Mechanisms of Climate Change

The course "Mechanisms of Climate Change" aims to provide a clear and thorough understanding of how the climate system works. It covers the fundamental principles that form the basis of the climate system, including the natural and human factors that influence it. The course also explores how climate change impacts human activities and why there are individuals who are skeptical about human-induced global warming. Additionally, students will learn about the historical changes in climate over thousands of years and why the current warming trend is generating significant scientific interest. The course also delves into the methods used to reconstruct past climates and make climate predictions for the future. Finally, students will explore the most significant consequences of climate change for humanity.

The study of the indicated information leads to a comprehensive understanding of the climate change issues on the global and regional scale, the ability to competently evaluate incoming information, even without having a professional education in this field, and also provides the necessary basis for further study of climate change research and applied climatology problems.

Specialized education is not required to attend the course.

The study of the discipline is done in a lecture format, accompanied by presentations and materials for self-study, in the form of scientific articles, educational materials, schedules and assignments.

• The listener is offered intermediate tests and questions.
• Listeners are offered interactive tasks using tasks using photo and graphic material.

• Listeners are offered programming assignments as a practical experience.
• Listeners are offered self-study of scientific and popular science materials, as well as independent work with open sources of observational data of climate characteristics.
• The listeners are offered informative video lectures with the involvement of invited lecturers, specialists in a certain topic

We’ll discuss:

• flows of energy and carbon in Earth’s climate system
• natural internal variability, including the role of atmosphere and ocean heat transport
• the role of natural external factors and it’s impact on climate changes
• the history of the Earth climate variability and fundamentals of climate models for forecast
• the most common climate myths and misconceptions  such as “it was much warmer a million year ago”, “it is all just a sign if natural variability caused by sun”.

You’ll find out:

• what forms the radiative budget and the significance of the carbon cycle
• the difference between surface temperature values and it’s trends
• how the atmospheric circulation works and why the ocean carries the crucial role
• how ocean and atmosphere interact with each other and their feedback on external impact
• the impact of external mechanisms on climate system, such as solar activity and volcanism
• features of anthropogenic effect including the variations of CO2 and the mutually exclusive impacts of human-induced aerosols
• what methods are used to reconstruct the Earth’s climate history
• the process of climate models predictions of future climate variations and impacts
• why misunderstandings and opposite theories on climate issues arise and why is there so much information noise

This course may be of interest to students studying climatology, those whose field of research is related to climate or close fields of science, as well as those who are simply self-interested in climate change and want to understand the basics of the processes of fluctuations of the climate system. Knowledge of the physical basis of global climate change and the interaction of various climatic components can be the basis for an in-depth study of climate change issues, will allow you to apply the knowledge gained to participate in research, project or independent work, analyze and critically evaluate scientific and popular scientific information and maintain a conversation about climate change from a professionally informed point of view.

The estimated duration of the course is 6 sections (weeks). A specific topic is studied during each week. It will be necessary to listen to 60-120 minutes of lecture materials per week, as well as study materials for self-education for 60-120 minutes. In each section (week) there are 8 to 12 video fragments (the duration of each lecture is from 5 to 20 minutes each). The video lectures of the first two weeks are open access, the rest of the materials will be available after you pay for the course.

• Hartmann, D.L., 2015. Global physical climatology (Vol. 103). Newnes.
• Taylor, F.W., 2005. Elementary climate physics. Oxford Univ. Press.
• Ahrens, C.D., 2011. Essentials of meteorology: an invitation to the atmosphere. Cengage Learning.
• Pinet, P.R., 2019. Invitation to oceanography. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Roy, I., 2018. Climate Variability and Sunspot Activity: Analysis of the Solar Influence on Climate. Springer.
• Balakrishnaiah G., Reddy R.R., Gopal K.R. 2017. Aerosol Climatology and Aerosol-Cloud Interactions using MODIS. Scholars' Press. 
• Hyman, A., 2017, Climatology and Paleoclimatology. Syrawood Publishing House.
• Sullivan D., 2019. Advances in Climatology. CALLISTO REFERENCE
• Nuccitelli D., 2015. Climatology Versus Pseudoscience: Exposing the Failed Predictions of Global. Praeger.

A wide international audience without the need for specialized training, young professionals in the field of climatology, specialists in scientific fields related to climatology, a student audience.

Students and professionals in the field of climatology will be offered a choice of more complex tasks.

To master the discipline, students must possess the following knowledge and competencies: to know the basics of geography, have a desktop computer and/or laptop.

1. Climate determination
2. Physical basis
3. Climate of the past
4. Mechanisms of climate change: External factors
5. Mechanisms of climate change: internal factors – variability of the climate system
6. The climate of the future and the consequences of climate change

• The physical processes behind world climate variations
• History of climate change throughout the ages and methods of its reconstruction
• Summarize the main mechanisms that impact climate change system leading to its changes
• Distinguish possible future climate scenarios and the role of human actions
• Uphold the conversation about climate change at an advanced level and explain the climate science basis to anyone
• Evaluate the incoming scientific and popular science information on global and regional climate changes

• Gaining a systematic understanding of physical processes underlying climate system changes
• The ability to highlight the basic principles of interaction between the components of the climate system
• Discriminate sources of paleoclimatic reconstruction
• Understand the difference between the dating methods of paleoclimatic information
• Distinguish the differences between the impact of internal and external factors on the climate system
• Correlate the growth rate of anthropogenic impact against the background of natural factors with the increase in surface temperature
• Skill to use resources to search for instrumental data
• The ability to maintain a conversation on climate change at an advanced level
• Analyze the incoming scientific nformation on global and regional climate changes

• Gaining a systematic understanding of physical processes underlying climate system changes
• The ability to highlight the basic principles of interaction between the components of the climate system
• Discriminate sources of paleoclimatic reconstruction
• Understand the difference between the dating methods of paleoclimatic information
• Distinguish the differences between the impact of internal and external factors on the climate system
• Correlate the growth rate of anthropogenic impact against the background of natural factors with the increase in surface temperature
• Skill to use resources to search for instrumental data
• The ability to maintain a conversation on climate change at an advanced level
• Analyze the incoming scientific nformation on global and regional climate changes

• Gaining a systematic understanding of physical processes underlying climate system changes
• The ability to highlight the basic principles of interaction between the components of the climate system
• Discriminate sources of paleoclimatic reconstruction
• Understand the difference between the dating methods of paleoclimatic information
• Distinguish the differences between the impact of internal and external factors on the climate system
• Correlate the growth rate of anthropogenic impact against the background of natural factors with the increase in surface temperature
• Skill to use resources to search for instrumental data
• The ability to maintain a conversation on climate change at an advanced level
• Analyze the incoming scientific nformation on global and regional climate changes
• Distinguish the incorrect and alarmed information on climate change

• Systemic and critical thinking (UK-1).
• Possession of basic knowledge of the mechanisms of climate change (OPK-2).
• Fundamental foundations of professional activity (UK-1 or OPK-1).