| | Searching Current Courses For Fall 2016 |
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Course: |
MET 151
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Title: | Intro to Climatology |
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Long Title: | Introduction to Climatology |
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Course Description: | Introduces the physical mechanisms responsible for spatial and temporal variability in Earth’s climate and the human-climate relationship. This course develops a scientific understanding of the physical aspects of Earth's climate system, climate system dynamics, and factors that influence climate change. The course explores the global balance of energy and transfer of radiation in the atmosphere, major climatic controls, classifications and comparisons of major types. Current issues such as global warming and El Niño are covered. |
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Min Credit: | 3 |
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Max Credit: | |
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Origin Notes: | RRCC |
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Course Notes: | New course entered 9/21/12 |
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STANDARD COMPETENCIES:
1. Describe the astronomical and terrestrial factors that determine the nature of climate over Earth’s surface through time.
2. Demonstrate that global inequalities in energy distribution lead to global exchanges of
energy and mass that affect the environment.
3. Explain how the basic reason for climatic changes on Earth is related to the flow of energy into and out of the system.
4. Describe how energy exchanges within the earth–ocean–atmosphere system are both natural- and human-induced.
5. Characterize the short- and long-term impacts of the variations and occasional extremes resulting from dynamic changes in the atmosphere.
6. Describe the changes to the physical environment that result from global warming.
7. Discuss the scientific methods used to reconstruct past climate records.
8. Evaluate maps and graphical data related to climate.
9. Investigate differences in scale when defining climate, including micro-, local, meso- and macro-climate scales.
TOPICAL OUTLINE:
I. Introduction
A. Atmospheric sciences, climatology
B. Atmospheric structure
II. Physical climatology
A. Global heat exchange
B. Energy budget
C. Earth/atmosphere temperatures
D. Atmosphere-ocean interactions
E. Air masses, circulation patterns and flow disturbances
III. Hydroclimatology
A. Humidity, precipitation, and evaporation
B. Climatic water budget
C. Cloud forms and classification
IV. Dynamic climatology
A. Global atmospheric and oceanic circulation
B. Spatial climatic variability
V. Synoptic climatology
A. Air masses, fronts, and cyclones
B. Severe weather hazards
VI. Paleoclimatology and climate change
A. Climate history and reconstruction
B. Natural climate change
C. Anthropogenic climate change
VII. Climatic distribution
A. Tropical climates
B. Mid-latitude climates
C. Polar and highlands climates
VIII. Microclimatology
IX. Climate and water resources
X. Climate and agriculture
XI. Internet climate resources
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