Fall Quarter 2007
Course Evaluations: Course evaluations are now done electronically, not on paper. Please take the time to fill out a course evaluation here . Login to your cMore account, go to your course schedule, and click on the evaluation prompt. I have enjoyed having all of you in class, and only wish the quarters weren't so short! I appreciate the time you put into filling out these evaluations. If you liked the course, they help me attract more students. If there are aspects that didn't work for you, I want to know about them so I can figure out how to improve things.
Take-Home Exam: Pick it up 10AM on Wednesday, Dec 5 (Chad's office, 5th floor Hinds) Turn in by 5PM Thurs. Dec. 6, to Chad.
If anybody hasn't yet picked up an exam, please contact me at once via email, and I'll send you an electronic copy.
Problem Set 6 Has been posted. . I also updated the Python script giving examples of solutions to the problems using Python. Follow the Problem Sets link.
The answer key to Problem Set 3 has been posted. Note that in the Titan methane mixing ratio problem on this problem set, I neglected to mention that I actually intended the N2 partial pressure to be 1.5 bars, not the total pressure. This is somewhat more realistic than assuming the total pressure to remain fixed as the surface temperature is increased. I wrote up the answer for the problem I intended to give, but full credit was given for those who did the problem assuming the total surface pressure to be fixed.
I have uploaded a Python script illustrating use of Python for selected thermodynamics problems through Problem Set 4. Follow the Problem Sets link.
11/6/2007: I updated phys.py on geoflop. (and also on the ClimateBook site) It had the wrong values for liquid densities in the gas tables. I also updated ClimateUtilities, which now has a few minor improvements and new math routines (which you haven't needed yet). To make sure that your python on geoflop is getting the correct version of phys.py, try the following and make sure you get the same results:
10/22/2007: I filled in some links to things like the NIST physical properties handbook. Look in the "links" section at the bottom of the ClimateBook page.
Please note: It is my intention that people study the solutions and play with the Python scripts given as part of the solutions. This is the main way you find out what you did right or wrong. The TA's grading can provide some rough indication of this, but not nearly in the same detail as you can get by studying the solutions yourself.
(Note from last year) Chad tells me that some students were having trouble finding MoistAdiabat.py. As I explained in class, these "chapter scripts," which essentially reproduce the figures in the book, are found on the ClimateBook web site. You are intended to make your own copy of them and play with them. Remember "Freedom to Tinker," which is the name of the game here. Go the the ClimateBook web site (link above), scroll down to ChapterScripts, and you'll what you need under the Chapter 2 link.
Department of corrections (25 October, 2006):
I've been informed that there may be some glitches in the way the course accounts were set up, which keeps python from finding course modules like phys and planets. I've sent Richard Dahringer (support@geosci) email asking him to fix the problem on the course accounts. If you are a geosci student that got a permanent account, Richard might not remember that your account needs fixing. You can send him email to remind him. Meanwhile, so you can get started with the problem set right away, you can log into your geoflop account and perform the following Unix incantations, which will fix the problem. If you want to know what they're doing, come see me after class and I'll be happy to explain. Basically, this is stuff that nobody would need to know about, in a properly designed Universe. C'est la vie! Here's what you need to do. The stuff to the right of the Unix prompt (the $) is what you type:
geo23210@geoflop:~$ cp ~rtp1/.login .cshrc
geo23210@geoflop:~$ csh
After the second command you will get the prompt
geoflop:~>
and then you can start python or idle as usual, and things will work. You only need to enter the first command once. However, until Richard fixes things, you need to enter the second command at the start of each and every session.
Despite what the time scheduiles say, there are no lab sections of this course outside class hours. The labs are designed to be done on your own, at your convenience, and can be done on any computer on the network, provided it has ssh and (for graphics) the X windowing system. All Macs can do this just about out of the box (just install X11 from the system disk), all Linux machines can do this out of the box, and with some trouble even Microsoft operating systems can be made to behave.
The TA for the class this year is Chad Glendenning. His email address is:
c h a d AT u c h i c a g o .e d u
The Snowball Earth show on Radio SETI/BBC is now available on the internet here. It includes an interview with yours truly.
The video of my Fermilab colloquium on habitable world physics should be here.
Most of the material that used to be in the PythonShop was obsolete. Current versions are being moved to various places on the ClimateBook site. Look there for Python utility modules, for Chapter Scripts, and for data sets.
