Special Topics in Environmental Science
TOPIC TITLE: Earth System Modelling
Course Description
Understanding the Earth's past and future climate is, at its core, a question of how we make sense of complex systems. This course is designed for students who are curious about how the climate system works beneath the surface: how physical, chemical, and biological processes, when coupled together, can generate rich behaviour such as oscillations and abrupt transitions arising from feedbacks. The course treats modelling as a way of thinking, a process of translating nature into equations and equations back into understanding. To support this learning, we will work with both a simple conceptual climate model that builds fundamental understanding and a more complex three-dimensional climate model used to explore realistic climate dynamics. Throughout the course, students will design, run, and interpret model experiments to investigate climate processes and system sensitivity, and communicate their findings in a structured research report that integrates conceptual insight with quantitative analysis. Along the way, students will develop practical skills including programming, numerical modelling, high-performance computing, and systems thinking. These skills will enable students to explore and understand how interacting components give rise to emergent complex behaviour in the climate system.
Requirements: Prerequisite Level 3 or above and registration in an (ENSC Major, ENVS Major, ENVS Medial, EBIO, ECHM, EGEO, EGPY, ELSC or ETOX plan) or permission of the School.