Earth System Science: A Climate Change Perspective - Content Pages from Web-based Course

Sea surface temperaturesNCAR Online Education offers web-based courses for teachers seeking professional development opportunities. Click here to see a current list of courses and to get more information about them.

We are making the content pages (text with images, videos, animations, and interactive multimedia) from those courses available on the Windows to the Universe web site. This will allow course graduates to access the materials after the course has ended, and will also allow them to provide their students with access to the course materials as they see fit.

This page provides links to the content pages from the course "Earth System Science: A Climate Change Perspective".

We are currently building this page; we expect to have links to all of the content pages from the course posted here by the end of summer 2008.

Earth System Science: A Climate Change Perspective (content pages)

  1. Course Introduction & The Atmosphere
    1. Earth System Science in a Nutshell
    2. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports
      1. Overview of IPCC Working Group I Summary for Policymakers
      2. Overview of IPCC Working Group II Summary for Policymakers
      3. Overview of IPCC Working Group III Summary for Policymakers
    3. Review Readings
      1. The Multispectral Sun
        1. "Infrared - More Than Your Eyes Can See" Video
      2. Solar Radiation at Earth
      3. Solar Energy in Earth's Atmosphere
    4. The Greenhouse Effect & Greenhouse Gases
    5. Aerosols, Cloud Nucleation and Global Dimming
    6. Global Warming, Clouds, and Albedo: Feedback Loops
  2. The Hydrosphere
    1. The Water Cycle - A Climate Change Perspective
    2. Transfer and Storage of Heat in the Oceans
    3. Rising Sea Levels
    4. Thermohaline Ocean Circulation
  3. The Cryosphere
    1. About the Cryosphere
      1. What is the cryosphere?
      2. Glaciers and Ice Sheets
      3. Ice Shelves
      4. Icebergs
      5. Sea Ice
      6. Snow
      7. Permafrost
      8. The Cryosphere and Climate Change
    2. Case Study: The Future of Arctic Sea Ice
      1. Abrupt Ice Retreat Could Produce Ice-Free Arctic Summers by 2040 (Dec. 2006 UCAR news release)
      2. Are Polar Bears on Thin Ice? (Feb. 2007 Windows to the Universe news article)
      3. Melting Arctic Sea Ice and the Global OCean Conveyor
      4. Movies of Yearly Changes in Sea Ice
      5. Online "Compare Images" Interactives
      6. Classroom Activity: Graphing Sea Ice Extent
  4. The Biosphere
    1. About the Biosphere
      1. The Biosphere: An Integral Part of the Planet and its Climate
      2. The Earth's Biosphere
      3. Biogeochemical Cycles
      4. The Carbon Cycle
      5. The Carbon Cycle Game
      6. The Nitrogen Cycle
      7. Optional Reading: Nitrogen oxides - Nitric oxide (NO) & Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
    2. Changing Biogeochemical Cycles
      1. The Changing Carbon Cycle
      2. The Changing Nitrogen Cycle
      3. Fertilizing the Earth with Nitrogen
      4. Releasing Nitrogen Pollutants to the Air
    3. Carbon Offsets: Beginner's Guide to Carbon Offsets
    4. Classroom Activity: Traveling Nitrogen Activity
  5. The Geosphere
    1. About the Geosphere
      1. What's the Rock Cycle?
      2. Plate Tectonics Powers the Rock Cycle
      3. Climate Influences the Rock Cycle
      4. The Geosphere Influences Climate
    2. Case Study: Volcanoes and Climate
      1. How Volcanoes Influence Climate Over Shorter Timescales
      2. Looking to the Past to Understand Natural Climatic Forcings
Last modified May 21, 2008 by Dennis Ward.

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