Colloquium: The Physics of Climate Change (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA)

I will review the basic physical principles underlying the behavior of the Earth’s climate system, including the role of radiative balance and feedbacks. I will then review the evidence for human impact on climate over the past century, and climate change projections for the next century based on various possible fossil fuel emissions scenarios.  I will discuss some of the current limitations in these projections, and will I highlight the role of physics in resolving some of the key remaining uncertainties. I will use as an example the possible impact human-caused climate change is having on extreme weather events.

Full webpage can be found here.