Near-Surface Geophysics
University of Freiburg
Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences
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Computing in Geosciences

Winter Term 2021/22

Announcements

As our classroom is quite small and the actual regulations require 2G for students and masks for teachers, we will proceed via Zoom from Oct. 29. The login data are provided at ILIAS and were sent by e-mail.

Teachers and Tutors

Stefan Hergarten

lecture, assignments

Alexa Pietrek

assignments, student support

Mail addresses, office numbers and phone numbers are available at Our Team in the navigation bar. Mails to the address [email protected] will be forwarded to all persons listed above.

Appointments

• Monday 10–12 a.m., CIP classroom (01 001) via Zoom
• Thursday 8–10 a.m., CIP classroom (01 001) via Zoom

The class will begin on October 18 at 11 a.m. (immediately after the M.Sc. introduction).

Those students who cannot attend the sessions personally can attend via zoom during the first weeks. The login data are provided at ILIAS. However, attending via zoom should only be the last option since interaction with the other students in the class is quite difficult.

Main Topics

Numerical modeling of geo-processes

• Time-dependent systems and ordinary differential equations
• Explicit and implicit methods for solving ordinary differential equations
• Basic concepts of partial differential equations
• The most important partial differential equations occurring in earth sciences
• Finite difference methods for solving partial differential equations
• Some basics of programming
• Usage of MATLAB

Warning: Although you may learn something about MATLAB, this is not the focus of this class.

Examination

Your marks will be derived according to the following scheme:

Component		Contribution
assignments	score of your solutions	70 %	85 %
	helping your classmates in solving the assignments or solving your assignments on your own	15 %*
exercises in the class		15 %

^* also depending on your own score, e.g., 20 % of your own score if you solve all on your own

• Last year, there were 12 assignments in total, but the semester was 2 weeks shorter than this semester. So this number may change.
• As an orientation, the maximum score (all components) will be about 180 to 190 points.
• A total score of 50 % (about 90 to 95 points) is required to pass the class safely. There are no further constraints, i.e., no minimum scores required for any of the components.
• In case anyone fails, there will be a second exam. However, this would be not easy for you as you would have to solve new assignments without or with little support by your classmates, and it would be a considerable amount of additional work for us. So please do not try!

Assignments

• The assignments are designed individually for each student using the enrollment number (7 digits). As there is no official list of participants, you have to register before you can download assignment sheets. Registrations made for previous classes or for the fieldtrip registration system are valid here, too. If you want to register or if you are not sure whether you are already registered, please use the following form to test your registration or to register.

  Enrollment number

• If you are not yet registered and want to take a look at the assignments, you may use any 7 digit number for downloading. However, your submitted solution must be consistent with the assignment sheet of your real enrollment number. Solutions not corresponding to your assignment sheet will not be marked without the chance of resubmission.
• Criteria of evaluation are the correctness of the solution, interpretations being consistent and understandable, and the quality of the figures (e.g., axis labels and units).
• You may either submit your solutions alone or in groups of 2 students. If you want to submit as a group, you must already fill in both enrollment numbers when downloading your assignment sheet.
• Beyond being allowed to submit your solution in a group of 2 students, are encouraged to solve the assignments together. You are even allowed to adopt significant ideas from your classmates. According to the general ethics of scientific work, collaboration must be acknowledged when submitting an assignment. Details are given during the submission procedure. Copying codes, figures or parts of the text from solutions of your classmates is, however, not allowed. Any solutions violating this rule will not be considered without the chance of resubmission.
• As the assignments accompany the progress of the class, the deadlines announced on the assignment sheets must be obeyed. A tolerance of 15 days is given for all assignments in sum. You may, e.g., be late by 6 days at one assignment, 5 days at another, and 4 days by a third one. This tolerance also includes short periods of sickness or failure of your computer. If your submissions exceed this limit, you will lose some of your scores. Please keep in mind that the rule concerns individual assignments, not entire assignment sheets.
• The deadline for the final assignment(s) is Mar. 4.

Assignment sheets

Assignment sheet 1 (18.–28.10.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 2 (28.10.–11.11.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 3 (04.–14.11.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 4 (11.–21.11.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 5 (18.–28.11.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 6 (25.11.–05.12.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 7 (02.–12.12.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 8 (09.–19.12.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 9 (16.12.–13.01.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 10 (13.–23.01.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 11 (24.01.–06.02.)   enrollment number(s): 

Assignment sheet 12 (03.02.–04.03.)   enrollment number(s): 

Submission of Solutions

Solutions can only be submitted as PDF files using the form below. A submission of printouts or by e-mail is not possible. Details are given during the submission procedure.

Enrollment number

Methods and Teaching Materials

• Most of the teaching stuff will be presented and discussed at the whiteboard. Some additional material can be downloaded (see the list below).
• In this class we will use the software MATLAB that has become some kind of standard programming tool for "non-programmers".
  • ☹ MATLAB is somewhat more complicated than spreadsheet programs (e.g., Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc),
  • ☺ but simpler than low-level programming languages such as FORTRAN, C++ or Java or other scripting languages such as Python and R.
  • ☺ More and more recent textbooks in geoscience contain supplementary MATLAB files.
  • ☹ MATLAB is commercial software,
  • ☺ but the federal state Baden-Württemberg negotiated a license agreement with MathWorks. This contract includes almost all available extensions of MATLAB and allows students to install the full MATLAB software on private computers free of charge.
• This course focuses on the basics of modeling more than on the technical details of MATLAB. So we will only discuss these things which we immediately need. You will probably have to look for more specific features in tutorials or in the rather comprehensive original documentation from the MathWorks tutorials page. You will also find more introductory material there.

Downloads

• About numerical modeling and programming
• Time-dependent models and ordinary differential equations
• Partial differential equations
• Screenshots and other files developed in the class

Further Reading

• Gerya, T. (2010): Introduction to Geodynamic Modelling. Cambridge University Press, 345. (PDF file on ResearchGate)
• Wainwright, J. & Mulligan, M. (2013): Environmental Modelling: Finding Simplicity in Complexity. Second edition, Wiley, 475.

Exercises for the Class

Key: 

Generate key (adminstrator only):