SIO115 Ice and the Climate System
Syllabus & Timetable

Week 1.  Introduction to the Cryosphere in the Earth System
  • 28 March:  Elements of the cryosphere; importance of the cryosphere
  • 30 March:  Role of the cryosphere in the climate system; sea-level rise
  • 1 April:  Discussion paper: Scambos et al. 2011 (scambos-2011.pdf below); Flanner et al., 2011 (2011-Flanner-NGeo.pdf below).
Homework 1 (due Wednesday 6 April): The Cryosphere and its importance for climate change (sio_115_homework_1.pdf below).
Suggested additional reading: (i) Chapter 1 of “The Cryosphere”; (ii) Chapters 1 & 2 of UNEP report.
Week 2.  Past climate change and past climate records
  • 4 April:  Ice ages (Jeff Severinghaus)
  • 6 April:  Ice cores (Anais Orsi)
  • 8 April:  Discussion paper: Alley et al. 2003
Homework 2 (due Wednesday 13 April):
Suggested additional reading: Chapter 5 of “The Cryosphere”.
Week 3.  Permafrost & lake ice
  • 11 April:  Permafrost
  • 13 April:  Permafrost contd; Lake ice
  • 15 April:  Discussion papers: Zimov et al., 2006; Schaefer et al., 2011
Homework 3 (due Wednesday 20 April):
Suggested additional reading: Chapter 7 of UNEP report
Week 4.  Sea-ice
  • 18 April:  Sea-ice; ice-albedo feedback; changes in Arctic sea-ice;
  • 20 April:  Modelling sea-ice (Julie MacClean)
  • 22 April:  Discussion paper: Stroeve et al. 2007 (GRL) and 2008 (EOS)
Homework 4 (due Wednesday 27 April):  SIO 115 Homework 4.pdf below
Suggested additional reading: Chapter 5 of UNEP report
Week 5.  Land ice: Glaciers and ice caps (GIC)
  • 25 April:  Mass balance of glaciers; flow of glaciers; ice-ocean interaction
  • 27 April:  Decline of GIC and contribution to sea-level
  • 29 April:  Discussion paper: Meier et al., 2008
Homework 5 (due Wednesday 4 May):
Suggested additional reading: relevant section of Chapter 6 of UNEP report
Weeks 6-8.  Land ice: Ice sheets (Greenland & Antarctica)
  • 2 May:  Mass inputs and gains; ice streams; floating tidewater glaciers; ice-ocean interaction; iceberg calving
  3:15pm  Earth Section Seminar by Marion Bougamont: “Understanding Contemporary Changes in West Antarctica: insights from a higher
order ice sheet model with dynamic subglacial processes”  Hubbs 4500
  • 4 May:  Ice dynamics; supraglacial lakes
  • 6 May:  Discussion paper: Vaughan and Arthern, 2007; Truffer and Fahnestock, 2007
Homework 6 (due Wednesday 11 May):
  • 9 May: NOVA show
  • 11 May:  Mass inputs and gains; ice streams; ice shelves; ice-ocean interaction
  • 13 May:  Discussion paper:
Homework 7 (due Wednesday 17 May):
  • 16 May: subglacial processes; subglacial lakes
3:15pm  Earth Section Seminar by Kurt Cuffey, UC Berkeley: “Ice, Sea Level and Contemporary Climate Change” 4500 Hubbs
Homework 8 (due Wednesday 25 May):
Week 9. The Changing Cryosphere
  • 23 May: How is the Cryosphere changing?  What might happen in the future?
3:15pm  Earth Section Seminar by Poul Christoffersen: "Glacier Dynamics" 4500 Hubbs
  • 25 May: How can we improve predictions?
  • 27 May: Discussion paper: IPCC Chapter 4 (ipcc_2007_ar4wg1_ch04.pdf below)
Homework 9 (due Wednesday 1 June):
Suggested reading: (i) IPCC Chapter 4
Week 10. Student presentations
  • 30 May: Group 1
  • 1 June: Group 2
  • 3 June: Group 3
Week 11. Exam week – IGS meeting http://glaciology2.ucsd.edu/igs2011 – no classes.
  • Exam is 9 June 2011 at 11:30am.

Course texts

UNEP Report: Global Outlook for Snow and Ice
CliC
igos-cryos_theme_report.pdf
File Size: 4234 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
IPCC AR4 Chapter 4
ipcc_2007_ar4wg1_ch04.pdf
File Size: 5141 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Lectures

sio115_week1-cryosphereclimateocean-lecture1.pdf
File Size: 2921 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Homework

Discussion papers

scambos-2011.pdf
File Size: 328 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
2011-flanner-ngeo.pdf
File Size: 605 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
2011-flanner-som.pdf
File Size: 2546 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
1999-clark-science.pdf
File Size: 1354 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
2006-zimov-science.pdf
File Size: 364 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
2011-shaefer-tellus.pdf
File Size: 2115 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
2007-stroeve-grl.pdf
File Size: 330 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
stroeve_eos08.2008eo020001.pdf
File Size: 203 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
meier_science_2007.pdf
File Size: 180 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
vaughanandarthern_science_2007.pdf
File Size: 147 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
truffer_and_fahnestock2007.pdf
File Size: 312 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
bell-2008_ngeo.pdf
File Size: 1247 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File