The purpose of this post is to find software simulations of the earths
environment, especially the atmosphere. But first a little background
information.
I am working for Professor Philander and Mr. Feiveson this summer.
They are teaching a course this fall about the atmosphere and the environment.
The course will be for undergraduates at Princeton University, and is not
geared towards scientists but all students with a general interest in the
environment.
The lecturers hope to use computer programs, via a projector, to
illustrate their concepts more effectively. This primarily takes the form of
graphic simulations of environmental processes. For example one would like to
show how altering mixes of gasses affects the climate, etc... SimEarth is one
program which will probably be used, this should give you a real good idea of
the kind of course being taught. (Though programs whose output is through
graphs might be fine too.) Small Blue Planet might also be useful, though I
don't think it is interactive (?). We are not sure of others but they should
be for Mac or IBM, and may be on disk or CD-Rom. Among the variables and
effects to be illustrated are Milankovitch Cycles, Ice Ages, the Ozone Layer
and lack thereof, the Greenhouse Effect, deforestation, tilt and orbit of
earth.
In short these programs should be readily accessible to your average
bright youth, and should not require massive quantities of computing power.
Programs which encourage experimentation and attendant manipulation of
variables are to be preferred. However any information about anything "really
neat" relating to this post is still greatly encouraged.
Thank you for any forthcoming help.
-Anders Mikkelsen
P.S. Please reply via E-mail.
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