CLIMATE change is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. There is an acute need for more expertise – especially mathematical expertise – to better understand the phenomenon.

To bolster the number of academics involved in climate change research, Exeter University is in October launching a new MSc programme in climate system dynamics.

Open to mathematics, science and engineering graduates, the programme will train postgraduates in the science of climate change, focusing especially on the modelling and mathematics underlying the prediction of 21st century climate change and its impacts. The issues covered include changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation and the statistics of weather and climate extremes.

Professor Peter Cox, who leads the climate systems modelling team in the university’s school of engineering, computing and mathematics, says the idea is to teach the science of climate change to mathematicians, who could then go on to careers in climate research or policy-related work.

“The course is focused on the mathematics of the problem: the hard science end that allows you to make better predictions about how social systems react with environmental systems. Students might also come from the sciences or the social sciences, but they need to be reasonably numerate.”

The university and the Met Office Hadley Centre, in Exeter, which is researching climate change, have sufficient computer power to do a lot of climate simulations, he adds, but insufficient brain power to analyse them all. “We need to understand what the models are telling us,” he says.

The MSc programme aims to provide a broad background in the science of climate change. It is also designed to generate an enthusiasm for the application of mathematics to the climate system and an understanding of the critical role of mathematics in modelling climate change and climate variability.

It also seeks to develop research skills, personal skills and core academic skills to prepare students for a wide range of employment and for further research in climate-change science.

The MSc in climate-system dynamics is being offered by the Exeter Climate Systems group (XCS), a rapidly growing centre of excellence in the application of mathematics and statistics to key challenges facing weather and climate science.

It applies concepts from various branches of mathematics such as fluid dynamics, dynamical-systems theory, control theory and extreme-value theory to help to improve the fundamental understanding and prediction of weather and climate, and their interaction with society.

The XCS group also forms the core of an increasingly close collaboration with the Met Office in Exeter, which helps to fund three professorships in weather prediction and climate change.

Alternatively, students could opt for the University of East Anglia’s MSc in climate change. This is taught by staff from the university’s climatic research unit and aims to provide an authoritative and up to date assessment of the subject of climatic variation, climate prediction and the impact of climate change on human welfare.

The course includes study of the basic approaches and techniques used in studying climate change (including statistics and numerical modelling); the fundamental science of climate change; climate history and reconstruction.

Reading University offers two possible avenues for those wishing to become involved in computational modelling. It has an MSc in atmosphere, ocean and climate, which includes a modelling module, and a much more mathematically intensive MSc in mathematical and numerical modelling of the atmosphere and oceans.

For the less mathematically inclined, the university also offers an MSc in applied meteorology.

ACTUARY SWITCHES CAREER TO TACKLE GLOBAL WARMING

Owen Kellie-Smith, 39, a mathematician and a former actuary, is studying for a PhD in climate change at Exeter University. He is using his mathematical expertise – a first degree in maths from University College London – to help to refine models that may be used to understand climate change.

“Political judgments on action to halt climate change are based on gigantic computational models of climate systems,” he says. “These models are very important. There is no other way rationally to make these decisions.”

Kellie-Smith began studying at Exeter for an MSc in financial mathematics but he became more interested in computational modelling and converted to doing a part-time PhD in climate change. The modelling techniques he is studying are the same as those that will be examined in the university’s new MSc in climate system dynamics, which will be launched in October.

Kellie-Smith is two-and-a-half years into his studies and probably has another year to go before completion. He aspires to work for the Meteorological Office with computers and to help to develop models of forecasting.

He enjoys studying at Exeter partly because of the university’s close links with the Meteorological Office, which is based in the city. Academics and meteorologists meet regularly to share knowledge and talk about their work.