Basics of Climate Modeling

By Prof. Asif Qureshi | IIT Hyderabad

Learners enrolled: 1558 | Exam registration: 242

ABOUT THE COURSE:

Climate change is a very important and current topic. While almost all students are aware of the phenomenon, in general, it will be highly beneficial for them to be aware of the basic concepts behind climate change such as thermodynamic principles, energy balances, and what goes behind some of the modeling. This course will introduce the students to the concepts of climate change, and how one can model climate change. This course will cover the earlier simpler and basic models of climate change, and will provide an introduction to the other more complex models that may be taken up in an advanced course.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

1. Students (PG and senior UG).

2. Working professionals in the general field of climate change.

3. Junior scientists and engineers of pollution control boards and climate missions.

PREREQUISITES: Basic physics, chemistry, mathematics (class 10 to 12 level).

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Civil Engineering Environment
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	16 Feb 2026
End Date :	10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends :	16 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends :	27 Feb 2026
Exam Date :	17 Apr 2026 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

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: Climate trends (earth observations), components of the climate systems (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, land surface)

Week 2: Radiate balance, a simple greenhouse model of earth, radiative forcings, radiative-convective framework

Week 3: Climate sensitivity, climate feedback: ice-albedo, water vapor, clouds, lapse rate

Week 4: Hydrological cycle, carbon cycle and reservoirs, Non-CO2 greenhouse gases and associated cycles

Week 5: Introduction to types of climate models (energy balance, intermediate complexity, general circulation). Introduction to earlier energy balance climate models considering only atmosphere (using the scientific papers, e.g. by Budyko (1969) The effect of solar radiation variations on the climate of the earth Tellus Vol. 5; Sellers (1969) A global climate model based on the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system J. Applied Meteorology Vol. 8)

Week 6: Oceans and their role in regulating the climate. Early atmosphere-ocean coupled models. (e.g. Wigley and Schlesinger (1985) Analytical solution for the effect of increasing CO2 on global mean temperature Nature Vol. 315; Harvey and Schneider (1985) Transient climate response to external forcing on 10⁰ – 10⁴ year time scales Part - 1 J. Geophysical Research Vol. 90))

Week 7: Describing transport of energy and matter, parameterization

Week 8: Introduction to numerical methods used in climate models, and presentation of primer for complex models

Books and references

1. Introduction to Climate Modeling

Thomas Stocker

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.

ISBN: 978-3-642-00772-9

2. Climate Modeling for Scientists and Engineers

John B. Drake

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Philadelphia

ISBN: 978-1-611973-53-2

3. Introduction to climate dynamics and climate modeling.

Goosse H., P.Y. Barriat, W. Lefebvre, M.F. Loutre and V. Zunz (2010).

Online textbook available at http://www.climate.be/textbook.

Instructor bio

Prof. Asif Qureshi

IIT Hyderabad

Prof. Asif Qureshi is a Professor at IIT Hyderabad, in the Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Climate Change (affiliated). He has D.Sc. in Environmental Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, master’s in environmental engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur. He works on different aspects of environmental pollution and health. In particular, he is interested in chemical, and biological, pollution and associated impacts to humans and environment in the present and the future. Scientific methods are used to provide information that may help inform decision and policy making.

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: April 17, 2026 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 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

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

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