hours: TBD

Exam: none

Textbook: none

Auditing this class: please sign up to audit this class if you intend to sit in. Space is tight, and enrolled number is an important statistic for increasing computing resources and running this class again in future.

Here you will find powerpoint slides from class, weekly lab assignments, etc.. Useful reading is quoted as the initials of the author of books given below and a chapter number. Other material (e.g., papers) are mostly in pdf format. If chapters are not linked on this list, please see me to scan them in.

Assignment solutions and discussion will be posted (by some helpful volunteer) our class the ATOC7500 class wiki.
Search wiki:  

Week Date Lectures

Lab

 Reading Other
1 17 Jan Introduction notes | WEX 01 M&HS1-2, Held (2005)  
2 24 Jan Feedbacks notes | WEX 02 M&HS3, Hartmann3. Saltzmann and Moritz (1985), also Saltzmann's book.
IPCC TAR Chapter 9 (climate sensitivity), Climate sensitivity and natural variability article on realclimate.org
3 31 Jan Dynamic models notes | WEX 03 Flick through Holton 4, 6, 10 on the physics. Lorenz (1963) Lorenz Attractor from wikipedia and Wolfram. Also see the original derivation by Saltzman (1962)
4 07 Feb Spatial models (advection) notes | WEX 04 Holton 13.3, Durran 2, Kalnay 3 Rood (1987)
5 14 Feb Spectral  methods (Fourier) notes | WEX 05 Durran 2, Kalnay 3  
6 21 Feb Implicit solvers (diffusion) notes | WEX 06 Durran 2, Kalnay 3  
7 28 Feb 2d problems (Poisson solver/NDBVM) WEX07 | notes WP4, Durran 3 (Review Holton 7.7) Charney, Fjortoft and von Neumann (1950)
8 07 Mar Spherical harmonics (Transport model) WEX08 | notes Holton 13.5, WP 4.4 (good overview), Durran 4.4, KBK5 (detailed) mid-term assignment due
9 14 Mar Weather prediction model (Spectral dynamics) WEX09 | notes Holton 13.5, WP 4.4 (good overview), Durran 4.4, KBK5 (detailed)  
10 21 Mar Climate models (QG/PE model) WEX10 | notes As background Holton 6 (all of it) and 10. Good papers are Phillips (1956), and Marshall and Molteni (1993), and Marshall and So (1990)  
11 28 Mar Spring break Email project topic

 

  
  04 Apr Physical parameterization NCAR FIELD TRIP (6 April) Meet at NCAR Meta lab: see below for car pool info  
12 11 Apr Climate variability (Sun) analysis 1: PCA    
13 18 Apr Issues in modeling analysis 2: t-test assignment    
14 25 Apr presentations presentations
tuning lecture		    
15 02 May presentations presentations
summary lecture		    
16 08 May Final project due      
           
           

NCAR Field trip

We will meet at the NCAR Mesa lab (take Table Mesa westward from Broadway). There is a shuttle bus to get to NCAR, or you can grab a ride with one of the following people who will be driving: Please let me know if you can not find a ride. Please let me know if you are also driving, or if you can not find a ride. Drivers, please tell me if your car is full.

David Noone (1 + 4 passengers) [departing CU ~ 2pm from stadium car park]

Dave Kindig (1+ 4 passengers) [departing CU at ~2:15 from stadium car park]

Scott Gregory (1 + 3 passengers - ONE WAY ONLY!) [departing CU at ~2:15]

Also, Xylina and Jason are driving.

Final assignments

The final project was posted 23 March. It is due 4pm Monday 8 May (Download assignment).

List of topics will be posted here. Please email David your topic by Monday 3 April so we can discuss them all in class. This preliminary topic is non-binding.

Mid-term assignments

The midterm assignment was handed out in class on 17 February. It is due 4pm Friday 10 March (Download handout). A wiki page for related discussion is now available.

Contribution to the wiki

Please read and contribute to the class wiki. Any contributions count toward your final grade. As well as discussion of weekly assignments, the mid-term and final assignment, additions to the "reference" section will be of value to you and classmates beyond the end of semester. Please consider your additions to these sections a contributing to a long-term resource on modeling and programming.

Papers and other resources

Charney, J. G., R. Fjortoft and J. von Neumann, Numerical integration of the barotropic vorticity equation. Tellus, 2, 237-254, 1950.

Held, I., The gap between simulation and understanding in climate modeling. Bull. Am. Met. Soc., 85, 1609-1614, 2005.

Kiehl, J. T., and K. E. Trenberth, Earth's annual mean global energy budget. Bull. Am. Met. Soc., 78,197-208, 1997.

Lorenz, E., Deterministic non-periodic flow. J. Atmos. Sci., 20, 130-141, 1963.

Marshall, J., and F. Molteni, Toward a Dynamical understanding of planetary-scale flow regimes, J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 1792-1818, 1993

Marshall, J., and D. So, Thermal equilibration of planetary waves, J. Atmos. Sci., 47,  963-978, 1990

Phillips, N., The general circulation of the atmosphere: A numerical experiment. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc., 82, 123-164, 1956.

Rood, R. B., Numerical advection algorithms and their role in atmospheric transport and chemistry models. Rev. Geophys, 25, 71-100, 1987.

Saltzman, B., Finite Amplitude Free Convection as an Initial Value Problem—I, J. Atmos. Sci.,  19, 329-341.

 

Useful books

Durran, D., Numerical Methods for Wave Equations in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Springer, 1999.

Hartmann, D., Global Physical Climatology, Elsevier Academic Press, 1994

Holton, J., Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Elsevier Academic Press, 2004.

Jacobson, D., Fundamentals of atmospheric modeling, Cambridge, 1998.

Kalnay, E., Atmospheric modeling, data assimilation and predictability, Cambridge, 2003.

Krishnamurti, T. N., H. S. Bedi and V. M. Hardiker, An introduction to global spectral modeling, Oxford, 1998.

McKuffie, K., and A. Henderson-Sellers, A climate modeling primer, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, 2005.

Randall, D., General Circulation Model development, Academic press, 2000.

Robinson, W., Modeling dynamic climate systems, Springer, 2001

Salzmann, B., Dynamic paleoclimatology, Elsevier Academic Press, 2004

Trefethen, L. N., Finite Difference and Spectral Methods for Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations, unpublished text, 1996

Trenberth, K., Climate System Modeling, Cambridge, 1992.

Washington, W., and C. Parking, An introduction of three-dimensional climate modeling, 2nd ed., University Science Books, 2004.

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