SIO115 Ice and the Climate System
Syllabus & Timetable 2019
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 9am in Revelle Conference Room (4301)

Please put your cell phones/iPhones etc away before coming into my classes.  If you are a medical person on call, or if you have children or if there is some other legitimate reason why you might need to take a phone call during my class, then let me know.  But otherwise, please do not text/surf the web/whatever during my classes!

Homework is assigned each Friday and due the following Friday.
TA: Dylan Snover: dsnover@ucsd.edu

HELPFUL NOTES TO ASSIST IN PAPER READING AND DISCUSSION


Week 1.  Introduction to the Cryosphere in the Earth System
  • 7 January:  Elements of the cryosphere; importance of the cryosphere ** WEEK 1 SLIDES **
  • 9 January:  Role of the cryosphere in the climate system; sea-level change
  • 11 January: paper & book discussion
Discussion papers:  Scambos et al. 2011; Barry, 2002
                                Guardian article 8 Jan 2019

                                Guidelines for paper discussions
                  

Additional reading: Chapter 1 of "The Cryosphere" by Shawn Marshall.
                               Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the UNEP Report

​​Homework 1 (due Friday 18 January): Cryosphere and its importance for climate
Week 2.  Past climate change and past climate records Discussion papers: Lorius et al. 1985 ; Petit et al. 1999
                               BBC Article 14 Nov 2016

​Additional reading: Ice cores sections of "The Cryosphere" by Shawn Marshall (see Index).
                               Ice cores and climate change fact sheet: British Antarctic Survey
                               van Ommen, The Conversation, 2016
                               Wolff, The Conversation, 2014            

​Homework 2 (due Friday 25 January): Ice Cores and Past Climate Data for homework Icecore_data.txt  NHinso1.txt
Week 3.  Snow cover, river ice and lake ice Discussion papers: Climate change is shrinking winter snowpack, which harms Northeast forests year-round
                                          (Reinmann and Templer, The Conversation, 2018)
                               Lake Baikal: how climate change is threatening the world’s oldest, deepest lake
                                          (Mackay and Swann, The Conversation, 2019)
                               Breaking the ice: river ice as a marker of climate change
                                          (EGU Blog post by Wayana Dolan).
Additional reading: Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of The Cryosphere" by Shawn Marshall.

​Homework 3 (due Friday 1 February): Snow cover and lake ice
Week 4. Lake ice & permafrost
  • 28 January: Permafrost; active layer; importance of permafrost to climate *** WEEK 4 SLIDES *** [note, order slightly changed from what was presented in class] 
  • 30 January: Permafrost; thermokast; under sea permafrost; effects of thawing permafrost; monitoring permafrost
POLAR VORTEX EXPLAINER FROM NOAA
Another explainer from Climate Signals
  • 1 February: Permafrost and paper discussions (see below)
​
Discussion papers on permafrost:
- Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost Minsley et al., 2012
- The impact of the permafrost carbon feedback on global climate Schaefer et al., 2014​​
- Economic impacts of carbon dioxide and methane released from permafrost Hope & Schaefer, 2015
​- Will the Arctic shift from a carbon sink to a carbon source Rawlins, The Conversation, 2015
- Methane and the risk of runaway global warming Glikson, The Conversation, 2013

Suggested additional reading: Chapter 7 of "The Cryosphere" (~14 easy pages)
                                                 Chapter 7 of UNEP report  NEW UNEP REPORT ON PERMAFROST
                                                 Facts about Permafrost (CenPerm in Denmark)
                                                 Duguay 2005 AGU book chapter

WATCH: AWI video on Permafrost
 AGU 2015 Fall meeting press conference on Permafrost
Homework 4 (due Friday 8 February): Permafrost

Week 5.  Sea ice
  • 4 February:  Sea ice; ice-albedo feedback; sea-ice types ** WEEK 5 SLIDES ***
  • 6 February: Sea ice growth; monitoring sea-ice extent and thickness              
  • 8 February:  Age of sea ice; future projections.
​
​​Discussion papers: The Arctic Ocean has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice — a startling sign of what’s to come​, Washington Post
                                 Observed Arctic sea-ice loss directly follows anthropogenic CO2 emission, Notz & Stroeve, Science, 2016
                                Why Antarctica’s sea ice cover is so low, Arblaster et al., The Conversation
                                Snow in the changing sea-ice systems, Webster et al., Nature Climate Change
                           
Arctic Sea-ice 101 (Program Manager Tom Wagner)
Interactive sea-ice map from NSIDC
​Arctic Report Card 2018 video
Arctic Report Card 2018 website

Suggested additional reading: Chapter 5 of "The Cryosphere" (~20 easy pages)
Chapter 5 of UNEP report   Arctic Report Card 2014 (see 18 December item on class media page)

Homework 5 (due Friday 15 February): Sea ice
Week 6.  Land ice: Glaciers and ice caps (GIC)
  • 11 February:  Introduction to GIC; types of glaciers; contribution of GIC to sea-level *** WEEK 6 SLIDES *** 
  • 13 February:  Transformation of snow to ice; glacier mass balance
  • 15 February:  Glacier mass balance & measurement
Discussion papers: Glaciers are retreating. Millions reply on their water Jeremy Engle, New York Times
                               Warm ice in Mount Everest’s glaciers makes them more sensitive to climate change – new research
                                                                                                                 Katie Miles, The Conversation
                                A bird’s eye view of New Zealand’s changing glaciers, Andrew Lorrey et al., The Conversation
                               We’ve been studying a glacier in Peru for 14 years –
                                       and it may reach the point of no return in the next 30 years Matthias Vuille, The Conversation
 Breaking news, published 12 Feb 2019!  Glacial Census Reveals Ice Thicknesses Around the World, Katherine Kornei, EOS

