Climate and the Hydrological Cycle (MO408M)

1. Climate and the Hydrological Cycle(MO408M) Bart van den Hurk (www.knmi.nl/~hurkvd) IMAU (Wednesday): B614 KNMI (other days): B3.36 hurkvd@knmi.nl Aarnout van Delden (IMAU) Geert Jan Roelofs (IMAU)

2. Material • Lecture notes • Land processes in climate models • Presentations • Articles • Accessible via blackboard and www.knmi.nl/~hurkvd

3. Basic structure of course • 3 major topics • Land surface processes in the climate system • how to parameterize • climate zones • Land use • Land-atmosphere interaction • Dynamical meteorology • Water-related feedbacks • Zonal structure and PV • Diagnosing diabatic processes from PV • Clouds and aerosols • Cloud microphysics • Clouds, aerosol and climate • Isotopes and the hydrological cycle

4. Course aims • ability to describe and basically understand the seasonal and interannual variability of the large scale circulation of the atmosphere and the associated transport of water vapour. • ability to describe and basically understand how atmospheric radiative processes, the energetics of the water cycle and large scale planetary waves determine the seasonal cycle of temperature and wind-jets. • understand the physical (radiative and thermodynamic) aspects of aerosol, clouds and land surface processes • acquire knowledge on microphysical and chemical properties of aerosol and clouds, and understand their role in aerosol direct and indirect climate effects • understand the physical principles of processes, interactions and feedbacks at the land surface – climate interface • have an overview of key diagnostics of land-atmosphere interaction • demonstrate a broad insight in how the different aspects of the hydrological cycle are related and interact • understand how the hydrological cycle affects and is affected by climate and climate change • having explored and understand scientific literature on a subject associated with aerosol, clouds, water cycle, land surface processes and climate • understand and manipulate a conceptual model of land-atmosphere interaction • technically process records of observations and model output of land surface variables • formulate a simple hypothesis related to land surface processes, evaluate observations and/or model output relevant for this hypothesis, and report on the results and conclusions from this evaluation.

5. Examination Three projects (each 30%) • Conceptual land-atm interaction model • Exploring ERA-interim • Essay on clouds/aerosols One presentation on either topic (10%) Presentation + 3 project reports are evaluated  one final grade

6. Schedule Bart van den Hurk Aarnout van Delden Geert Jan Roelofs • 6: introduction land and dynamics • 7: introduction clouds • 8: land parameterization • 9: land use change • 10: land-atmosphere interaction • 11: no lecture • 12: land-atmosphere interaction + introduction to land exercise • 13: intrduction dynamics and water-related feedbacks • 14: zonal characteristics and potential vorticity • 15: zonal characteristics and potential vorticity • 16: deadline essay on land exercise • 17: interaction dynamics/water/radiation • 18: presentations land exercise • 19: interaction dynamics/water/radiation • 20: cloud microphysics • 21: cloud microphysics • 22: aerosols, clouds and climate • 23: aerosol chemistry • 24: presentation dyn exercise • 25: isotopes and hydrological cycle • 26: presentation cloud exercise

7. Evaluation criteria • Main criterion is the physical rationale of the essay • Is it well structured (intro, questions, material, results, conclusions) • Is the physical hypothesis well related to the analysis? • Marks • 10: publishable • 9: innovative • 8: good set-up and rationale, no inconsistencies • 7: fair set-up and rationale • 6: data are used and described but clarity is limited • 5: analysis not compatible with hypothesis • 4: physical inconsistencies • Secondary criteria are used for round-off (language, references, readability, clarity of figures)

8. Registration • Please register at • Bureau Onderwijs Zaken (BOZ), Minnaertbuilding Rm 119 • Also non-MSc, non-Utrecht participants!