on may 11, 2021, professor zhou botao of nanjing university of information science & technology, gave a lecture on "introduction to climate change science" to our postgraduate students. his enthusiastic teaching methods and vivid teaching contents deeply attracted our students.
the course takes "climate phenomena and related regional climate change" as the theme, starting from the relevant concepts of climate, introduces the frontier achievements of climate phenomenon research. the course mainly includes: 1. monsoon system; 2. tropical circulation; 3. atmospheric oscillation; 4. china's climate change prediction and other four aspects. according to professor zhou, climate refers to the average or statistical state of meteorological elements and weather phenomena over a long period of time, with time scales ranging from months, seasons, years to hundreds of years. weather refers to the general term of atmospheric state (such as cold and warm, wind and rain, dry and wet, sunny, etc.) and its changes in a short period of time in a certain region, which is different from climate. he also introduced the concepts of monsoon, circulation, climate mode and so on, which made it easy for students without a relevant foundation to understand the content.
during the course, professor zhou also introduced many significant climate modes in the ocean-atmosphere system and the important role of these modes in the climate system. in the ipcc ar5 report, the ability of models to simulate these modes were evaluated, which was also proposed for policymakers and the public to pay more attention to the prediction results of recent climate change. this class is conducive to the cultivation of students' independent thinking ability, expression ability and team cooperation ability, the formation of international vision, global concept, and interdisciplinary thinking mode, and help students understand the latest progress and hot issues of climate model assessment.
at the end of the class, professor zhou arranged several thinking questions and encouraged students to actively ask questions, be diligent in thinking and questioning, and strive to explore the vast scientific world. as for the questions raised by professor zhou, the students actively thought and discussed them.
zhou botao, professor of nanjing university of information science & technology, vice president of the college of atmospheric science, deputy director of collaborative innovation center on forecast and evaluation of meteorological disasters. he is the winner of the national fund for distinguished young scholars, the top young talent of the national "ten thousand talents program", the main author of the sixth assessment report of ipcc, the vice-chairman of the committee on climate change and low carbon development of the chinese meteorological society, and the deputy secretary-general of the national technical committee on climate and climate change standardization. he is mainly engaged in the research on the mechanism and prediction of climate change and has made remarkable progress: 1) some important variation processes of disastrous climate, such as typhoon, drought, flood, low temperature, rain, snow and freezing, are revealed, especially the influence and mechanism of hadley circulation, climate mode in middle and high latitudes, sea surface temperature, etc; 2) the change law and uncertainty of extreme climate events in china under the background of global warming are revealed, and the risk patterns of a rainstorm, flood, high temperature, snowstorm and haze pollution in china are given; 3) the future changes of the tropical circulation system, east asian monsoon system, mid high latitude climate mode and their impacts on east asian climate are predicted. he has published more than 120 academic papers in domestic and foreign journals, including nearly 80 sci papers; he has written nearly 20 books on climate change; his more than 10 policy-making consultation reports have received important instructions from state leaders. he won many awards, such as tu changwang young meteorological science and technology award, zou jingmeng meteorological science and technology award, and the top ten national outstanding young meteorological science and technology workers award.
