GEO9432 – The Surface Energy Balance in Cold Environments

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

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 snowmelt 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 focus on evapotranspiration
  • understood and applied different methods to infer evapotranspiration and snow mass balance in the field
  • quantified processes related to 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
  • gained experience in?how to give a scientific presentation and how to write a scientific paper

Admission to the course

PhD candidates from the University of Oslo should apply for classes and register for examinations through?Studentweb.

If a course has limited intake capacity, priority will be given to PhD candidates who follow an individual education plan where this particular course is included. Some national researchers’ schools may have specific rules for ranking applicants for courses with limited intake capacity.

PhD candidates who have been admitted to another higher education institution must?apply for a position as a visiting student?within a given deadline.

The courses GEO4432 and GEO9432 have a joint admission with a joint capacity of 16?students. If there are more then 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

Lectures: 2 hours per week

Programming lab/seminar: 4 hours per week, with discussions and presentations from the students

One project report based on a computer programming project and one student presentation count towards the final grade.?For the PhD candidates, the presen