Course Description
Sustainable development depends on quantitative knowledge of the past, present, and future behaviour of the Earth System. Such is obtained from physics-based models of the atmosphere and the ocean. This course introduces the hierarchy of climate models, beginning with simple energy balance models, then increasing complexity to arrive at oceanic and atmospheric circulation models. These models are based on the physical principles of the conservation of mass, energy and momentum. Climate feedbacks and wave propagation are described to understand the climate system response to perturbations. The numerical techniques required to perform model simulations on the computer are introduced and discussed. In the parallel course work - a key element of this course - the students learn to implement such models using Python and conduct simulations. Detailed lecture notes for this course are available (https://climatehomes.unibe.ch/~stocker/lecturenotes.html).