I have updated this website to reflect the new organization of the course. For the sake of people who would still like to reference the older material, I have kept that online but moved the links to a separate area below. I have also created separate subsites for the Climate Book on which this course is based (the WorkBook is also found there), and for general Python and computational assistance.
I am working on turning the course notes into a real book, with a very comprehensive associated workbook (eventually to be published by Cambridge University Press). The progress to date on the textbook and workbook can be found at the ClimateBook link. The Python scripts associated with the book and the exercises will also be moved there eventually. Not all of the notes from the old version have yet been incorporated into the new text, but there is a great deal of new material that is not in the old notes.
The course server is geoflop.uchicago.edu . The data directory for all datasets used in the problem sets is /home/rtp1/WorkbookDatasets . If your account has not already been set up with this course in mind, you will probably need to do the following. To allow Python to find the course modules located in /home/rtp1/geo232Modules, execute the command
"setenv PYTHONPATH /home/rtp1/geo232Modules"
from the Unix command prompt on geoflop. Even better, you can put this command in a file called ".login" and it will be executed automatically when you log in. If you want Python to also look in a directory of your own, located in your home directory on geoflop (say it's called "modules", change the command to
"setenv PYTHONPATH modules:/home/rtp1/geo232Modules"
This course provides a self-contained introduction to the physics of climate, for students with a sophisticated command of physics and mathematics, but without necessarily any previous background in atmospheric science.
The course will consist of lectures, labs and problem sets. There will be a take-home final exam, but no midterm. The problem sets will often involve climate problems that require a modest amount of programming, which will be carried out using the Python language. Students who took my Fall 2005 Math Methods will already know Python;to keep 232 self-contained I will offer an express introduction to Python as part of the curriculum. Computer accounts will be provided and the exercises can be done at any time, from any computer on the net which can log in to a remote computer using SSH and which supports the X windowing system. I recommend Macs running OS X (with X11), or any Linux workstation. You can also use a Windows machine for accessing the server if you install CygWin. The server for this course is geoflop.uchicago.edu, and user accounts will be provided during the first week.
There are no required textbooks this course, as I am writing my own. We will be using the Python programming language for exercises, so some might find it useful to purchase reference material. See the Python Resources to get started with Python.
Here's the syllabus from Winter 2006, not yet updated to reflect the changes for Fall 2007. Mainly, I've taken out a bit of atmospheric material to make room for teaching Python and computational techniques.:
Lectures 1,2,3,4: A survey of atmospheric thermodynamics, focusing on the vertical structure of compressible atmospheres and the properties of water vapor and similar condensible substances.
Lab sessions 1,2,3 : Introduction to the Python programming language.
Lecture 5,6,7: Introduction to radiation balance of planets. Basic black body radiation physics, and its role in climate. Simple models of the Greenhouse effect. Some examples from climate history of Earth, Mars and Venus. Kirchoff's law and optically thin atmospheres.
Lecture 7,8: Simple models of ice-albedo feedback. Bifurcation diagrams for climate. Snowballl Earth
Lecture 9,10,11:Grey gas radiative-convective models. Optical depth and Schwartzschild equations for IR radiative transfer. OLR vs. surface temperature for various atmospheric profiles. Simple model of runaway greenhouse (one-component condensible atmosphere).
Lecture 12,13: Infrared properties of real gases. Emission spectra for real gases, and logarithmic behavior of OLR vs CO2 concentration. The one-band model. Some aspects of the observed OLR pattern for the earth. Water vapor feedback. Polynomial OLR fits, and their use in determining the effect of CO2 and luminosity on surface temperature. Anthropogenic global warmng on Earth. The Faint Young Sun revisited. The problem of Early Mars.
Lecture 14,15,16: Seasonal and latitudinal distribution of solar incident radiation. Latitudinal distribution for the zero obliquity case. Effect of obliquity on the seasonal cycle and annual mean latitudinal distribution. Thermal inertia and the seasonal cycle
Lecture 17,18: The surface energy balance.
Lecture 19,20: Variation of the Earth's orbital parameters. Precession, obliquity and eccentricity. Milankovic theory of the ice ages, plus a brief survey of characteristics of Pleistocene ice ages. Martian Milankovic cycles.