GEO4432 – The Surface Energy Balance in Cold Environments

Course content

The course introduces energy exchange processes at the Earth’s surface, connecting the coupled cycles of water, energy and greenhouse gases of the atmosphere and ground. You will become familiar with this so-called "surface energy balance" in different environments, providing a common framework to understand a range of phenomena, like surface temperature regimes on Earth and other planets, evapotranspiration, plant wilting, lake ice formation and ground freezing, as well as snow melt and glacier mass balance. Ultimately, you will gain a better understanding of the Earth’s water cycle and key formulations in state-of-the-art land surface and climate models.

Learning outcome

After taking this course, you will have

  • understood the different components of the surface energy balance, i.e. different radiation components, turbulent fluxes or the ground heat flux
  • gotten hands-on experience with calculating the surface energy balance for a range of applications
  • written computer models to simulate the surface energy balance
  • applied the surface energy balance formalism to hydrology with a focus on evapotranspiration
  • understood and applied different methods to infer evapotranspiration and snow mass balance in the field
  • quantified processes related to the built-up and melt of snow cover, as well as the mass balance of a glacier
  • understood how the surface energy formalism is implemented in climate models, driving both the atmospheric and ocean circulation

Admission to the course

Students admitted at UiO must?apply for courses?in Studentweb. Students enrolled in other master's degree programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

Nordic citizens and applicants residing in the Nordic countries may?apply to take this course as a single course student.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about?admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The courses GEO4432 and GEO9432 have a joint admission with a joint capacity of 16?students. If there are more than 16?applicants, the applicants will be ranked after the following categories:

  1. Students admitted to one of the following programme options:
  2. PhD candidates at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, UiO
  3. Other master's students at one of the following programmes (prioritized order):?
  4. Visiting PhD candidates at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, UiO
  5. Incoming exchange students on master's level?
  6. Other students

Applicants will be ranked within each category: all applicants within category 1 are ranked before applicants in category 2. If there are space limitations in the course, available places will be given to students selected randomly.

Formal prerequisite knowledge

The course includes a compulsory field course and excursions. A health-and-safety course for safety in the field must be passed before you can go on these:

Overlapping courses

Teaching

Teaching consists of 2 hours of lectures per week and a programming lab/seminar of 4 hours per week, with discussions and presentations from the students.

A mandatory two-day excursion in the Oslo area. A field report from the field course has to be written and approved to sit the final written examination.

Attendance at the first lecture is compulsory. Students who fail to meet are considered to have withdrawn from the course unless they have previously given notice to the Student?administration (studieinfo@geo.uio.no).

We reserve the right to change the teaching?form and examination of the course in semesters where 5 or fewer students have been admitted.

As?the?teaching involves laboratory and/or fieldwork, you should consider taking out a separate travel and personal risk insurance.?Read about your insurance coverage as a student.

General information about excursions at the Department?of Geosciences

Examination

  • The field report has to be approved in order to sit the final examination.
  • One seminar presentation counts 20% towards the final grade.
  • One project report based on a computer programming project counts 20% towards the final grade.
  • The final examination counts 60% towards the final grade.

The form of the final exam depends on the number of students. If there are less than ca. 12 students, the final exam will be oral. If there are more than ca. 12 students, the final exam will?be written.

When writing your exercises make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules for use of sources and citations. Breach of these rules may lead to suspicion of attempted cheating.

Mandatory assignments are valid for 5 semesters starting from the semester they were approved the first time.

It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you?withdraw from the exam?after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.

It will also be counted as 1 of the 3 attempts to sit the exam for this course if you sit the exam for the following course:

Examination support material

Approved calculator

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F?is a fail. Read more about?the grading system.

Resit an examination

Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are?offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass, the original examination.

More about examinations at UiO

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.

Last updated from FS (Felles studentsystem) Aug. 27, 2025 9:13:41 PM

Facts about this course

Level
Master
Credits
10
Teaching
Spring
Examination
Spring
Teaching language
English

Contact

Department of Geosciences