physics

Raymond Pierrehumbert

Raymond Pierrehumbert is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Raymond Pierrehumbert rather than just read about it. In short: Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Key takeaways

Raymond Pierrehumbert belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Raymond Pierrehumbert to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Raymond Pierrehumbert from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and a co-author of the National Research Council report on abrupt climate change.

Education and awards He earned a degree in physics (A.B) from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, which was used to launch collaborative work on the climate of early Mars with collaborators in Paris. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and has been named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Republic of France. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and sits on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 2020, Pierrehumbert was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Research Pierrehumbert's central research interest is how climate works as a system and developing idealized mathematical models to be used to address questions of climate science such as how the earth kept from freezing over: the faint young sun paradox. Pierrehumbert contributes to RealClimate and is a strong critic of solar geoengineering research. He also is very active in the study of the climate of Exoplanets.

Personal life Pierrehumbert is married to Janet Pierrehumbert, professor of Language Modeling at the University of Oxford.

Selected papers Pierrehumbert R.T. 2002: "The Hydrologic Cycle in Deep Time Climate Problems Archived 2016-09-08 at the Wayback Machine", Nature, 419, 191–198. Pierrehumbert R.T. 2003: "Counting the Cost", Nature, 422 (6929), 263. Goodman, J.C. and R.T. Pierrehumbert 2003: "Glacial flow of floating marine ice in Snowball Earth", J. Geophys. Res., 108 (C10), 3308, doi:10.1029/2002JC001471. Alley R.B., J. Marotzke, W.D. Nordhaus, J.T. Overpeck, D.M. Peteet, R.A. Pielke Jr., R.T. Pierrehumbert, P.B. Rhines, T.F. Stocker, L. Talley and J.M. Wallace, 2003: "Abrupt Climate Change", Science, 299, 2005–2010. Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2004: "High levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide necessary for the termination of global glaciation", Nature, 429, 646–649. Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2004: "Warming the world: Greenhouse effect: Fourier’s concept of planetary energy balance is still relevant today". Nature, 432, 677. Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2005: "Climate dynamics of a hard snowball Earth", J. Geophys. Res., 110 (D01111), doi:10.1029/2004JD005162.

References

External links

UChicago homepage Google Scholar page

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raymond Pierrehumbert

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raymond Pierrehumbert claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Raymond Pierrehumbert before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Raymond Pierrehumbert ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Raymond Pierrehumbert

In research: Raymond Pierrehumbert appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Raymond Pierrehumbert in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Raymond Pierrehumbert is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American geophysicists, American scientist stubs, Atmospheric scientist stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raymond Pierrehumbert outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Raymond Pierrehumbert in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raymond Pierrehumbert means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Raymond Pierrehumbert out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Raymond Pierrehumbert in simple terms?

Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Why does Raymond Pierrehumbert matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Raymond Pierrehumbert?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Raymond Pierrehumbert.