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Office Hours: MW 6:15 to 7:05 p.m. & by Appointment

David Klein
Santa Susana Hall, Room 127
Phone: (818) 677-7792
email: david.klein@csun.edu,
web page:
Office Hours: MW 4:00 to 4:50 p.m. & by Appointment

, powerpoint from first lecture


Other Reference Books

Elementary Climate Physics, by F.W. Taylor

Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics, by M.L. Salby

An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation Dynamics, by K.N. Liou

A course in mathematics for students of physics 2, by P. Bamberg & S. Sternberg (for the Caratheodory-Born development of Thermodynamics)


Online Resources

jmcomicÂþ»­N Climate Science Program:

, by Charlie Zender, UC Irvine

, by Spencer Weart, director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.

, by H. Flanders, American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 80, 615-627, 1973

NASA simulation of worldwide ocean currents

Chapters 2 and 3 of this jmcomicÂþ»­N masters thesis, by Rena Petrollo

Mathematics of the Environment, a topic developed on , by Prof. John Baez, UC Riverside


  • – The mathematics of planet Earth.
  • – Simple estimates of the Earth’s temperature.
  • – The greenhouse effect.
  • – History of the Earth’s climate.
  • – A model showing bistability of the Earth’s climate due to the ice albedo effect: statics.
  • – A model showing bistability of the Earth’s climate due to the ice albedo effect: dynamics.
  • – Stochastic differential equations and stochastic resonance.
  • – A stochastic energy balance model and Milankovitch cycles.
  • – Changes in insolation due to changes in the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit.
  • – Didier Paillard’s model of the glacial cycles.

    • Exam Dates and Homework Assignments from Spring 2014

    Assignment 1: , due Feb 10

    Assignment 2: , due Feb 19

    Assignment 3: , due March 5

    Exam 1: Monday, March 17 on atmospheric thermodynamics and zero dimensional climate models

    Assignment 4: , due March 26

    Assignment 5: , due April 21

    To help strengthen your intution about Coriolis forces for Assignment 5 watch:
    , from at UCLA

    Exam 2: Wed, April 23 on radiative transfer in the atmosphere

    Assignment 6: .

    Some Homework Assignments from Previous Offerings of the Course Spring 2011 (includes exercise on derivation of Stephan-Boltzmann Law) Spring 2012 , includes exercises on equilibrium energy balance models
    , thermodynamics exercises
    , exercises for derivation of Planck's formula for Blackbody radiance and GRACE satellite gravity field mapping
    , radiative transfer exercises
    , remote sensing exercises (mathematical)
    , Claussius Clapeyron, stress tensor

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