13.-15.06.2017: Petersen Short Course in Climate Change

As part of the award of the excellence professorship sponsored by the Professor Dr. Petersen Foundation 2017 to Prof. Thomas Stocker we would like to advertise the following 3 x 2 public lectures addressed to students, PhD students, postdocs and others interested forming a short course on climate change.

Prof. Stocker is a distinguished climate scientist, who was Co-Chair of the Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis of IPCC between 2008 and 2015. His expertise ranges from Climate System Dynamics and Modelling to Abrupt Climate Change, Ice Core Analysis, and the Reconstruction of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations.

(I) Tuesday 13^th June, 15:15-17:15, large lecture hall, GEOMAR Westshore building:

Lecture 1: The scientific basis for the Paris Agreement, Part I

Lecture 2: The scientific basis for the Paris Agreement, Part II

In these two lectures the mechanism of scientific assessment, as carried out by the IPCC, is explained. We will focus on how exactly a consensus in an international negotiation process is achieved on contentious scientific issues. The most policy-relevant concepts of the 5^th Assessment Report of the IPCC are presented and discussed.

(II) Wednesday 14^th June, 16:15-18:15, large lecture hall, GEOMAR Westshore building:

Lecture 3: Communicating climate science: Making it simple and relevant

Communication of climate science is difficult and challenging, in particular during times of growing scientific illiteracy and in an atmosphere of pressure and intimidation, as was the case between the climate conferences of Copenhagen in 2009 and that of Paris in 2015. We explore how effective communication is designed and carried out and how science can help in keeping it policy-relevant.

Lecture 4: Mitigation delay sensitivity: A climate system metric expressing urgency

Mitigation delay sensitivity is a new metric that quantifies the growing difficulty in achieving climate targets. Earth system models of intermediate complexity permit the exploration of parameter and scenario space and to provide information about the inachievability of climate targets. This also permits to investigate the question whether temperature targets comprehensively address Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

(III) Thursday 15^th June, 10:15-12:15, large lecture hall, GEOMAR Eastshore building 8:

Lecture 5: Paleo-ocean dynamics: The tracer palette in EMICs

Earth system models of intermediate complexity are powerful tools in closing the gap between geochemical box models and comprehensive climate models. They permit to test the suitability of proposed paleoproxies such as isotopes of the carbon cycle and of metal tracers such as neodymium, protactinium and thorium. These models point to strengths and limitations of these tracers and provide guidance for targeted simulations using more complex models.

Lecture 6: The bipolar seesaw: A simple but powerful concept

The bipolar seesaw is a simple concept helping to explain interhemispheric connections in the Earth System, particularly during abrupt climate change of the past few ice ages. It is surprising that this concept has survived for more than 25 years. The popular confusion of correlation of climate signals is addressed, and some new results from polar ice cores are presented.

Ansprechpartner: Prof. Dr. Martin Frank