Examples of Course Projects

Each graduate student taking this class for credit should decide on a term-project. We ask for a 10-page written report (maximum length), and a 20 minute oral presentation to the class before the end of term. Undergraduates do not have to give an oral report (but may, if they wish) and a six-page paper is acceptable. Projects can expand on something covered in class, or be some climate-relevant project not touched upon. In the past, most such projects have been reviews of some interesting topics. A few students have succeeded in doing an original piece of work, but this is certainly not a requirement.

Previous topics include:

• Orography, Tectonic Uplift, and Climate
• The History and Implications of Dansgaard-Oeschger Events
• The Closure of the Panama Gateway and Its Effect on Climate
• A Box Model Approach to the Coupled System
• Ocean Abyssal Circulation and Mixing: A Historical Development
• Source Contributions to Fine Aerosol Mass as Determined from Receptor Modeling
• The Indian Summer Monsoon and the Effects of the Tibetan Plateau
• Possible Microphysical Impacts of Aerosols on the Climate of the Last Glacial Maximum
• Energy Balance Model for Long Term Climate Study
• Predicting Regional Climate Change
• The Evolution of Climate on Venus and Its Relation to Earth
• Investigating Thermohaline Circulation Rearrangements with a Simple Climate Box Model
• The North Atlantic Oscillation and Dependence upon Atmospheric Sensitivity to SST Anomalies
• Sub-Saharan Drought
• Climate Change and Its Influence on Babylonian Civilization

Other Possibilities (Not Intended to Restrict Your Choice)

• History of Solar Radiation
• Chemistry of the Early Atmosphere
• Carbon Dioxide and Climate
• Evidence of Glacial Cycles Over Earth History
• Relation of Continental Configuration to Inferred Climate State
• Long-term (10²-10⁴ yr) Variability of ENSO
• Global Heat Budget
• Climate Change Under a Cometary Impact (Nuclear Winter, etc.)
• The Snowball Earth Hypothesis and Problems
• Glacier Dynamics, Mountain and Continental
• History of Sea Level: Modern and Over Geological Time
• Mechanics and Chemistry of Air-sea Exchange of Properties
• Human Evolution and Climate Change
• The 100KY Climate Time Scale
• Methane Hydrates and Abrupt Climate Change
• The Indonesian Throughflow and Climate Impacts
• Was the Little Ice Age global?
• Tropical Temperatures During the Last Glacial Maximum
• How Does One Initiate an Ice Age?
• Heinrich Events: Cause and Effect
• Abrupt Climate Change in the Paleo Record
• Evolving Climate Chronologies: How well do we know paleoclimate age estimates and how does the uncertainty affect our interpretation of climate mechanisms?