关于此课程： This class describes the science of global warming and the forecast for humans’ impact on Earth’s climate. Intended for an audience without much scientific background but a healthy sense of curiosity, the class brings together insights and perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, earth and atmospheric sciences, and even some economics—all based on a foundation of simple mathematics (algebra).
授课大纲
第 1 周
Overview
What you will find in this class.
1 视频, 4 阅读材料
- 视频: Video Introduction
- Материал для самостоятельного изучения: Resources
- Материал для самостоятельного изучения: Debriefing Quizzes
- Материал для самостоятельного изучения: Explainer Assignments
- Материал для самостоятельного изучения: A Supplemental Class to This One
第 2 周
Heat, Light, and Energy
A primer on how to use units to describe numbers when describing temperature, energy, and light. Even if you don't plan on doing calculations yourself, understanding how units work will help to follow the rest of the lectures in the class. If you are interested in practicing your analysis skills, using units to guide calculations, there are some exercises in the Part II of this class.
6 视频, 2 练习测试
- 视频: Using Units
- 视频: Units of Energy
- 视频: Heat
- Тренировочный тест: Optional Problems: How Much Coal to Run a Light Bulb
- Тренировочный тест: Optional Problems: Comparing Energy Prices
- 视频: Units of Light
- 视频: Light
- 视频: Blackbody Radiation
已评分: What is heat and how can you warm up something in space?
第 3 周
First Climate Model
The balance of energy flow, as incoming sunlight and outgoing infrared, allow us to create our first simple climate model, including a simple greenhouse effect. There are two extended exercises in Part II of this class, one an analytical (algebraic) model of the equilibrium temperature of a planet, the other a numerical model of how that temperature might evolve through time.
2 视频, 3 练习测试
- 视频: Naked Planet Climate Model
- 视频: The Greenhouse Effect
- Тренировочный тест: Optional Layer Model Problem: How Hot is the Moon?
- Тренировочный тест: Optional Layer Model Problem 2: A Stronger Greenhouse Effect
- Тренировочный тест: Optional Layer Model Problem 3: Nuclear Winter
已评分: Quiz 1
第 4 周
Greenhouse Gases and the Atmosphere
The Layer Model above assumes that the pane of glass representing the atmosphere absorbs all of the infrared radiation that hits it and that it radiates at all infrared wavelengths. In other words, the layer model atmosphere is an infrared blackbody, but transparent in the visible. In reality, greenhouse gases are not "black" at all; they are very choosy about which frequencies of light they absorb and emit. This selective absorption of infrared light by greenhouse gases leads to the band saturation effect, which makes rare, trace gases like methane disproportionally powerful relative to higher-concentration gases like CO₂.
2 视频
- 视频: Greenhouse Gas Physics
- 视频: The Band Saturation Effect
已评分: Model Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere
第 5 周
The Structure of the Atmosphere
The greenhouse effect works because the air in the upper atmosphere is colder than the ground, so that absorption and re-emission of IR by greenhouse gases decreases the amount of energy leaving the planet to space. Here we explore the physics responsible for keeping the upper atmosphere cold.
4 视频
- 视频: Atmospheric Temperature Structure
- 视频: Pressure in a Standing Fluid
- 视频: Water Vapor and Latent Heat
- 视频: Moist Convection
已评分: Model the Lapse Rate and Greenhouse Effect
第 6 周
Weather and Climate
Another property of the real world, missing in our model so far, is that the real world is not everywhere the same temperature, and the heat fluxes to and from space do not necessarily balance at any given time or location. This is because the winds in the atmosphere and the currents in the ocean carry heat around, in general from the hot tropics up to the cold high latitudes.
4 视频
- 视频: Heat Transport
- 视频: Coriolis Acceleration
- 视频: Geostrophic Motion
- 视频: The Turbulent Cascade
已评分: Quiz 2
第 7 周
Feedbacks
Feedbacks are loops of cause-and-effect that can either stabilize Earth's climate or amplify future climate changes. There is an exercise in Part II of this class where you solve for a planet's temperature by iteration, and in the process demonstrate a runaway ice albedo feedback that might have led to the Snowball Earth climate state 700 million years ago.
