Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change

Content: Introduction (the Earth’s climate system, weather and climate, factors that determine the Earth’s climate), the energy budget of the planet (solar radiation, terrestrial radiation), the Greenhouse effect, some useful definitions: radiative forcing and global potential warming, climate forcing factors (the greenhouse gases, surface albedo, the role of aerosols), Paleoclimate (climate change throughout geological ages, natural causes of climate changes, proxies of past climate), the recent global warming (human-induced climate variations, anthropogenic forcing, enhanced greenhouse effect), the observed climate changes, statistical analysis of climate parameters (variability, variations, anomalies and trends), climate models, climate feedback mechanisms, the emissions scenarios, future climate predictions and projections, impacts of climate change, vulnerability and mitigation to climate change, strategies for climate change mitigation

Objectives

At the end of this course the student should: • gain a knowledge of the theory of the “greenhouse effect” and its impact on the Earth’s climate • understand the scientific basis of the current global warming and critically evaluate, in the context of historical climate changes, that it is human-induced • have knowledge of predicted future effects of climate change and the uncertainty of those predictions • understand the multi-discipline nature of the climate change problem and how science-technology and policy should interact to mitigate the climate change

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisite courses. It is, however, recommended that students should have some knowledge of Atmospheric Physics and Climatology

Syllabus

• Introduction (the Earth’s climate system, weather and climate, factors that determine the Earth’s climate) • The energy budget of the planet (solar radiation, terrestrial radiation) • The Greenhouse effect • Climate forcing factors (the greenhouse gases, surface albedo, clouds, aerosols, solar irradiance), Radiative Forcing, Global Potential Warming • Paleoclimate (climate change throughout geological ages, natural causes of climate changes, proxies of past climate) • The recent global warming (human-induced climate variations, anthropogenic forcing, enhanced greenhouse effect) • The observed climate changes • Statistical analysis of climate parameters (variability, variations, anomalies and trends) • Climate models, climate feedback mechanisms • The emissions scenarios • Future climate predictions and projections • Impacts of climate change, vulnerability and mitigation to climate change • Strategies for climate change mitigation