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NEW WEBSITE: 
https://polar.ucsd.edu/education/sio115/timetable/

SIO115 Ice and the Climate System
Syllabus & Timetable 2020
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 9am in Revelle Conference Room (4301)

Please put your cell phones 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 please let me know.


Homework is assigned each Friday and due the following Friday.
There are eight homeworks in total.
Late policy: 10% off for every day after Friday. Homework needs to be in before the start of the next class because we might go over homework then. 
You are expected to submit homeworks electronically, typed up in a PDF document.
You are allowed to use any program to type up your answers, but encouraged to use LaTeX! To facilitate the use of LaTeX, you will find templates for each homework on the course website, which are pre-populated with the questions for that homework. All that's left for you to do is going to the main.tex document on the directory on the left, adding your own name to the document, and writing your answers wherever it says "Your answer here.". You can find some more information on how to get started with LaTeX here.
When submitting homework, please stick to the naming convention SIO115_HwXX_Lastname_Firstname.pdf, so for example SIO115_Hw01_Doe_Jane.pdf for the first homework. Please email your answers to parndt@ucsd.edu with subject line SIO115 Homework X Lastname Firstname by the appropriate deadline.

TA: Philipp Arndt: parndt@ucsd.edu
HELPFUL NOTES TO ASSIST IN PAPER READING AND DISCUSSION

Week 1.  Introduction to the Cryosphere in the Earth System
  • 6 January:  Elements of the cryosphere; importance of the cryosphere **Week 1 Slides**
  • 8 January:  Role of the cryosphere in the climate system; NASA Tour of Cryosphere video partially shown in class
  • 10 January: Role of the cryosphere in the climate system; sea-level change; paper & book discussion

Discussion papers:  (1) Scambos et al. 2011 Earth’s ice: Sea level, climate, and our future commitment
                                (2) What is the cryosphere? Hint: It's vital to farming, fishing and skiing (Mark Serreze, The Conversation)
​
                                ***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 17 January): Cryosphere and its importance for climate 
                                                                 
[LaTeX template]

Week 2.  Past climate change and past climate records
  • 13 January: Transition of snow to ice; ice divides; ice cores  Video  ** Week 2 Slides **
  • 15 January: Ice ages; ocean isotopes
  • 17 January: Paper discussion for ice cores and ice ages (Lorius and Petit)
​
​Discussion papers:  (1) Shackleton et al., 2020 Abegail
                                (2) Lorius et al. 1985; Michael
 
                              (extra) Petit et al. 1999 
                                                          

​Additional reading: (i) Ice cores and climate change fact sheet: British Antarctic Survey
                               (ii) van Ommen, The Conversation, 2016
                               (iii) Wolff, The Conversation, 2014
                              
 (iv) BBC Article 14 Nov 2016
                               Ice cores sections of "The Cryosphere" by Shawn Marshall (see Index).

​Clarification:
An informal explanation of temperature reconstruction from stable oxygen isotope ratios
(δ18O) in ice cores.


​Homework 2 (due Friday 24 January): Ice Cores and Past Climate ​
- Data for homework: icecore_isotope_data.txt, nhinso1.txt
- MATLAB template to get started: core_template.m
​
- LaTeX template
- email with LaTeX clarifications & MATLAB first-timer instructions

​

Week 3.  Snow cover, river ice and lake ice
  • 20 January: MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY -- NO CLASS
  • 22 January: Snow cover ** Week 3 Slides *** ​
  • 24 January: River Ice and lake Ice
Discussion papers: Climate change is shrinking winter snowpack, which harms Northeast forests year-round (to be presented by Roger Chou)
                                          (Reinmann and Templer, The Conversation, 2018)
Additional reading: 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 31 January): Snow cover and lake ice
                                                                 
[latex template]

 Week 4. Lake ice & permafrost
  • 27 January: Permafrost; active layer; importance of permafrost to climate *** Week 4 Slides ***
  • 29 January: Permafrost; thermokast; under sea permafrost; effects of thawing permafrost; monitoring permafrost
  • 31 January: Permafrost wrap up and paper discussion (see below)
​
Discussion papers on permafrost:
- Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost Minsley et al., 2012 (to be presented by Marnie Bryant)

Extra discussion papers:
- 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

- How Thawing Permafrost Is Beginning to Transform the Arctic 21 January 2020
POLAR VORTEX EXPLAINER FROM NOAA
Another explainer from Climate Signals

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 (shown in class)
 AGU 2015 Fall meeting press conference on Permafrost
Homework 4 (due Friday 7 February): Permafrost 
                                                                 [LaTeX template]

 Week 5.  Sea ice
  • 3 February:  Sea ice; ice-albedo feedback; sea-ice types ** WEEK 5 SLIDES ***
  • 5 February: Sea ice growth; monitoring sea-ice extent and thickness              
  • 7 February:  Age of sea ice; future projections.
​
​
​Discussion papers: Observed Arctic sea-ice loss directly follows anthropogenic CO2 emission, Notz & Stroeve, Science, 2016 (to be presented by Xinyue Zhao)
                                Why Antarctica’s sea ice cover is so low, Arblaster et al., The Conversation (to be presented by Sawyer Brand)

​Extra discussion papers:
                                The Arctic Ocean has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice — a startling sign of what’s to come​, Washington Post
                                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 14 February): Sea ice

Week 6.  Land ice: Glaciers and ice caps (GIC)
  • 10 February:  Introduction to GIC; types of glaciers; contribution of GIC to sea-level *** WEEK 6 SLIDES *** 
  • 12 February:  Transformation of snow to ice; glacier mass balance
  • 14 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
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 21 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)
  • 17 February: PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY - NO CLASS
  • 19 February: Mass balance of ice sheets; ice streams *** WEEK 7 SLIDES ***
  • 21 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 28 February): Glaciers and ice shelves

Week 8.  Land ice: Ice sheets (Greenland & Antarctica)
No homework -- work on your presentation and term paper.

**** A FRIENDLY REMINDER TO PLEASE FILL IN YOUR CAPE FORMS :-)  http://www.cape.ucsd.edu****
  • 24 February: Surface melting in Greenland and Antarctica *** WEEK 8 SLIDES ***
  • 26 February: Glacier dynamics: creep; flow-law; force balance ice dynamics Ice dynamics
  • 28 February: 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 ****
  • 3 March: Ice dynamics  *** WEEK 9 SLIDES ***
  • 5 March: Ice dynamics; glacier surges; marine ice sheet instability
  • 7 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 14 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 ****
  • 10 March: Group A
  • 12 March: Group B
  • 14 March: Group C

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

Final term papers are due in class on Friday 14th 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 19th March 2020


Good luck everyone !



Course texts

IPCC: Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCCC)
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)
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