Introduction to Climate Science and Modeling

Module Overview

This module will introduce you to key concepts of climate science and climate modeling that are relevant to engineering and infrastructure design.

After completing this module you will be able to:

• Describe climate and how we observe it.
• Become familiar with a simple model of the earth system as a radiating body in energy balance.
• Use this model to understand how global warming works, how it is influenced by feedbacks, and how it leads to significant climate change impacts.
• Understand how climate modelling and climate prediction ("projection") are carried out, what some of the scenarios for the future are, and where key sources of uncertainty lie.

Learn more about what this module is about:

Learning Outcomes

Climate Modeling

You will gain familiarity with the following concepts:

• Climate models
• The climate system
• Predictions and projections
• Global climate models and Earth system models; model hierarchy
• Sources of uncertainty in climate projections

You will gain the following skills and abilities:

• Ability to estimate the size and requirements of numerical climate models
• Ability to interpret graphs of past and projected climate variables
• Ability to identify and distinguish the three sources of uncertainty in projections: model uncertainty, internal variability, and forcing uncertainty 

Explore Module

Please note that this preview is intended for exploration purposes only. If you'd like to use this module in one of your courses, to ensure playback and tracking, you must upload the SCORM package (downloadable below) to your institution's Learning Management System (ex. Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, etc).