Astro 7: Planetary
Climate Science
*Rick Nolthenius
*Office: 706a 479-6506, but better…
*email: See the Astronomy Salsa page to
email me
• Visit my extremely excellent website!
• Visit my public climate webpages
• Read about my background
They call me…. Rick
Textbook – “The Cosmic Perspective –
Solar System” by Bennett, Donahue,
Schneider, and Voit
• Use any edition you can find, they’re all essentially
identical. Later is better of course, but get any
edition you can afford.
• This text is used only for the first ~third of the
course.
• The other 2/3 of course we’ll specialize on climate
basics and climate evolution of the Earth and you’ll
use my PowerPoints and some supplementary
web material I’ve written from assembled
research.
• Everyone know how to view PowerPoints (PP’s)?
If you don’t have MS Office, there are free PP
viewers you can download online.
Grading
• 6 mult. choice quizzes based on text, lectures, on-line material.
- about 12 questions each
- closed notes
• Plus, a video quiz, after seeing ~50min video program “Birth of the
Earth”. Take notes and use them during your mult. choice quiz, about 20
questions. Might be a second video; we’ll see.
• Final Exam: ~50 mult. choice questions. You may have a single 8x10 sheet
of paper crammed both side with all the notes you can muster, handwritten only.
• Two lowest quiz scores dropped. Those two dropped will include any noshows. Don’t miss more than two quizzes because…
• There are No Make-ups!
• There are Extra Credit possibilities listed on the syllabus
• Buy 10 green narrow scantron sheets from the book store. $3. Cheap!
Keep them in your notebook along with a pencil.
• Course Grade: 70% Quizzes, 30% Final and extra credit opportunities;
essay, star-party attendance, going to public lectures on planetary science
or climate, news clippings, etc.
Important Happy Thoughts
about Astro 7 Grading!
• Whereas…The material in this course is THE most
consequential science happening today, and
• Whereas….It will affect all your lives, and even
more it will affect your children and their children,
and
• Whereas…I have a great deal to tell you about a
subject which has been so deliberately muddied by
special interests.
• And Whereas…. this course can therefore feel a
bit intimidating or overwhelming to the average
student….
Therefore, I will be doing something I
generally am very much against in my
other lecture classes…
• And it’s this: During lectures, I will be very obvious at
moments that I’m telling you something which will
directly be in one of your quiz questions.
• Watch for tip-offs like “ REMEMBER this…!” or perhaps
similar even more obvious tip-offs, together with long,
meaningful looks around the classroom!
• At those moments, I’ll expect you to be suddenly writing in
your notes, and hands poking in the air to make sure you
understand the idea I’m getting across.
• I will not be so crass as to say. “I will ask you exactly this
worded exactly like this…” . That’s just not teaching.
• My goal is to TEACH you vitally important knowledge
about Climate and especially Earth Climate Change
And So to DO that…
• …MY motive is to motivate YOU to attend each class and
pay attention, and just do your best
• To accomplish that, I need you to have confidence that you
can get a good grade if you do only and exactly that –
ATTEND CLASS ,and PAY ATTENTION, Write in your
notes when I tell you “this will be on the exam(s)”
• You don’t have to be brilliant, or mathematical, or have a vast
photographic memory, or anything similar.
• I’m going to give you a lot of information, but I don’t want you
thinking you need to thoroughly understand everything said
or given in the PowerPoints. That’s just too much.
• But I need you to attend lecture, and PAY ATTENTION.
“Tuning out” and only waking up if I give you the signals that
X is going be on an exam, will probably not guarantee you an
A. You need to understand it and its context.
So For Example…
• I may be discussing the Greenhouse effect and how it
happens
• I’ll get to the essential condensation of what and why it
happens, and then give a long meaningful look around the
room, and say “REMEMBER this – hint, hint!”
• And then you’ll make sure you KNOW that the
greenhouse effect happens when visible wavelength
sunlight warms the ground, and re-radiated outgoing
infrared light from the ground is then absorbed by
atmospheric CO2 and water vapor trapping that heat
rather than letting it radiate back out to space
What will we Do in Astro 7?
• We start with my own “Chapter 0” on the principles of clear
thinking and scientific method
• Then the nature of matter, light, and heat
• Then Planetary atmospheres of our solar system and an
introduction to how we infer the climate and atmospheres of
planets beyond our solar system
• Then, the climate of the Earth; it’s history, observational
evidence, long term change into the future.
• And, we’ll look most especially at the time in history about
which we have the best data and most interest – current
climate. We’ll examine the evidence for human-caused climate
change, climate modelling, how the ocean, atmosphere,
aerosols, clouds, ice, and solar energy interact.
• Then look at policy and technology to deal with climate change
• I’ll stress the observational facts and how we use scientific
evidence and reasoning to arrive at how climate works, how
we test them and how we estimate errors in models.
• Exams will stress getting a picture of processes and the ‘why’
behind what we see, not as much on memorized factoids.
We’ll learn
the
Principles
of Clear
Thinking
So you can avoid THIS
Open your mind to Realism: Red pill,
or blue pill?
How the chemical elements of the
atmospheres arrive on planets
The disturbing history of Venus’ climate
The atmospheres of the Jovian planets
How we get clues to Exoplanet atmospheres
CO2 rules the climates of the inner planets. ½+ of the course
will be on Earth climate, about which we know the most
We’ll Study our Earth’s
Climate:
•
•
•
•
•
How molecules scatter and absorb light
How heat moves
The layers of the atmosphere
The carbon cycles
The Paleo history of Earth’s climate,
including the Ice Ages
• Climate modelling (very basic level)
Ocean/Atmosphere Connection,
and Ocean Acidification
The Politics of Current Climate
Change
And Climate Denialism
Strategies for Dealing with
Climate Change
• How compatible is economic growth with stable
climate?
• The Thermodynamics of Civilization itself, and
resulting limitations of what is possible
• Are voluntary personal lifestyle choices
meaningful?
• Policy actions; why, how to motivate, how to enact
• Legal options
• Technology strategies, and lowering atmospheric
carbon ideas
Are we Doomed? We’ll Look
So – Strap yourself in. We’ll have an
adventure, and a look into our Future
What I will NOT Do…
• Some may worry I’ll at some point be guilt-trip’ing you for
your extravagent carbon lifestyles, or spending time on all
the personal steps you can take to lower your carbon
footprint.
• No! And not because I’m holding back… it’s because your
voluntary actions make NO DIFFERENCE to climate (we’ll
do the math)
• Also, guilt-trip’ing the average person for this is really
counter-productive anyway – it just promotes avoidance of
thought altogether
• So, take no heed that I ride my bike in from downtown on
most days – It’s NOT for climate, or some personal holierthan-thou statement. No, it’s part of my personal sanitypreservation strategy. It energizes me, keeps me healthy,
and gets me out of awful Hwy 1 traffic