Earth's atmosphere and climate
Project ID: 153
Supervisor(s): Steven Sherwood
Physics underlies our theoretical understanding of Earth's weather and climate. Multiple projects are available to work with Prof. Steven Sherwood or other academics at the Climate Change Research Centre to seek new applications of physical principles to understanding aspects of Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land surface. These can include the physics of clouds; atmospheric radiative transfer and its consequences; convective circulations; multi-scale turbulent flows in the ocean or atmosphere; better understanding of phenomena such as El Nino, extreme weather, or other phenomena; heat and moisture transport on land surfaces in rural and urban environments; interpretation of Earth's past climate record and biogeochemical cycles; and many other topics. These projects typically involve the use of complex numerical models, the development or testing of simpler models or theories, the examination of (often large) datasets of observations collected from in-situ sensors, satellites or radars, or some combination of these approaches. Students will have the opportunity to work with other leading Australian and international academics through the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.
Students majoring in Physics can do Honours projects in this area with CCRC staff either by enrolling in Physics or BEES for the Honours year. In the former case the student would do 24 UOC of Physics coursework and a 24-UOC project, while in the latter case they would do a 48-UOC project.
For more information on project possibilities, see: http://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/study-ccrc/undergraduate-studies/honours-projects