Intro to Climate Modeling

Earth system and climate models are critically important tools for climate science research. They are used to study climate variability in the past, determine how climate change has contributed to recent trends and extreme events, and understand how various natural and anthropogenic forcing affect the evolution of the climate system now and into the future. This class serves as an introduction to the history, development, process representations, and practical application of earth system models. Students will learn the history and evolution of earth system modeling and how these models have been used to inform some of the most important topics in climate science (e.g., detection and attribution, future projections, climate sensitivity). Lectures, and associated lab work, will introduce the processes integrated into various components of earth system models (e.g., atmosphere, ocean, land, carbon cycle, etc), important interactions between these components (e.g., climate system feedbacks, climate sensitivity), and how earth system models are used for future projections. Students will familiarize themselves with the wealth of climate model simulation data available from free public archives (e.g., CMIP6, the Multi-Model Large Ensemble Project), the protocols used for designing and running simulations, and practical tools for analyzing these datasets. Classroom lectures will be supplemented by practical lab-assignments, where the students will use and develop their own models demonstrating the concepts learned in class. As a final project, students will develop their own research questions using available climate model simulations for their primary analyses.