6 视频
- 视频: Positive and Negative Feedback
- 视频: Ice Albedo Feedback
- 视频: Water Vapor Feedback
- 视频: Clouds
- 视频: Aerosols
- 视频: Climate Sensitivity
已评分: Model Sunlight, Albedo, and Climate
已评分: Extract the Water Vapor Feedback from Climate Model Results
已评分: Model Clouds 1: IR
已评分: Model Clouds 2: Full-spectrum
已评分: Model Aerosols and Climate
已评分: Calculate the Climate Sensitivity
已评分: Quiz 3
已评分: What are positive and negative feedbacks?
第 8 周
The Carbon Cycle
Now we shift gears in a major way — away from climate physics (you now have seen its main ingredients) to the emergent miracle that is the carbon cycle on Earth. Not only is carbon the chemical element of life, it is also the means of storing life's energy. We will look at how carbon cycles through the land, the oceans, and the deep earth, going in and out of the atmosphere -- and how that stabilizes the earth's climate.
9 视频
- 视频: The Weathering CO₂ Thermostat
- 视频: The Goldilocks Planets
- 视频: The Oceans in the Carbon Cycle
- 视频: The Land Biosphere in the Carbon Cycle
- 视频: The Battery of the Biosphere
- 视频: Oxidation and Reduction of Carbon
- 视频: Coal
- 视频: Oil
- 视频: Natural Gas
已评分: Model the Global Carbon Cycle
已评分: Model Ocean/Land CO₂ Uptake with ISAM
已评分: Model Intended vs. Greenhouse Yields
已评分: Quiz 4
第 9 周
The Perturbed Carbon Cycle
On the carbon locked up in fossil fuels and what happens when we burn those fuels. In Part II of this class, you can create a simple but somewhat realistic model of Earth's temperature evolution in the coming decades, in response to the release of CO2 (or in the sudden stop of emissions in a scenario called "The world without us").
7 视频
- 视频: Forecasting Future Emissions
- 视频: Where Our Carbon Is Going
- 视频: Ocean Buffer Chemistry
- 视频: The Perturbed Carbon Cycle
- 视频: Methane as a Greenhouse Gas
- 视频: The Long CO₂ Tail
- 视频: Why the CO₂ Tail Matters
已评分: Model Hubbert's Peak
已评分: Model Kaya Identity
已评分: Fossilizing a Carbon Atom
已评分: Model Methane and Slugulator
已评分: Model the Long Tail
已评分: Quiz 5
已评分: Burning a Carbon Atom
第 10 周
Looking for a Human Impact on Climate
You have now seen the ideas behind the forecast for a human impact on Earth's climate. The next question is: Do we see it happening today? It turns out that the "smoking gun" for a human impact on climate is the global average temperature record since about the 1970's. In order to interpret that temperature change, we need to consider it within the context of natural climate changes in Earth's geologic past.
10 视频
- 视频: Land Surface Temperature Records
- 视频: Sea Surface Temperature Records
- 视频: Satellite Temperature Records
- 视频: The Smoking Gun: Warming Since the 1970s
- 视频: Paleoclimate and Proxy Measurements
- 视频: Tree Rings
- 视频: Borehole Temperatures
- 视频: Oxygen Isotopes
- 视频: Solar Intensity and the Hockey Stick
- 视频: Glacial - Interglacial Cycles
已评分: Make Maps of Climate Models Warming
已评分: Look for the Smoking Gun
已评分: Browse the Global Glacier Length Data
已评分: Model Borehole Temperatures
已评分: Analyze Recent Solar Intensity Changes
已评分: Quiz 6
已评分: Is it Warming? Is It Us? How Do We Know?
