Clouds in Present and Changing Climate

Clouds are a key component of our weather and climate. The formation and decay of clouds depends on the synoptic conditions, surface fluxes, and cloud microphysics. The aim of this course is to provide the student with fundamental concepts to describe and numerically model the dynamics and microphysics of clouds, in particular stratocumulus and shallow cumulus, and their sensitivity to synoptic conditions, surface fluxes, and cloud microphysics. The course engages a "learning by doing" approach in which students enroll in specific research projects (for example on Marine Cloud Brightening or Amazonian shallow cumulus). Using these cases, the students run numerical experiments and adopt the theory taught in this course to explain their results.

• Theoretically explain the fundamental aspects of maritime and continental boundary-layer clouds (stratocumulus and shallow cumulus) in terms of boundary-layer dynamics, surface interactions, radiation, diurnal variability and microphysics

• Design, perform and critically assess numerical experiments with conceptual models

• Design, conduct and present a small scientific project related to the clear or cloudy boundary layer

• Indipendently organise and refine a small research project, using critical thinking

• ? (40%) Oral presentations of exercises from stage 1 (group assignment) and of project from stage 2 (individual assignment), each account for 20% of final grade.
• ? (20%) Report on exercises from stage 1.
• ? (40%) Project report.

MAQ21806 Meteorology and Climate, MAQ32306 Boundary-layer Meteorology

• Atmospheric boundary layer: Integrating chemistry and land interactions. J. Vilà-Guerau de Arellano, C. van Heerwaarden, B van Stratum and K. van den Dries; Cambridge University Press 2015. ISBN 978110709094. Clouds and Climate: Climate Science's Greatest Challenge A. Pier Siebesma, Sandrine Bony, Christian Jakob, and Bjorn Stevens; Cambridge University Press 2020. ISBN 9781107447738.