EAS A474 Topics in Atmospheric Science - Current and Future Trends in Extremes

30886 — Fall 2022

Instructor
Travis O’Brien
Location
GY 2033
Days and Times
TR 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Course Description

An overview of methods, peer-reviewed studies, national reports, and international reports that inform our understanding of the detection, attribution, and projection of changes in extreme weather.  Covers questions that are common in popular media like “Was Hurricane Florence caused by climate change?” as well as more scientifically well-posed questions like “Has the risk of Florence-like storms changed in the observational record?”, “What factors have caused the risk of Florence-like storms to change?”, and “How might the risk of Florence-like storms change in the future?”  Students will gain hands-on experience analyzing changes in the risk of extreme weather in real-world data.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to be able to summarize the current scientific understanding of the impact of anthropogenic climate change on extreme weather: both in terms of what we know and how we know it.

Students taking the course for graduate credit will additionally be able to critique existing studies that detect and attribute climate change, and they will be able to analyze changes in extremes in real-world data.