Christian Frankenberg

ESE 103. Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles. 9 units (3-0-6); second term, 2026-27. Provide a basic introduction to Global Biogeochemical cycles, with a focus on drivers of the global biosphere. Topics to be covered include fundamentals of photosynthesis and its quantitative formulation, impact of nutrients, microbial processes underlying weathering, decomposition, and carbon remineralization, box modeling, hydrological cycle, land surface energy balance and basics of land surface modeling, ecosystem processes and the human footprint. Some basic scientific computing (Python/Julia) knowledge is required for homework sets.
Instructor: Frankenberg

ESE 112. Earth's Carbon Cycle. 6 units (2-0-4); third term, 2026-27. Prerequisites: ESE 103 or instructor's permission.. An exploration of the research frontier on Earth's carbon cycle. Starting from an overview of the major reservoirs and fluxes of carbon among the atmosphere, ocean, land biosphere, and lithosphere, the course moves quickly to frontier problems, including the partitioning of anthropogenic CO₂ between the ocean and land sinks, the spatiotemporal variability of terrestrial and oceanic carbon fluxes, the role of disturbance and ecosystem dynamics, and the response of the carbon cycle to a changing climate. Modern observational datasets—including atmospheric CO₂ records, satellite retrievals of column CO₂ and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, eddy-covariance measurements, as well as ship-based and float-based ocean carbon observations—are used to constrain and evaluate carbon cycle models. Through hands-on projects, students can develop, test, and critically analyze models of the carbon cycle and confront them with contemporary data. Enrollment is limited to 15 students.
Instructors: Dukes, Frankenberg, Michalak, Schneider, Thompson, Zakem

ESE 103. Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles. 9 units (3-0-6); second term, 2025-26. Provide a basic introduction to Global Biogeochemical cycles, with a focus on drivers of the global biosphere. Topics to be covered include fundamentals of photosynthesis and its quantitative formulation, impact of nutrients, microbial processes underlying weathering, decomposition, and carbon remineralization, box modeling, hydrological cycle, land surface energy balance and basics of land surface modeling, ecosystem processes and the human footprint. Some basic scientific computing (Python/Julia) knowledge is required for homework sets.
Instructor: Frankenberg

ESE 156. Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Biosphere. 9 units (3-0-6); third term, 2025-26. Prerequisites: ESE 101 or instructor's permission. An introduction into methods to quantify trace gases as well as vegetation properties remotely (from space, air-borne or ground-based). This course will provide the basic concepts of remote sensing, using hands-on examples to be solved in class and as problem-sets. Topics covered include Absorption spectroscopy, measurement and modeling techniques, optimal estimation theory and error characterization, applications in global studies of biogeochemical cycles and air pollution/quality. This course is complementary to EE/Ae 157 ab and Ge/EE/ESE 157 c with stronger emphasis on applications for the atmosphere and biosphere. Students will work with real and synthetic remote sensing data (basic knowledge of a scripting language is required, most of the examples will be in Julia).
Instructor: Frankenberg

ESE 103. Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles. 9 units (3-0-6); second term, 2024-25. Provide a basic introduction to Global Biogeochemical cycles, with a focus on drivers of the global biosphere. Topics to be covered include fundamentals of photosynthesis and its quantitative formulation, impact of nutrients, microbial processes underlying weathering, decomposition, and carbon remineralization, box modeling, hydrological cycle, land surface energy balance and basics of land surface modeling, ecosystem processes and the human footprint. Some basic scientific computing (Python/Julia) knowledge is required for homework sets.
Instructor: Frankenberg

ESE 156. Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Biosphere. 9 units (3-0-6); first term, 2024-25. Prerequisites: ESE 101 or instructor's permission. An introduction into methods to quantify trace gases as well as vegetation properties remotely (from space, air-borne or ground-based). This course will provide the basic concepts of remote sensing, using hands-on examples to be solved in class and as problem-sets. Topics covered include Absorption spectroscopy, measurement and modeling techniques, optimal estimation theory and error characterization, applications in global studies of biogeochemical cycles and air pollution/quality. This course is complementary to EE/Ae 157 ab and Ge/EE/ESE 157 c with stronger emphasis on applications for the atmosphere and biosphere. Students will work with real and synthetic remote sensing data (basic knowledge of a scripting language is required, most of the examples will be in Julia).
Instructor: Frankenberg

ESE 103. Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles. 9 units (3-0-6); second term, 2021-22. provide a basic introduction to Global Biogeochemical cycles, with a focus on drivers of the global biosphereFor course description, see Computer Science.. Topics to be covered include fundamentals of photosynthesis and its quantitative formulation, impact of nutrients, microbial processes underlying weathering, decomposition, and carbon remineralization, box modeling, hydrological cycle, land surface energy balance and basics of land surface modeling, ecosystem processes and the human footprint. Scripting (Matlab) knowledge useful for homework sets.
Instructor: Staff