12.842
Climate Science
Introduction to climate studies, including beginnings of the solar system, time scales, and climate in human history; methods for detecting climate change, including proxies, ice cores, instrumental records, and time series analysis; physical and chemical processes in climate, including primordial atmosphere, ozone chemistry, carbon and oxygen cycles, and heat and water budgets; internal feedback mechanisms, including ice, aerosols, water vapor, clouds, and ocean circulation; climate forcing, including orbital variations, volcanism, plate tectonics, and solar variability; climate models and mechanisms of variability, including energy balance, coupled models, and global ocean and atmosphere models; and outstanding problems. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments.
Fall 2008 · Climate Physics and Chemistry
This course introduces students to climate studies, including beginnings of the solar system, time scales, and climate in human history. It is offered to both undergraduate and graduate students with different requirements.
Readings
- Hartmann, D. L. Global Physical Climate . San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1994, p. 408. ISBN: 9780123285300.
- Three good, optional, books which cover biogeochemical, etc. components are:
- Houghton, J. T., et al. Climate Change 1994: Radiative Forcing of Climate Change, (IPCC) . Cambridge, England; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 339. ISBN: 9780521550550.
- Schlesinger, W. T. Biogeochemistry - An Analysis of Global Change . San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1991, p. 443. ISBN: 9780126251562.
- Ruddiman, W. L. Earth’s Climate Past and Future . New York, NY: W.H. Freeman, 2000. ISBN: 9780716737414.
- The wider literature is now very large. The so-called IPCC report:
- Watson, R. T., and the Core Writing Team, eds. Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report . Cambridge, England; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 397. ISBN: 9780521807708.
- This is a summary discussion, written by a large international group, of the entire climate problem, with a focus on understanding on-going and future changes. Controversial, but very important. Earlier versions have more scientific material in them .
- Basic geological elements:
- Press, F., and R. Siever. Earth . 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman, 1982, p. 649. ISBN: 9780716713623.
- This is an undergraduate textbook which ranges over much of the earth sciences .
- Imbrie, J., and K. P. Imbrie. Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 224. ISBN: 9780674440753.
- This is a basically non-technical, highly readable discussion of the problem of explaining the ice ages, and how the Milankovich hypothesis came to center stage .
- A more sweeping account is the Open University book, including elements of human evolution:
- Wilson, R. C. L., S. A. Drury, and J. A. Chapman. The Great Ice Age: Climate Change and Life . New York, NY: Routledge, 1999. ISBN: 9780415198417.
- Crowley, T. J., and G. R. North. Paleoclimatology . USA, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 339. ISBN: 9780195105339.
- This is a textbook ranging over both the physical and geological elements including discussion of radiation balance, modeling, and the evidence .
- A technical summary of present-day physical aspects of climate components may be found in:
- Peixoto, J. P., and A. H. Oort. Physics of Climate . New York, NY: Amer Inst Phys, 1992, p. 520. ISBN: 9780883187111.
- But their discussion of the ocean is misleadingly primitive .
- A non-technical account of a special problem is:
- Grove, J. M. The Little Ice Age . Law Book Co of Australasia, 1988, p. 498. ISBN: 9780416315400.
- Among the useful textbooks of varying reliability are:
- Henderson-Sellers, A. and K. McGuffie. A Climate Modelling Primer . Chichester, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2005, p. 217. ISBN: 9780470857519.
- Graedel, T. E. and P. Crutzen. Atmospheric Change: An Earth System Perspective . New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1993, p. 446. ISBN:9780716723325
- Cronin, T. M. Principles of Paleoclimatology . New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 560. ISBN:9780231109550.
- Kump, L. R. J. F. Kasting, and R. G. Crane. The Earth System . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. ISBN: 9780131420595.
- Bradley, R. S. Paleoclimatology: Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary . 2nd ed. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 1999, p. 613. ISBN: 9780121240103.
- Assigned readings
- Recommended readings
- Defends biogenicity of 3.5 Ga Apex microfossils .
- Geochemical and morphologic evidence against biogenicity of Apex microfossils .
- Dramatized (tabloid!) report of Brasier-Schopf battle over biogenicity of Apex “fossils” .
- Further commentary on debate over Apex fossils .
- Inorganic salt structures synthesized that are morphologically similar to Apex “microfossils” .
- Molecular and isotopic evidence for cyanobacteria and oxygenic photosynthesis 2.7 Ga .
- Evidence for photosynthetic origin of 3.4 Ga deposits .
- Crowley, T. J. and G. R. North. Paleoclimatology . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, especially chapters 10-12. ISBN: 9780195105339.
- Frakes, L. Climates Throughout Geologic Time . New York, NY: Elsevier, 1979, p. 310. ISBN: 9780444419255.
- Frakes, L. A., J. E. Francis, and J. I. Syktus. Climate Modes of the Phanerozoic . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 274. ISBN: 9780521366274.
- Hambray, M., and W. Harland. Earth’s Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 1004. ISBN: 9780521228602.
- Questions CO 2 -climate link b/c Phanerozoic tropical SST record doesn’t agree with simple energy balance model results driven by paleo-CO 2 proxy data .
- Skeptical of Veizer results; questions SST proxy record and paleo-CO 2 proxy record .
- Suggests evolution of rooted vascular plants caused Devonian (~400 Ma) CO 2 draw down by enhancing chemical weathering rates. Supports CO 2 -climate link through Phanerozoic. Exception is Late Ordovician glaciation, explained by “unique paleogeographic circumstances” .
- Excellent review of paleo-CO 2 proxies .
- Crowley, T. J. “Carbon Dioxide and Phanerozoic Climate.” In Warm Climates in Earth History . Edited by B. T. Huber, K. G. MacLeod, and S. L. Wing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 425-444. ISBN: 9780521641425.
- Stomatal indices on fossil leaves during last 300 Myr indicate that the only two periods of low CO 2 were associated with known ice ages, in support of the CO 2 -climate link .
- Leaf stomatal indices through “known” warm intervals (Miocene 15-17 Ma, and Paleocene/Eocene boundary (53-59 Ma) indicate low CO 2 , refuting CO 2 -climate link .
- Paleosol δ 13 C data across Triassic/Jurassic boundary (208 Ma) suggests only small CO 2 increase associated w/ that mass extinction. Argue therefore that deposition of larger flood basalts at that time (volcanic events) did not cause high CO 2 and runaway greenhouse, as previously hypothesized .
- Phytoplankton δ 13 C indicates low CO 2 through Miocene warm interval (~14-18 Ma) and no sharp drop associated with the expansion of the East Antarctic Sheet, refuting strong CO 2 -climate link .
- ———. “Paleo-CO 2 and Climate.” Nature 358, no. 6382 (1992): 114.
- McCauley, S., and D. DePaolo. “The Marine 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and δ 18 O Records, Himalayan Alkalinity Fluxes, and Cenozoic Climate Models.” In Tectonic Uplift and Climate Change . 1st ed. Edited by W. F. Ruddiman. New York, NY: Springer, 1997, pp. 427-467. ISBN: 9780306456428.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 12.301 Prereq: ( Calculus II (GIR) , Chemistry (GIR) , and Physics II (GIR) ) or permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2008
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.