This class will present an introductory overview of the common methodological approaches used today for numerical weather prediction and global climate modeling. Technical skills and in-depth understanding of the approaches will be emphasized through short weekly reading assignments and programming activities. An historical perspective on weather and climate modeling will be covered as well in the scope of this course because it helps put state-of-the-art numerical modeling in an appropriate context. Final projects will include running a weather or climate model on the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Cheyenne supercomputer, or other supercomputing facilities if students have access to other resources they would like to use. Cloud computing based solutions to numerical weather and climate modeling will also be covered.

Outcome 1
Students will be able to understand the theory, derivation, and application of numerical techniques used today for climate and weather modeling.

Outcome 2
Students will be able to explain how parameterization schemes are used and characterize their limitations.

Outcome 3
Students will be able to configure and run climate and weather simulations independently.

Outcome 4
Students will be able to modify underlying code to change model behavior.