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).
教學大綱 - 您將從這門課程中學到什麼
週
1完成時間為 1 小時
Overview
What you will find in this class.
1 個視頻 （總計 4 分鐘）, 4 個閱讀材料
1 個視頻
4 個閱讀材料
Resources10分鐘
Debriefing Quizzes10分鐘
Explainer Assignments10分鐘
A Supplemental Class to This One10分鐘
週
2完成時間為 3 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 28 分鐘）, 3 個測驗
2 個練習
Optional Problems: How Much Coal to Run a Light Bulb4分鐘
Optional Problems: Comparing Energy Prices16分鐘
週
3完成時間為 1 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 18 分鐘）, 4 個測驗
4 個練習
Optional Layer Model Problem: How Hot is the Moon?4分鐘
Optional Layer Model Problem 2: A Stronger Greenhouse Effect22分鐘
Optional Layer Model Problem 3: Nuclear Winter2分鐘
Quiz 122分鐘
週
4完成時間為 1 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 20 分鐘）, 1 個測驗
1 個練習
Model Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere12分鐘
週
5完成時間為 1 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 30 分鐘）, 1 個測驗
4 個視頻
Pressure in a Standing Fluid10分鐘
Water Vapor and Latent Heat8分鐘
Moist Convection2分鐘
1 個練習
Model the Lapse Rate and Greenhouse Effect10分鐘
週
6完成時間為 1 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 18 分鐘）, 1 個測驗
1 個練習
Quiz 224分鐘
週
7完成時間為 4 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 34 分鐘）, 8 個測驗
6 個視頻
Ice Albedo Feedback2分鐘
Water Vapor Feedback7分鐘
Clouds9分鐘
Aerosols5分鐘
Climate Sensitivity4分鐘
7 個練習
Model Sunlight, Albedo, and Climate12分鐘
Extract the Water Vapor Feedback from Climate Model Results6分鐘
Model Clouds 1: IR6分鐘
Model Clouds 2: Full-spectrum10分鐘
Model Aerosols and Climate8分鐘
Calculate the Climate Sensitivity24分鐘
Quiz 326分鐘
週
8完成時間為 2 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 48 分鐘）, 4 個測驗
9 個視頻
The Goldilocks Planets3分鐘
The Oceans in the Carbon Cycle5分鐘
The Land Biosphere in the Carbon Cycle5分鐘
The Battery of the Biosphere5分鐘
Oxidation and Reduction of Carbon6分鐘
Coal4分鐘
Oil6分鐘
Natural Gas2分鐘
4 個練習
Model the Global Carbon Cycle22分鐘
Model Ocean/Land CO₂ Uptake with ISAM12分鐘
Model Intended vs. Greenhouse Yields6分鐘
Quiz 422分鐘
週
9完成時間為 6 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 37 分鐘）, 7 個測驗
7 個視頻
Where Our Carbon Is Going3分鐘
Ocean Buffer Chemistry6分鐘
The Perturbed Carbon Cycle2分鐘
Methane as a Greenhouse Gas8分鐘
The Long CO₂ Tail5分鐘
Why the CO₂ Tail Matters6分鐘
5 個練習
Model Hubbert's Peak8分鐘
Model Kaya Identity20分鐘
Model Methane and Slugulator18分鐘
Model the Long Tail12分鐘
Quiz 516分鐘
週
10完成時間為 3 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 45 分鐘）, 7 個測驗
10 個視頻
Sea Surface Temperature Records3分鐘
Satellite Temperature Records2分鐘
The Smoking Gun: Warming Since the 1970s6分鐘
Paleoclimate and Proxy Measurements3分鐘
Tree Rings4分鐘
Borehole Temperatures2分鐘
Oxygen Isotopes4分鐘
Solar Intensity and the Hockey Stick6分鐘
Glacial - Interglacial Cycles6分鐘
6 個練習
Make Maps of Climate Models Warming4分鐘
Look for the Smoking Gun10分鐘
Browse the Global Glacier Length Data4分鐘
Model Borehole Temperatures4分鐘
Analyze Recent Solar Intensity Changes8分鐘
Quiz 612分鐘
週
11完成時間為 4 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 30 分鐘）, 10 個測驗
12 個視頻
Monsoons2分鐘
Vegetation2分鐘
Impacts of Sea Level2分鐘
Antarctic Ice Sheet2分鐘
Greenland Ice Sheet3分鐘
Paleo Sea Level Changes2分鐘
Water Vapor and Storminess1分鐘
Hurricanes3分鐘
Extreme Weather1分鐘
Ecosystem Impacts2分鐘
Human Impacts1分鐘
9 個練習
Water Stress in Climate Model Results6分鐘
Model Permafrost6分鐘
Model Changes in Sea Level10分鐘
Play with an Ice Sheet Model, ISM12分鐘
Short vs Long Term Sea Level Change12分鐘
Find the Increase in Low-Level Humidity in Models4分鐘
Extract AR5 Model Lapse Rates6分鐘
Model Hurricanes12分鐘
Quiz 720分鐘
週
12完成時間為 6 小時
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 個視頻 （總計 38 分鐘）, 1 個閱讀材料, 10 個測驗
8 個視頻
Temperature Targets1分鐘
Slug Theory5分鐘
Geoengineering: CO₂ Capture and Sequestration6分鐘
Geoengineering: Solar Radiation Management3分鐘
Economics of Climate Change8分鐘
Mitigation: Short-Term4分鐘
Mitigation: Long-Term3分鐘
1 個閱讀材料
Survey on Attitudes toward MOOC technology10分鐘
8 個練習
Model Stabilization Scenarios2分鐘
Model Temperature Targets2分鐘
How well does Slugulator do at Slug Theory?12分鐘
Model CO2 Sequestration2分鐘
Model SRM Geoengineering4分鐘
How Many Wedges?2分鐘
How Much Carbon-Free Energy by 2100?2分鐘
Quiz 828分鐘
4.6
76 個審閱14%
通過此課程獲得實實在在的工作福利
熱門審閱
A great introductory course into Global Warming as well as modelling which gives you a better insight into what is actually happening with our planet. Started another course and it all fits in.
Excellent course. My understanding of the world and how we are affected by climate has grown tenfold if not more. I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in living on this planet.
講師
David Archer
ProfessorGeophysical Sciences
關於 芝加哥大学
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