The module aims to impart an understanding of the processes that generate and control weather and climate, and of the water cycle through ocean, atmosphere and land phases.
The Atmosphere and the Water Cycle provides the basic framework for understanding and investigating the earth-atmosphere system, the dynamics of global change and its implications for life on earth. This module aims to provide an integrated introductory knowledge of the physical interactions between terrestrial, marine and atmospheric systems.
LECTURE THEMES
- The climate system and global warming (2)
- Radiation and atmospheric structure
- The global heat budget
- The global hydrological cycle
- Evaporation procdesses and oceanic patterns
- Clouds and precipitation processes (2)
- The cryosphere
- Global patterns of runoff
- The General Circulation of the Atmosphere (2)
- Mid-latitude circulation and weather processes
- Tropical circulation, weather and climate
- Historical climate change
- Factors in historical climate change
- Storms, floods and droughts (2)
- Human modification of the water balance (including case studies from representative climates) (2)