The first Norwegian MOOC on climate
Would you like to learn about the drivers of the climate system? Take a look at this open online course, provided by the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the University of Bergen.
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The city of Bergen and the south of Greenland are both on the same latitude. But the climate is strikingly different. Greenland has floating icebergs, whereas Norway’s west coast has a relatively mild climate, with heavy rainfalls.
Guided through physical processes
In the new open online course reasons you will be guided through the physical processes behind climate variations in the past, present and the future. The course is developed by Professor Asgeir Sorteberg at the Geophysical Institute and Professor Kerim Nisancioglu at the Department of Earth Science, both at the University of Bergen and the Bjerknes Centre.
During the six lectures, they will take you to heavy snowfall in the Norwegian mountains and to calving glaciers on the coast of Greenland.
Take a look at the teaser and sign up here.
Answering key questions
The tilting of the Earth, the Earth’s orbit around the sun and volcanic emissions all contribute to climate variations on our planet. The course will look at the Earth’s main external forcing mechanisms such as the sun, volcanoes and changes in greenhouse gasses and aerosols, which all can contribute to changing the global energy budget.
“In this MOOC we will try to answer many of the key questions relating to the dynamics of the climate system and what drives it. We will also take you on a brief tour of past changes in climate and their causes, as well as discuss the implications of man made emissions of greenhouse gases," Professor Nisancioglu says.
Starting in September 2015
In order to understand the regional variations in climate, Professor Sorteberg and Professor Nisancioglu will also describe the important role of internal feedback mechanisms and the energy transport in the atmosphere and ocean.
With a team of PhD candidates, the duo will guide the participants through six lectures, interactive problem sets and background reading.
Through this course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the complexities of the climate system, and be able to put the recently observed, man-made changes in climate in the context of past natural changes.
The course is provided as a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) by Future Learn, starting in September 2015.