FALL 2007 HONORS COURSES

HONR238K Viewing the Oceans from Space: Remote Sensing a Periled Ocean
Tu/Th 3:30 – 4:45 pm
Dr. Baris Mete Uz, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland

Launched late in the last century, a space probe now orbits a living planet. Its mission: observe and analyze life within a deep layer of liquid covering the planet's surface. The challenges are many. The dense liquid builds up crushing pressures near the bottom. A single drop of it leaking into the electronics would disable them for ever. The fluid is nearly as impervious to radio waves as a steel plate, making communications difficult, though light can penetrate a modest 1 to 5 percent of its depth in most places. The stakes are as high as the challenges are formidable. The future of mankind hangs in the balance as understanding how life works in this environment may hold the key to the pressing problems we face on our own, overcrowded world.

No need to boldly go where no man has gone before; this is here and now, on planet Earth in 2007. Learn how a growing group of scientists are tackling these problems to hold the pulse of the ocean across many thousands of miles. This course will focus on how ocean circulation and biology are monitored globally, and why such monitoring is key both for scientific understanding of the ocean and for efforts to simulate it with computer models much like those behind the daily weather forecasts. We will start with a few basic concepts and then cover some on-going measurements that revolutionized our view of the ocean. These concrete examples will give the students an understanding of key aspects of ocean circulation and biology that strongly interact with climate. We will discuss them in the context of emerging global issues such as harmful algal blooms, coral bleaching, build-up of greenhouse gases and ocean acidification. These are multi-faceted issues where students will find many opportunities to apply their skills regardless of whether they have a quantitative or verbal background.

The students will have a choice to either manipulate real satellite data for basic demonstrations under the instructor's guidance, or write a short paper on a global oceanographic issue of interest to them discussing how improved monitoring could lead to a better grasp of the problem, or to a coherent global policy response or mitigation of its societal impacts. Students can complete these projects working individually or collaborating in small groups. They will present their final product to the class by the end of the semester. Evaluation will be based on this project and on participation in seminar discussions of lecture and reading material.

There is no textbook for this course. Readings will be compiled by the instructor into a course packet, which will include material like the executive summary of the 2004 U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and review articles such as can be found in the Scientific American magazine.

CORE: Physical Sciences non-lab [PS]