第 11 周
Potential Impacts
This unit we focus on the potential impacts of continued business-as-usual CO2 emissions. This is also the topic of the Working Group 2 volume of the IPCC reports (the Working Group 1 report is on the scientific basis, which is what we've been studying so far this course). You may find this material distressing, but hang on, because next week we'll go over "Mitigation", which is what it takes to avoid climate change (treated in the Working Group 3 report). Remember that most of the carbon we're worried about is still in the ground, so these impacts are inevitable only if we continue to decide to make them so. In Part II of this class, you can create a simple ice sheet model of your own.
12 视频
- 视频: Global Weirding
- 视频: Monsoons
- 视频: Vegetation
- 视频: Impacts of Sea Level
- 视频: Antarctic Ice Sheet
- 视频: Greenland Ice Sheet
- 视频: Paleo Sea Level Changes
- 视频: Water Vapor and Storminess
- 视频: Hurricanes
- 视频: Extreme Weather
- 视频: Ecosystem Impacts
- 视频: Human Impacts
已评分: Water Stress in Climate Model Results
已评分: Model Permafrost
已评分: Model Changes in Sea Level
已评分: Play with an Ice Sheet Model, ISM
已评分: Short vs Long Term Sea Level Change
已评分: Find the Increase in Low-Level Humidity in Models
已评分: Extract AR5 Model Lapse Rates
已评分: Model Hurricanes
已评分: Quiz 7
已评分: Global Weirding
第 12 周
Mitigation
The last unit of the class finds us considering the options for avoiding, or "mitigating," a human impact on Earth's climate. Bottom line: I think it would be a challenge that humankind could beat if we decided to. If there hypothetically were no more coal on Earth, our potential to alter the climate would be much less. Finding energy sources in that world would not be an existential threat would just be a business opportunity. The hard part, in my opinion, is making that decision.
8 视频
- 视频: Stabilization Scenarios
- 视频: Temperature Targets
- 视频: Slug Theory
- 视频: Geoengineering: CO₂ Capture and Sequestration
- 视频: Geoengineering: Solar Radiation Management
- 视频: Economics of Climate Change
- 视频: Mitigation: Short-Term
- 视频: Mitigation: Long-Term
已评分: Model Stabilization Scenarios
已评分: Model Temperature Targets
已评分: How well does Slugulator do at Slug Theory?
已评分: Model CO2 Sequestration
已评分: Model SRM Geoengineering
已评分: How Many Wedges?
已评分: How Much Carbon-Free Energy by 2100?
已评分: Quiz 8
已评分: Is there Hope for the 11-year-old?
已评分: Term Project: Explore Climate Data and Models
常见问题解答
运作方式
Задания курса
Каждый курс — это интерактивный учебник, который содержит видеоматериалы, тесты и проекты.
Помощь сокурсников
Общайтесь с тысячами других учащихся: обсуждайте идеи, материалы курса и помогайте друг другу осваивать новые понятия.
Сертификаты
Получите документы о прохождении курсов и поделитесь своим успехом с друзьями, коллегами и работодателями.
制作方
芝加哥大学
One of the world's premier academic and research institutions, the University of Chicago has driven new ways of thinking since our 1890 founding. Today, UChicago is an intellectual destination that draws inspired scholars to our Hyde Park and international campuses, keeping UChicago at the nexus of ideas that challenge and change the world.
评分和审阅
This is a great course for the non-scientist to understand the scientific mechanism and models behind climate change. I requires quite a bit of work but the lecturer explains things extremely well. Overall, some of the quizzes could be better thought through but this is a very good MOOC.
It was an amazing class. The content was thorough and I really enjoyed all the models that I got to study. One improvement, however, would be making the peer edits more accessible. I finished this course in three months but then spent the next four waiting for other students from various "sessions" to submit their papers so that I could pass the peer-grading portion. I didn't learn the trick of actively switching between course dates until recently. But overall it was really informative :)
Good course! in hindsight i wish i bought the book at the beginning/there were some written summaries/pdfs of the key points.
SU
One of the best courses on climate change.