Advanced core electives
Universät Hamburg, jointly with its partners like Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the German Climate Computing Center, features a vibrant research environment. To transfer research excellence to excellent education, all researchers are invited to offer specialized courses as advanced core electives. From the offered courses you can select courses according to your interest and specialize your profile at research level. The list of offered courses will be updated depending on the availabilities of lecturers well ahead of every term. Here we provide you with a collection of potentially offered courses.
Numerical Simulation
This is a hands-on course where the students learn about various numerical techniques to solve the wave equation that describes advection problems, the heat equation associated to diffusion processes, and the Poisson equation that results from divergence-free constraints, e.g., mass conservation. At the end of the course, the students know how to solve the Navier-Stokes equations, the dynamical core of Earth system models.
Lecturer: Juan Pedro Mellado
Atmospheric Physics
This course provides a brief introduction to STEM students without a background in atmospheric science to basic concepts of atmospheric thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, cloud microphysics, and turbulence, convection and boundary layers as necessary to further study the role of these processes in weather and climate.
Lecturer: Juan Pedro Mellado
Urban Climatology
Participants of the course will know the relevant processes that determine the micro-climate in urban areas and will be able to assess the effectiveness of adaptation measures. They will have a solid knowledge of micro-meteorological processes and effects in urban areas as required for the preparation of a thesis in this area or in consultancy work.
Lecturer: David Grawe
Tropical Clouds and Convection
The course teaches fundamental concepts of shallow and deep atmospheric convection as well as cloud physics and dynamics, discusses tools to better understand their interaction with the large-scale environment, and highlights the role that clouds play in climate. Students will understand why different cloud types form along the trade-wind trajectory and apply their knowledge directly in hands-on exercises using observations and simulations from the recent EUREC4A field campaign. Students will develop critical reading skills of current literature and contribute to the public dissemination of climate science by writing a Wikipedia article on a course-related subject.
Lecturer: Raphaela Vogel
Introduction to Earth System Modelling
Students will develop the simplest useful possible model of the Earth system. The model will represent the interaction of the Atmosphere’s mediation of energy exchanges with the storage of energy by the ocean and carbon by the land and the ocean. They will use their model to explore the transient response of the Earth to the forcing, or how different feedbacks influence the response of the system to forcing. An outlook for extending the model to include a hydrological cycle, or human systems will be included for advanced students
Climate Change – settled science and open questions
To understand the conceptual foundations of our understanding of global warming and associated changes in climate, and the outline of the important open questions.
Generic Programming Skills
To understand the software infrastructure and software development environment of a modern Earth system model.
Land-Atmosphere Interactions
The replication of the coastline a few kilometers inland by convective clouds on a summer day, the enhancement of precipitation over mountainous regions or potential changes in the precipitation regime following the deforestation in Amazonia are all examples of interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere. The aim of this course is to introduce and explain the effects of the land surface on the atmosphere, with a special focus on convection and precipitation, going from the small scales to the larger scales, and using conceptual models. At the end of the course, a student should be able to understand when and why the land surface is important, how a change in the land surface might influence the atmosphere and the climate and what the uncertainties are.
Atmospheric General Circulation
The course combines numerical modelling with a global general circulation model with lectures explaining the mathematical formulation of the models and climate dynamics. Students learn to interpret simulated large-scale atmospheric circulations in terms of mathematically-sound concepts. Exercises made of modelling labs give hands-on practice on designing, conducting, and analysing numerical experiments on the general circulation. Lab reporting provides also training in describing numerical model simulations in a written form.
Lecturer: Nedjelja Žagar
Data Analysis in Atmosphere and Ocean using Python
The course provides an introduction to data analysis targeted at students, who plan career in meteorology, oceanography, or climate science. The course emphasizes hands-on approach oriented at solving most common data analysis tasks encountered in weather and climate studies. Python is used throughout as a numerical tool of choice. To make the course self-contained, a brief introduction to Python is provided. The students learn various techniques and tools used to analyze, interpret and visualize atmospheric and oceanic measurements as well as output of numerical models.
Lecturer: Sergiy Vasylkevych
Geophysical Wave Lab
The course provides introductory theoretical and modelling training in atmosphere and ocean dynamics. Lectures on wave motions are supplemented by a hierarchy of numerical labs using in-house numerical prediction models.
The students receive an overview of basic wave concepts important for the atmospheric and ocean circulation, gain hands-on experience in analyzing specific phenomena, such as the Rossby and inertia-gravity waves in the midlatitudes and in the tropics, geostrophic adjustment, barotropic instability, impact of orography on the flow, as well as practical skills in designing numerical experiments and describing their results in a written form.
Lecturers: Nedjeljka Žagar, Sergiy Vasylkevych
Internal Waves and Instabilities
The course teaches internal gravity waves and mesoscale instabilities in the atmosphere by combining mathematical description with examples of real atmosphere phenomena and analytical and numerical exercises. Students learn to understand processes leading to the development of various instability and wave phenomena at mesoscale and their filtering in high-resolution numerical weather and climate models.
Lecturer: Nedjeljka Žagar
Numerical Weather Prediction
Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is the key mission of meteorology. NWP is the initial-value problem solved by the data assimilation and extrapolated in time with a numerical model describing the atmosphere as faithfully as possible. This course provides training in data assimilation, NWP model formulation and predictability. Mathematical formulation of the initial-value problem is complemented by practical exercises with numerical models of different complexity that simulate main processes in the atmosphere as an initial and (or) boundary value problem.
Lecturer: Nedjeljka Žagar
Applied Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling
- Understanding non-CFD atmospheric dispersion models used for applied air quality / air pollution management and hazmat dispersion modeling
- Proficiency in the proper generation and interpretation of model results
- Skills in writing technical reports at basic consultant level
Lecturers: Bernd Leitl, Frank Harms
Fluid Modelling of Atmospheric Flow and Dispersion
- Understanding the concepts of fluid modeling of environmental flow and dispersion phenomena
- Skills in designing and implementing fluid modeling experiments in wind tunnels and water flumes
- Knowledge about relevant state-of-the-art laboratory measurement technology and instrumentation
- Skills in developing experimental project proposals
Lecturers: Bernd Leitl, Frank Harms
Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Student understands principles of atmospheric remote sensing and can apply it to retrieve atmospheric properties from remote sensing observations.
Lecturer: Manfred Brath