CLIM0020-1 : Atmosphere and Oceans

Study Programmes 2015-2016

CLIM0020-1

Atmosphere and Oceans

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight
Teledetection applied to Climatology
Introduction to Physical Oceanography and Marine Meteorology

Duration :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight : 30h Th, 3d FW
Teledetection applied to Climatology : 20h Th, 10h Pr
Introduction to Physical Oceanography and Marine Meteorology : 30h Th, 15h Pr

Number of credits :

Master in geography : climatology (120 ECTS)		10

Lecturer :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight : Emmanuel Mahieu
Teledetection applied to Climatology : Nicolas Clerbaux
Introduction to Physical Oceanography and Marine Meteorology : Jean-Marie Beckers

Coordinator :

N...

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Course contents :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight

The course is divided into a series of modules addressing the following topics :
CONTEXT

Main greenhouse gases (GHG) and their absorptions in the infrared spectrum
GHG atmospheric chemistry, sources, sinks and contribution to radiative forcing
Global emissions, long-term time series of the GHG; past and present evolutions
Tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, production, catalytic cycles involved and trends

MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES FOR ATMOSPHERIC GHGs

Measurement platforms: ground-based, air-borne and satellites
In situ and remote-sensing techniques (brief introduction to molecular spectroscopy)
Performance and complementarity of the various techniques and instrumentations
Atmospheric watch and international networks involved
Retrieval of the vertical distribution of a GHG from high-resolution infrared spectra

INTERNATIONAL TOOLS

The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol
The Rio Convention and the Kyoto Protocol
Need for additional measures and evolution scenarios
Implementation of international measures at the Belgian regional level

Learning outcomes of the course :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

Review the main anthropogenic and natural GHGs, report about their respective contributions to radiative forcing, describe their past and present atmospheric burden
Describe the aims and measures adopted by the international Protocols to limit GHG emissions
Examine and evaluate a timeseries
Discuss about the specificities and complementarities of the various platforms and techniques used for the measurement of GHGs in the Earth's atmosphere
Using supporting documents, describe the atmospheric budget of a GHG (sources and sinks), a catalytic cycle, an atmospheric reaction pathway

Prerequisite knowledge and skills :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight

Basis concepts in physics and chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight

Series of 2-3hour lectures.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Changes Fight

Face-to-face lectures