Climate Change and Climate Modeling

J. David Neelin

Dec 2010 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Provides students with a solid foundation in climate science, with which to understand global warming, natural climate variations, and climate models. As climate models are one of our primary tools for predicting and adapting to climate change, it is vital we appreciate their strengths and limitations. Also key is understanding what aspects of climate science are well understood and where quantitative uncertainties arise. This textbook will inform the future users of climate models and the decision-makers of tomorrow by providing the depth they need, while requiring no background in atmospheric science and only basic calculus and physics. Developed from a course that the author teaches at UCLA, material has been extensively class-tested and with online resources of colour figures, Powerpoint slides, and problem sets, this is a complete package for students across all sciences wishing to gain a solid grounding in climate science.

About the author

J. David Neelin is a professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and member of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published over 100 scientific papers, including contributions to understanding and predictability of the El Niño Southern oscillation phenomenon, decadal variability, vegetation interaction with climate variability, how rainfall interacts with natural climate variability and anthropogenic change and methods of improving representation of rainfall processes in climate models. He has taught courses in climate science from introductory undergraduate to advanced graduate level. He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Royal Meteorological Society and the American Meteorological Society, and the recipient of a Presidential Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award, and the American Meteorological Society Meisinger Award.