12.812
The General Circulation of the Atmosphere and Climate Change
Describes the general circulation of Earth's atmosphere and its maintenance. Second half of the course explores the response of the general circulation to climate change.
Fall 2005 · General Circulation of the Earth's Atmosphere
Topics
- Introduction
- Analysis Techniques
- The Angular Momentum and Kinetic Energy Budgets
- The Water Vapor Budget
- The Heat Budget
- Spectral Analysis
- Forcing of the Zonal Mean Circulations
- The Energy Cycle
- Numerical Models
Readings
- Lorenz, E. N. “The Nature and Theory of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere.” Geneva: World Meteorological Organization Publication 218 (1967): 161.
- Peixoto, J. P., and A. H. Oort. Physics of Climate . New York, NY: Springer, 1992. ISBN: 9780883187128.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: 12.810 or permission of instructor Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: G (Fall) 2-0-7 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2005
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.