IMEIO UPM-UCM Doctoral Course [ModClim]

Educational Activities IMEIO- UPM

Title: Paleoclimate, glacier surface mass balance and coupled climate-ice sheet models [ModClim]

Responsible of the activity: Francisco Navarro, francisco.navarro@upm.es

Lecturers: Jorge Álvarez Solas (UCM), Alex Robinson (UCM)

Total number of hours: 15

Location: Facultad de Ciencias Físicas-UCM o ETSI de Telecomunicación-UPM

Dates: 7-11 March 2016

NOTE: This course, together with that of code DinGlac (15h, 11‐15 January 2016), form an ensemble designed, for maximum benefit, to be taken together, though they can also be taken independently of each other.

Listing of contents:

Part I: Paleoclimatology (Jorge Álvarez Solas, UCM)

* Different definitions of climate
* Meteorology vs. climatology
* Climate models and space‐time resolution
* Climate dynamics
* Geological scales: carbon cycle and Walker’s feedback * Energy balances
* The young Sun paradox
* Global glaciations
* Earth’s orbital parameters
* Glacial‐interglacial cycles
* Rapid variability
* The role of the Cryosphere
* Simple models
* The future at slow path
* Hierarchy of models

Part IIa: Surface mass balance modeling (Alex Robinson, UCM)

Lecture notes (Part IIa)

* Introduction
* Glacier and ice sheet surface mass balance
* Measurements and approximations
* Feedbacks and time scales

Part IIb: Coupled climate‐ice sheet modeling (Alex Robinson, UCM)

Lecture notes (Part IIb)

* The Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS)
* Climate and surface forcing model
* Atmospheric equations
* Ensemble generation
* Past evolution of the GIS * Future stability of the GIS

 

Lecture notes