An Introduction to Climate Dynamics, Variability and Monitoring

By Prof. Sayak Banerjee | IIT Hyderabad

Learners enrolled: 1250 | Exam registration: 242

ABOUT THE COURSE:
As climate change and associated climate mitigation and adaptation strategies become an increasingly important concern for the government, the industry as well as multiple disciplines within the academia, there is need for a course that provides a physics-based understanding of the parameters controlling climatic variability and human influence on climate variability to UG/PG students from diverse science/technology backgrounds. A basic grounding on instruments and methodologies to monitor climate relevant variables will also prove useful and interesting to students of engineering disciplines. Such a course will also prove beneficial to industry professionals who are interested in developing technology/policy/business solutions for climate change.

This course will provide the participant with a thorough introductory grounding of climate physics, climatic patterns of variability, and the human influences in the ongoing climate change. In addition, the participant will also gain an understanding of how various climatological and meteorological variables are measured using ground based, upper air and satellite based instrumentation. The course will also be very useful for those who wish to specialize further in climatological modelling, satellite based observation of weather and climate etc.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Graduate Students in Science and Engineering Disciplines related to Climate, Environment and Sustainability.
Undergraduate students in Engg. Science, Environmental Science as well as those interested on minor in Sustainable Energy/Engg.
Professionals interested in Climate Change Science.

PREREQUISITES: Students and Professionals with Civil Engg, Env and Atmospheric Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Geology and Geophysics Background. While a PG course, materials learnt upto 2^nd year UG should be sufficient.

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Elective
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Civil Engineering
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	22 Jul 2024
End Date :	11 Oct 2024
Enrollment Ends :	05 Aug 2024
Exam Registration Ends :	16 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	27 Oct 2024 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Introduction to Climatology and Climatic Variables; Atmospheric Variables:- Temperature, Composition, Pressure. Variations in weather and climate influenced by these Atmospheric Variables.

Week 2: Atmospheric Variables Continued:- Humidity, Hydrostatic Balance, Lapse Rate and Stability. Influence of these variables on geographical variations in Climate . Impact of Global Warming on Stability and Lapse Rates
The Oceanic Variables: Temperature and Salinity; The Cryosphere.

Week 3: The Global Energy Balance and Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneities in Energy Balance. Energy flux from the Sun and Variabilities in Solar Insolation, Emissions from Earth, Mean temperature and the Greenhouse Effect, global radiative flux balance, poleward energy flux.

Week 4: The Radiative Energy fluxes in the atmosphere, transmission and absorption of SW and LW radiation by the gases, the Lambert-Beer law, the infrared radiative transfer equations and the radiative equilibrium model, Greenhouse effect in a continuously stratified atmosphere, radiation and the clouds.

Week 5: Atmospheric Fluid Dynamics; the Atmospheric General Circulation : energy balance, atmospheric motions, meridional energy transport, angular momentum balance, large scale circulation patterns and climate types.

Week 6: Oceanic Fluid Dynamics; Oceanic General Circulation : mixed layers, wind driven circulation, thermohaline circulation, energy transport in the oceans and their influence on regional climate.

Week 7: Climatic Variabilities due to Atmosphere-Ocean Interactions. Intra-seasonal and inter-annual variabilities, PNA, NAO, SAM, MJO and ENSO variabilities, Decadal variations of weather and climate.

Week 8: Physics of Climate Change: Climate Forcing, Climate Sensitivity and Feedback - Measures of forcing, sensitivity and feedback, Radiative feedback, Dynamical feedback in energy transport, Cloud feedback, bio-geochemical feedback. Overview of current anthropogenic forcing.

Week 9: Principles of Measurement and Instrumentation: Measuring systems, response times, errors and uncertainties, data acquisition. Land Based Measurements of Temperature and Pressure.

Week 10: Land based measurements of humidity, precipitation and wind speed. Measurement of Radiation: SW and LW

Week 11: Upper Air measurements using Radiosondes; Principles of Atmospheric Remote Sounding

Week 12: Satellite based Remote Sensing for Climatological Applications. Satellite based Weather Imaging; VNIR and TIR imaging systems and applications. Wrap Up.

Books and references

1) An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics, David G. Andrews, Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780511800788
2) Global Physical Climatology, Elsevier 2nd Edition - December 3, 2015. Author: Dennis L. Hartmann Hardback ISBN: 9780123285317
3) Meteorological Measurements and Instrumentation Author(s):R. Giles Harrison, 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Print ISBN:9781118745809.
4) Physical Principles of Remote Sensing, W. G. Rees,3^rd Edition, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781139017411

Instructor bio

Prof. Sayak Banerjee

IIT Hyderabad

Prof. Sayak Banerjee is an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical and Aerospace Department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and is also an Adjunct Professor at the Climate Change Department at IIT Hyderabad. He had completed his M Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and his PhD and Post-Doctoral research on bio-aviation fuel combustion kinetics from the Stanford University, USA. His research specialization is in the field chemical kinetics experimentation and modelling associated with the gasification, pyrolysis and combustion of novel carbon neutral fuels (biomass, hydrogen, biodiesel, biojet fuels etc.). He has taught the Sustainable Energy Technology Course at IIT Hyderabad as an M. Tech/ B.Tech elective for Mechanical and Climate Change Departments for over 3 years

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: 27 October 2024 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Hyderabad. It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

SWAYAM Helpline / Support