ENVR 309 - Earth’s Changing Atmosphere and Climate

3 Credit(s)

This course provides an in-depth investigation into the major causes of atmospheric and climatic change and their effects on Earth’s biosphere. Special emphasis is placed on natural geological factors such as volcanic eruptions and also on astronomical factors such as intrinsic changes in the luminosity of the Sun, variations in the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit and the inclination of its axis, and impacts of large bodies from space. Topics covered will include atmospheric radiation budget and circulation, ice core records, climate history of ancient Earth, sunspot cycles, Milankovitch theory, climate change and major extinction events, and short-term and long-term global climate changes. Sessions are run in part lecture, part seminar format, and will require some use of information available on the World Wide Web. Students also solve problems involving the concepts presented in the lecture topics. Open only to science majors and minors with junior standing or above.3 hours lecture.