Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
Biological and Environmental Sciences
Learning Methods
Lecture
Practical
Seminar
Workshop
Module Offerings
4401NATSCI-JAN-CTY
Aims
This module aims to provides an overview of the physical and dynamic nature of climatology, meteorology, and related aspects of oceanography.
Learning Outcomes
1.
Develop an in-depth understanding of the components of the Earth’s climate system and their interactions.
2.
Understand the concept of weather forecasting and its main principles.
3.
Develop skills in acquiring and interpreting climatic data from observations and climate models.
4.
Evaluate how the earth’s climate has changed during the instrumental period, to explain the factors responsible for this change, and to put this change in the context of the longer-term palaeoclimatic record.
5.
Develop the ability to critique issues related to climatology, including the scientific evidence of climate change.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:Climatology in the world today
Physical basis for Earth’s climate system
Atmospheric temperatures
Moisture in the atmosphere
Atmosphere-ocean interactions
Weather systems of the mid-latitudes (air mass and synoptic climatology)
Introduction to Meteorology
Tropical climatology
Detection of contemporary climate change and attribution of causes
Glaciers as evidence of climate change
Natural causes of climate change
Reconstruction of past climates
Greenhouse gases, climate models and climate change projections
Climate change and the physical environment and climate change and the living world
Applied climatology
Module Overview:
In this module you will examine the main components of the Earth's climate system and their interactions as well as the principles of weather forecasting. It then discusses the applications of climatological principles on different societal sectors. Given the importance of global climate change on society this module provides you with an introduction to the many facets of contemporary climate change from a physical science perspective.
In this module you will examine the main components of the Earth's climate system and their interactions as well as the principles of weather forecasting. It then discusses the applications of climatological principles on different societal sectors. Given the importance of global climate change on society this module provides you with an introduction to the many facets of contemporary climate change from a physical science perspective.
Additional Information:This module examines the main components of the Earth’s climate system and their interactions as well as the principles of weather forecasting. It then discusses the applications of climatological principles on different societal sectors. Given the importance of global climate change on society this module provides an introduction to the many facets of contemporary climate change from a physical science perspective.
Major topics include: atmospheric radiation, atmospheric moisture and precipitation distribution, atmospheric motions including air masses, front formation and cyclones, weather forecasting, extreme events, climate change and applied climatology. For the latter, the focus is on climate indices and the utility of applied climatology for purposes such as approximating heating and cooling costs and issues related to climate comfort, i.e., how humans have adapted to living in different climates through various home designs. Knowledge and understanding of the physical causes of contemporary climate change is provided in the module component on climate change, and this is set within a longer-term palaeoclimate context. Hence, climate change is explored with proxy records from the past, observations in the present, and with climate models into the future, looking at both natural and human influence.