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Mathemacal and Geospaal Pathways to Climate Change Educaon Due to its interdisciplinary nature, climate science poses wide-ranging challenges for science and mathemacs students seeking careers in this field. There is a compelling need for universies to provide coherent programs in climate science in order to train future climate sciensts. With funding from NASA Innovaons in Climate Educaon (NICE), California State University, Northridge (CSUN), is creang the CSUN Climate Science Program. An interdisciplinary team of faculty members is working in collaboraon with partners at UCLA, Santa Monica College and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL) to create a new curriculum in climate science. The resulng sequence of climate science courses, or Pathway for studying the Mathemacs of Climate Change (PMCC), is integrated into a B.S. degree program in the Applied Mathemacal Sciences offered by the Mathemacs Department at CSUN. The PMCC consists of courses offered by the departments of Mathemacs, Physics, and Geography and is designed to prepare students for Ph.D. programs in technical fields relevant to global climate change and related careers. A website and online community, campus seminar series, and summer internship program with JPL complement the curriculum offerings. The students who choose to follow this program will be guided to enroll in the sequence of four courses diagrammed below. Curriculum Helen Cox, David Klein, Crisna Cadavid, Kimberle Kelly and Brian Foley California State University, Northridge Math 396 CL. An Introducon to Climate Science. This course in ap- plied mathemacs introduces students to applicaons of vector calculus and differenal equaons to the study of global climate. The main topics are: thermodynamics of the atmosphere, radiave trans- fer, dynamics of air moon and wind flows, and elementary mathemacal climate models. Offered Fall 2012 (7 enrl.) Phys 595 CL. Mathemacs and Phys- ics of Climate Change. Atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics, ra- diaon and radiave transfer, green- Geography courses in Climate Change and Remote Sens- ing are being revised to incorporate NASA satellite data. Tutorials and exercises for undergraduates and graduates from a variety of disciplines use NASA satellite data to monitor atmospheric, oceanic, and land-based change These tutorials are available through our climate science Remote Sensing Snow Mapping in the Sierras us- ing MODIS. website and through NA- SA’s Tri-Agency Climate Educaon (TrACE) Catalog of educaonal products and resources (hps:// nice.larc.nasa.gov/trace/ trace_catalog.php). GRACE data was used to calcuate the loss in ice sheet mass between 2004 and 2012. Students used Landsat data to map deforestaon in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil between 1990 and 2011, and calculate the resulng carbon emissions. Sea ice is mapped from passive microwave data from the DMSP F-17 satellite. Polarizaon and Spectral Gradient Ra- o are defined from the 19 and 37 GHz bands. These are used to determine first year ice, mul-year ice and total sea ice concentraon. 37GHz(v) micro- wave data from DSSP (leſt) Derived sea ice concentraon (right) NDVI in 1990 NDVI in 2011 Deforestaon in Brazil Web Page The CSUN Climate Sci- ence web page pro- vides a convenient link to the program and to related sites. Stu- dents can find course descripons, intern- ship and climate sem- inar informaon, and links to resources. www.csun.edu/climate Climate Seminars “Climate Effects of Combuson and Dust Aerosols in Snow” by Charlie Ze- nder, University of California, Irvine Since February 2011 a seminar series has offered fac- ulty and students the opportunity to learn about ongo- ing work in Atmospheric Sciences. To date, 22 seminars have been aended by hundreds of parcipants. “Benefits and Challenges of High Spaal Resoluon in Climate Models” by James Kinter, Director, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmospheric Studies & Pro- fessor of Climate Dynamics, George Mason University “The Mathemacs of Paleoclimate Reconstruc- ons” by Julien Emile-Geary, Department of Earth Sciences and Applied Mathemacal Sci- ences, USC “The Educaonal Global Climate Modeling Proj- ect (EdGCM)” by Mark Chandler, Columbia Uni- versity, NASA/GISS “Merchants of Doubt: how a handful of sci- ensts obscured the truth from tobacco to global warming” by Naomi Oreskes, UC San Diego (over 250 in aendance) “Mid-Century Cli- mate Change in the Los Angeles Region” by Alex Hall, Depart - ment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Scienc- es, UCLA house effect, mathemacs of remote sounding, introducon to atmospheric and climate modeling. Offered Spring 2012 (14 compl.) and Fall 2013. The course was successful in significantly increasing students’ self-rated un- derstanding of thermodynamics and how it may be applied to the atmosphere, atmospheric dynamics, and the interacon of radiaon with the atmosphere and the surface of the earth (all paired t-tests were significant at a .05 level). The increase in awareness of NASA’s role in collecng and analyzing climate data through its satellite systems was nearly significant (t (11) = -2.6, p = .054) and this effect was likely influenced by high student aendance at a climate seminar focused on the GRACE satellite mission that occurred close in me to lecture material about how GRACE works. Math 483. Mathemacal Modeling. Topics include fundamental principles of atmospheric radiaon and convecon, two dimensional models, varying parameters within models, numerical simulaon of atmospheric fluid flow from both a theorecal and applied seng. Course will culminate with an intro- ducon and applicaon of EdGCM. Offered Spring 2013. Geog 407/690D. Remote Sensing. Topics include: How the earth and its atmosphere can be viewed from aircraſt and satellites using different parts of the electromagnec spectrum, and used for monitoring local and global environmental change, weather forecasng, storm tracking, seismic analy- sis, geomorphic mapping, land use studies, urban planning, the detecon and monitoring of natural hazards, oil and mineral exploraon, vegetaon studies, crop classificaon, and oceanography. Students gain hands-on experience in image analysis using ERDAS Imagine and ArcGIS soſtware, working directly with NASA satellite data. Offered Spring 2012 (17 compl.), Fall 2012 (22 enrl.). Students indicated significantly increased confidence about engaging in conversaons about the science of global climate change (all paired t-tests were significant at a .001 level). Students indicated that the tutorials, in- cluding an individual project ulizing remote sensing data, were by far the most valuable part of the course, successful in preparing students to transfer knowledge to real world situaons. They also indicated that tutori- als would benefit from improved accessibility and useability of NASA data sites. These classroom experiences led to significantly increased student self-reported awareness about NASA’s role in collecng and analyzing cli- mate data through its satellite systems (t (15) = -6.31, p < .001). Geog 416/620F. Climate Change. Topics include: the climate of the Earth and the processes that shape its evoluon. Climate science, evidence for warm- ing, projecons for the future, current legislaon for liming carbon emis- sions, and how carbon emissions (‘footprints’) are determined. Students will gain hands-on experience working with NASA satellite data to explore how satellite data can be used to examine changes to the global environment. Of - fered Fall 2012 (21 enrl.) Phys 595CL Lower Division Core in Mathematics: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Introductory Physics Geog 407 or 416 Math 483 Math 396CL Upper Division Mathematics Courses and Electives in Physics, Geography, Ph.D. Program in Climate Science or Climate Science Related Career
