Chaos, Weather, and Climate

HON 462
R. A. DiDio
La Salle University

Readings

A Weather Eye on Unpredictability , Tim Palmer (Ch. 6 in the Exploring Chaos text)

Whither the Weather? Can we Predict/Explain Changes in Weather and Climate? John Casti, Chapter 2 in Searching for Certainty: What Scientists Can Know About the Future,(1990), William Morrow and Company, New York. (Out of Print)

Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow, E. Lorenz, Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 20 (1963)

The Science and Politics of Climate , Freeman J. Dyson , APS Forum on Physics and Society - January 2000

Lives Depend on Battlefield Forecasting, Anthony Wood, Phila. Inquirer, 3/26/2003

 

Other Background Reading/Sites

The Great Climate Debate, Robert White, Scientific American, July 1990

Union of Concerned Scientists. A good source for Global Warming FAQ's, plus a timely Common Sense on Climate Change: Practical Solutions to Global Warming

Late-breaking news (Feb, 2003) concerning the break-up of a polar passage due to warming near the Northwest Passage.

The Core: A movie about to released in early 2003, it is about what would happen if the Earth's magnetic field suddenly went haywire.

The latest in forecasting models: The 'Superensemble' technique (Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 24, 2000)