I'm majoring in both AOS and geography, but this is my first class in either AOS or physical geography. The professor recommends a AOS or GEOG lower div as preparation, but doable without one. I think the class definitely gives me a comprehensive idea of climate systems and their interactions. Although the class talks about the impact of climate change on the various physical systems, it doesn't really talk about the human impact - if you want that, you may check GEOG M131 instead.

This is a very info-heavy class, and calculations are minimal (only basic plus/minus needed). There are only two homework assignments for the class, and each represents 15% of the overall grade. Workload is not heavy, but in order to get good grades, it is necessary to watch (and re-watch) his lectures closely and take detailed notes. Although the professor emphasizes brevity in assignments, grading expects a lot of details. It took me (and I believe many others as well) some time to understand that although the questions are short, a lot of ground needs to be covered - working together with a friend helps since it is easy to miss a point here or there. The midterm (1.5 hrs, 30% of final grade) and final (2.5 hrs, 40% of final grade) are similar to the homework both in terms of format and grading. Everything in the exams have been taught pretty explicitly in lectures. As the professor says, the class is structured to reward time and effort. In other words, nothing in the class is hard, it just takes time to how they connect with each other, and if you spend enough time, you should come out of this class with a solid performance.

Regarding the professor, he is definitely a very nice person, and provides a lot of help in office hours and takes time to explain even some most basic concepts. He will give you extra time (about half an hour) in the exams if you need it. He does have an accent (which I personally have no trouble with) and makes you fall asleep in these 9am lectures. It will not be an easy A if you are not interested in the material, but if you are, you will find yourself spending a lot of time in the class and learning a lot from it.

Very interesting class, I learned a lot as a non-GEOG/AOS major about climate and its components. The professor cares about student learning and has decent slides and coursereader material. I've never gone to office hours but I'm sure he'll be happy to answer questions, he takes time to explain concepts too. As others have mentioned he does have a pretty heavy accent, but at most you'll have to pay a little more attention, it's not a big deal. I would recommend this class if you have some interest in climate, you don't even need much background.

You need the coursereaders for the 2 homeworks (15% each), though I also found that the lectures were based exactly off them so I just mainly studied the coursereader for the final (40%, midterm was 30%) since it was well organized, relatively concise and had all the information taught in lectures anyways. Exams are straightforward and nothing tricky. Some questions are concepts straight from his slides which he explains in class (e.g. diagrams, tables, laws). Overall very managable class with moderate workload, and I like that a lot of what we learned in class was not purely theoretical, but applications and real-world stuff. Text me ********** if you wanna buy my coursereaders at discounted price (almost brand new and I'm pretty sure he's used the same one for years).