Suggested additional reading: relevant section of Chapter 6 of UNEP report
​                                                 World Glacier Monitoring Service
​
Glacier animation shown in class
​Greenland Ice Sheet Ice Age video

READ INSTRUCTIONS FOR TERM PAPER

Homework 6 (due Friday 22 February): Glacier mass budget
Please research your term paper to the point that you can answer question 1 on next week's homework:
1.  Term paper. By now you should have a topic picked out for your term paper.  Please write a concise, clear paragraph (150-200 words) on what your topic is about, and provide three real peer-reviewed references that you have looked at on this topic.  [10]
Week 7.  Land ice: Ice sheets (Greenland & Antarctica)
  • 18 February: PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY - NO CLASS
  • 20 February: Mass balance of ice sheets; ice streams *** WEEK 7 SLIDES ***
  • 22 February: Ice-ocean interaction; basal melting; surface melting; iceberg calving -- Greenland and Antarctica

Discussion papers:
1. Nonlinear rise in Greenland runoff in response to post-industrial Arctic warming, Nature, December 2018
2. The big melt: Earth’s ice sheets are under attack, Science News for Students, January 2019
3. Antarctic surface hydrology and impacts on ice-sheet mass balance​, Nature Climate Change, November 2018

Homework 7 (due Friday 1 March): Glaciers and ice shelves
No homework -- work on your presentation and term paper.Week 8.  Land ice: Ice sheets (Greenland & Antarctica)

**** A FRIENDLY REMINDER TO PLEASE FILL IN YOUR CAPE FORMS :-)  http://www.cape.ucsd.edu****
  • 25 February: Surface melting in Greenland and Antarctica *** WEEK 8 SLIDES ***
  • 27 February: Glacier dynamics: creep; flow-law; force balance ice dynamics Ice dynamics
  • 1 March: Subglacial water; subglacial processes; subglacial lakes​

Discussion papers:
1.Scientist at work: Tracking melt water under the Greenland ice sheet, Joel Harper, The Conversation, 2016
2.Ocean waves and lack of sea ice can trigger Antarctic ice shelves to disintegrate, Bennetts, The Conversation, 2018
​3. Why Antarctica and the Arctic are polar opposites, Science News for Students, January 2019
The paradigm shift in Antarctic ice sheet modelling Frank Pattyn​No homework -- work on your presentation and term paper.

Deformation and sliding Antarctic Glaciers
Week 9. Changes in land ice

**** PLEASE FILL IN YOUR CAPE FORMS http://www.cape.ucsd.edu ****
  • 4 March: Ice dynamics  *** WEEK 9 SLIDES ***
  • 6 March: Ice dynamics; glacier surges; marine ice sheet instability
  • 8 March: Subglacial drainage; subglacial lakes; ice sheet changes

Read 2014 media page about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet instability

Link to VICE program on Antarctic mass loss

Discussion papers:
1. Ocean-Ice Shelf Interaction in East Antarctica, Oceanography, Silvano et al. 2016
2. Ice shelf buttressing, The International Encyclopedia of Geography, Dan Goldberg 2017
3. Marine ice sheet instability, AntarcticGlaciers, Bethan Davies​, 2014
4. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets under 1.5 °C global warming, Nature, Pattyn 2018
​
​Homework 8 (due Friday 15 March): Glacier and ice sheet dynamics & hydrology

Week 10. Lightning presentations of term papers (10 minutes each)

TIPS FOR GIVING LIGHTNING TALKS

PPT template for lightning talk​

Please upload your presentation to the Google Drive
Filename format: "Last_name-Day-SIO115.ppt" e.g. "Fricker-Monday-SIO115.ppt"
​Google Drive

**** PLEASE FILL IN YOUR CAPE FORMS http://www.cape.ucsd.edu ****
  • 11 March: Group A: (1) Streets, Sakumaru; (2) Vandewalle, Megan; (3) Wang, Yue;
(4) Williams, Eric; (5) Wong, Mackenzie; (6) Wu, Alexander; (7) Wu, Shiyue; (8) Yu, Zhen; (9) Zhang, Kaiwen

  • 13 March: Group B: (1) Locher, Garrett; (2) Luo, Hanyang; (3) Martinez-Barry, Carla; (4) Nguyen, Duyen; (5) Park, Esther;
    (6) Pham, Peter; (7) Qian, Gege; (8) Rios, Daisy; (9) Sony, Riya
 
  • 15 March: Group C: (1) Anidjar, Niv; (2) Arndt, Philipp; (3) Bennett, Robert; (4) Bergentz, Kerstin; (5) Breyer, Canyon;
(6) Chin, Katherine; (7) Gaul, Alan; (8) Hytonen, Eric; (9) Jabuka, Jacqueline; (10) Jauregui, Gregory;


Please show up to all term paper presentations to support your fellow students!

Final term papers are due in class on Friday 15th March, typed up and printed out as a hard-copy on both sides of the paper.
There will be no exceptions to this deadline unless there is a valid medical or childcare reason.
Week 11. Exam week

EXAM STUDY GUIDE

Final Exam 8:30am - 11:00am Wednesday 20th March 2019

Good luck everyone !

Course texts

UNEP Report: Global Outlook for Snow and Ice
CliC Intergrated Global Observing Strategy Report:
igos-cryos_theme_report.pdf
File Size: 4234 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
IPCC AR5 Chapter 4 (FINAL DRAFT)