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Course: AT 711 - Microclimate
Credits: 2
Location: 100 Atmospheric Science
Time: 10:00 - 10:50 T,R

Required Text: Kabat, P., Claussen, M., Dirmeyer, P.A., Gash, J.H.C., Bravo de Guenni, L., Meybeck, M., Pielke Sr., R.A., Vörösmarty, C.J., Hutjes, R.W.A., Lütkemeier, S. (Eds.), 2004: Vegetation, Water, Humans and the Climate: A New Perspective on an Interactive System. Springer, Berlin, in press.

A book flyer is available here.
Registered students can contact Dallas Staley (dallas@atmos.colostate.edu)
for the username and password to access this file.

Course Description:
Climate is being recognized an an integrated earth system process involving the ocean, atmosphere, continental ice, and land. Knowledge in hydrology, ecology, biochemistry, oceanography and meteorology is required in order to understand climate. AT 711 introduces this integrated perspective of climate, with a specific focus on the lowest levels above the earth's surface, and on space scales of several kilometers and less. The book used to frame the subject is Kabat et al (see above), which is available as a download from a web site. Modeling, observational and theoretical topics will be addresses. The implications of microscale processes in mesoscale, regional and global climate will be introduced. Class tasks will include a course project, and a paper on a microclimate issue.

Papers for class available as PDFs:

• Added: 4/14/03 Davey, C.A., N.J. Doesken, R.J. Leffler, and R.A. Pielke, Sr., 2002: Differences between rooftop and standard ground-based temperatures. Preprints: 6th Symposium on Integrated Observing Systems, January 13-17, Orlando, FL, 229-232.
• Added: 4/14/03 Davey, C.A., and R.A. Pielke Sr., 2004: Microclimate exposures of surface-based weather stations - implications for the assessment of long-term temperature trends. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., submitted.
• Alward et al., 1999: Grassland vegetation changes and nocturnal global warming. Science, Vol. 283

Assignments:

For class on March 18th:

Dr. Arvin Mosier will be talking to our class on March 18th. Please read the below papers before then, to be able to better participate in the discussions.

• Elevated [CO2] increases soil moisture and enhances plant water relations in a long-term field study in semi arid shortgrass steppe of Colorado
  • Figure 1
  • Figure 2
  • Figure 3
  • Figure 4
  • Excel File
• Plant nitrogen dynamics in shortgrass steppe under elevated atmospheric CO2
• Soil-atmosphere exchange of CH4, CO2, NOx, and N2O in the Colorado Shortgrass Steppe following Five Years of Elevated CO2 and N Fertilization
• CO enhances productivity of the shortgrass steppe, alters species composition and reduces forage digestibility

For class on Tuesday, January 28th:

For Tuesday's class, please read pages 1-21 in Kabat et al. We will discuss in class. We can also continue today's discussion on climate, if requested. Thanks for a good discussion today.

For class on Thursday, January 23rd:

Please read

• R-210 on our website (Pielke, R.A., 1998: Climate prediction as an initial value problem. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 79, 2743-2746) [PDF]
• Bryson, Reid A., 1997: The Paradigm of Climatology: An Essay. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: Vol. 78, No. 3, 449-449. [PDF]

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