Geography 257 Topics in Climatology

Instructor: John Chiang, 547 McCone, 2-3900, jchiang@atmos.berkeley.edu
Time and location [NOTE NEW TIME]: Tue 8:30-11:30, 575 McCone. Office hours: Tue 2-4
Grading & requirements: Pass/Fail ONLY. Students taking it for credit are expected to attend all classes, to complete all reading assignments and actively participate in the discussion.
Format: Weekly reading assignments for discussion in class. One of you will be nominated to lead discussion for each week.

This semester's topic: Modern climate variability
We will review the three most prominent examples of interannual variability in the climate system - the North Atlantic Oscillation, the El Nino- Southern Oscillation, and the Asian monsoon - including the phenomenology, mechanism, impacts, and current issues.

Current schedule (subject to revision)

Time	Presenter	Topic	Paper
Week 1 (8/31)		Introduction, planning logistics, overview
Week 2 (9/7)	Chiang	NAO: phenomenology	An overview of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Hurrell et al. (in The North Atlantic Oscillation: Climate significance and environmental impact, Hurrell, Kushnir, and Visbeck eds )
Week 3 (9/14)	Barton	NAO and climate change	Climate change and the North Atlantic Oscillation.  Gillett et al. (in The North Atlantic Oscillation: Climate significance and environmental impact, Hurrell, Kushnir, and Visbeck eds )
Week 4 (9/21)	Johnson	NAO: terrestrial Ecosystem Impacts	The response of the terrestrial ecosystems to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation.  Mysterud et al. (in The North Atlantic Oscillation: Climate significance and environmental impact, Hurrell, Kushnir, and Visbeck eds )
Week 5	Johnstone	ENSO: phenomenology	Cane 1983: Oceanographic events during El Nino (pdf); and Rasmussen and Wallace, 1983: Meteorological aspects of the ENSO (pdf)
Week 6	Bliss	ENSO: mechanisms	Cane 1991: Tropical Pacific ENSO models: ENSO as a mode of the coupled system
Week 7	Parker	ENSO and climate change	Cane et al. 1997: Twentieth-Century Sea Surface Temperature Trends (pdf); and   Timmermann et al. 1999: Increased El Nino frequency in a climate model forced by future greenhouse warming (pdf)
Week 8	Chiang	ENSO teleconnections	Tribbia 1991: The rudimentary theory of atmospheric teleconnections associated with ENSO (pdf) Powerpoint slides are here (pdf) Movie links: i) waves   ii) CCM3 circulation
Week 9	Schlegel	Pacific decadal variability	Mantua et al. 1997: A Pacific decadal oscillation with impacts on salmon production (pdf)
Week 10	Barton; Chiang	Extratropical-tropical interactions and ENSO	Gu and Philander, 1997: Interdecadal Climate fluctuations that depend on exchanges between the tropics and extratropics (pdf); and Vimont et al. 2001: Footprinting: a seasonal connection between the tropics and midlatitudes (pdf)
Week 11	Johnson	ENSO and hurricanes	Pielke and Landsea 1999: La Nina, El Nino, and Atlantic hurricane damage in the United States (pdf).  Leigh's powerpoint slides are here.
Week 12	Johnstone	Monsoon: phenomenology and interannual variability	Slingo: "The Indian Summer Monsoon and its Variability" (in Beyond El Nino: Decadal and Interdecadal variability, Navarra ed).
Week 13	Schlegel	Use of climate information	Gadgil, Seshagiri Rao, and Narahari Rao: Use of climate information for farm-level decision making: rainfed groundnut in southern India.  Agricultural Systems, 74, 431-457 (pdf)
Week 14	Bliss	Snow cover and monsoons	Vernekar, Zhou, and Shukla: The effect of Eurasian Snowcover on the Indian Monsoon.  J Climate, 8, 248-266 (1995) (pdf)
Week 15	Parker	Land-atmosphere interactions and Sahel drought	Enhancement of Interdecadal Climate variability in the Sahel by vegetation interaction.  Zeng et al., Science, 286,  1537-1540. (pdf) Suggested reading: Drought in the Sahel.  Zeng, Science, 302, 999-1000 (pdf) OPTIONAL: Oceanic forcing of Sahel rainfall on Interannual to Interdecadal  Time Scales.  Science, 302, 1027-1030 (pdf)