Sustainable development depends on quantitative knowledge of the past, present, and future behaviour of the Earth System. This is obtained from physics-based models of the atmosphere and the ocean. In this course, the hierarchy of climate models is introduced, starting from simple energy balance models, then increasing complexity to arrive at circulation models of the ocean and the atmosphere. These models are based on the physical principles of the conservation of mass, energy and momentum. Climate feedbacks and propagation of waves are described to understand the climate system response to perturbations. The numerical techniques to carry out model simulations on the computer are introduced and discussed. In the parallel course work, a key element of this course, the students learn to implement such models using Python and carry out simulations. Detailed lecture notes for this course are available (https://climatehomes.unibe.ch/~stocker/lecturenotes.html).
See Introduction to Climate Modelling in KSL
See Introduction to Climate Modelling in ILIAS