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Research School of Earth Sciences · ANU College of Science and Medicine
Understanding the weather and climate - and how it is now changing - is of vital importance to the Australian industry and society. The goal of this course is to provide students with a quantitative understanding of the ocean and atmosphere processes that underpin weather and climate. The course content begins with the fundamentals of fluid flow and how air/ocean flows are modelled (e.g., weather and climate prediction) using equations solved by computers; and as part of the course, students will learn to run and analyse their own climate system model. We will then investigate key dynamical processes in the ocean and atmosphere including planetary waves, weather fronts, convection, ocean boundary currents, swell, and ocean eddies, with student learning supported by hands-on fluid dynamics experiments in the world-class Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the Research School of Earth Sciences. In the final part of the course, we will develop quantitative understanding of the coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics that regulate Australian weather and rainfall, including the El Nino Southern Oscillation, Southern Annular Mode, Tropical Cyclones and the Monsoon. Key components of the course will be informed using insights from ongoing research within the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes (CLEx) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Weather of the 21st Century (W21C).
Weekly problem sets (tutorials)
Learning outcomes 1, 2
1 scientific paper developed over the semester based on the computational laboratories
Learning outcomes 2, 3, 4, 5
3 lab reports based on the fluid dynamics laboratory exercises
Learning outcomes 1, 4, 5
Final exam
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 5
The expected workload will consist of approximately 130 hours throughout the semester including: - Face-to-face component which consists of 1 x 2 hour tutorial and 1 x 3 hour laboratory per week - Watching online lecture videos will typically take 1 hour per week. - Approximately 58 hours of self-directed study which will include preparation for laboratories/tutorials and other assessment tasks.
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