The atmosphere and climate are a critical part of the earth system, and climatic variability and change are central to the issue of current and future global environmental change. This course is directed towards developing deeper understanding of climatic variability and change, and their importance to the management of the global system. The course focuses on three related topics that highlight the functioning of the climate system, and the interactions between humans and the atmosphere, at a range of temporal and spatial scales.

Beginning at the mesoscale, human-atmosphere interactions in urban environments are investigated, including characteristics and impacts of urban climate modifications, air pollution potential and related issues, and the role of complex terrain in modifying the climate near the ground. The second topic explores regional-scale weather systems and the larger-scale interactions between the oceans and atmosphere that are a critical link in the functioning of the climate system at all scales. Ocean-atmosphere dynamics and interaction processes and their role in inter-annual and low frequency climate variability are considered in the context of current research on the El Niño Southern Oscillation and its impacts, and of long-term climate variation and change. Finally, the ways in which conceptual and dynamical models are used to develop our understanding of the climate system and climate change at all scales are studied. The focus is on understanding the uses and limitations of such models, and on interpreting their output in ways that are useful for policy formulation, decision making and management. Practical work is focused on the manipulation and interpretation of climatological data in the context of climatic variability and change, including observational data and model-generated future climate scenarios.

Practical reports (30%), reading-based tutorials (20%), assignment (50%).