Welcome to the GEOS 170, Atmospheric Science, webpage for the Spring 2020 semester.
Above: Cumulus congestus. Looking west from Baroni Park in Chico, California on May 18, 2020.
Spring 2020 Lectures: MWF, 12:00 - 12:50 PM. Location: PAC 206
Click here for a PDF of the Syllabus.
Required book: Meteorology Today 12th edition by C. Donald Ahrens and Robert Henson.
Weds., 22 Jan., Review Syllabus. Discussion on billion dollar weather and climate disasters in the US.
Fri., 24 Jan., Begin Chapter 1: the Earth and its atmosphere.
Mon., 27 Jan., Continue Chapter 1: pressure and temperature as function of altitude. Various weather technologies.
Weds., 29 Jan., Homework #1 due. Class cancelled due to illness.
Fri., 31 Jan., Quiz #1. Geostationary versus polar orbiting satellites. Then begin Chapter 2. Energy and temperature.
Mon., 3 Feb., Continue Chapter 2: specific heat, flux, latent heat, phases or states, conduction, and convection.
Weds., 5 Feb., Convection, air parcels, advection, then begin EM radiation: Stefan-Boltzmann and Wien's law.
Fri., 7 Feb., Homework #2 due. Blackbody radiation, Planck functions, grey bodies, selective absorbers, and the Greenhouse effect.
Mon., 10 Feb., Quiz #2. Complete Chapter 2: Global energy budget, greenhouses, blankets. Then begin Chapter 3: Seasons.
Weds., 12 Feb., Calculation of air density, convection, heating and cooling of the surface. Thermal belts.
Fri., 14 Feb., Quiz #3 and Begin Chapter 4 on humidity. Absolute, specific, relative, saturation vapor pressure, dew point.
Mon., 17 Feb., Quiz #4 and complete Chapter 4 on humidity. Today: sling psychometer, wet-bulb, dry-bulb, psychrometric tables.
Weds., 19 Feb., No lecture. Do special assignment #1 instead.
Fri., 21 Feb., Exam #1 on Chapters 1 - 4.
Mon., 24 Feb., Begin Chapter 5 on Condensation: dew, frost, fog, and clouds.
Weds., 26 Feb., Completed types of fog and began cloud types. Main types of clouds.
Fri., 28 Feb., Completed Chapter 5. Special clouds and cloud observing technologies.
Mon., 2 Mar., Homework #5 due and Quiz #5. Begin Chapter 6: Stability and cloudy development. Lapse rates.
Weds., 4 Mar., Quiz 5b on cloud types. Stable and unstable atmospheres. Types of inversions, stabilization and destabilization.
Fri., 6 Mar., Chapter 6 homework due. Quiz on Chapter 6. Conclude stability and discuss cloud formation processes.
Mon., 9 Mar., Use of a pseudo-adiabatic chart to model ascent and decent of air over a mountain.
Weds., 11 Mar., Begin Chapter 7: Precipitation. Curvature and solute effects; collision and coalescence; Bergeron process.
Fri., 13 Mar., Class cancelled due to COVID-19.
Mon., 16 Mar., Spring break. No classes.
Weds., 18 Mar., Spring break. No classes.
Fri., 20 Mar., Spring break. No classes.
Mon., 23 Mar., Class cancelled due to COVID-19.
All lectures from here forward were done through Zoom.
Weds., 25 Mar., Review precipitation processes, and then discuss forms of precipitation.
Fri., 27 Mar., Begin Chapter 8: Air pressure and wind
Mon., 30 Mar., Pressure gradient force, Coriolis force, hydrostatic balance, geostrophic balance.
Weds., 1 Apr., Quiz and homework on Chapter 7 due. Wind symbols, geostrophic flow, effects of friction in the lower troposphere.
Fri., 3 Apr., Chapter 8 Homework due. The effect of "friction" in the lower atmosphere: convergence and divergence.
Mon., 6 Apr., Quiz on Chapter 8. Begin Chapter 9: Wind at small scales. Molecular and eddy viscosity and boundary layers.
Weds., 8 Apr., Continue Chapter 9. Wind near the surface of the Earth: log wind profile and effects of wind on surface.
Fri., 10 Apr., Quiz on Chapter 9 (pages 227-237)
Mon., 13 Apr., Exam #2 on Chapters 5 - 8.
Weds., 15 Apr., Complete Chapter 9. Chinooks vs katabatic winds, haboobs, The Dust Bowl, gust fronts, dust devils.
Fri., 17 Apr., Begin Chapter 10: Global scale winds. 3-cell model.
Mon., 20 Apr., Semi-permanent highs and lows, jet-streams, polar vortex.
Weds., 22 Apr., Air-ocean interaction: evaporation, wind waves, swell, upper-ocean currents, Ekman spiral, Ekman transport.
Fri., 24 Apr., Homework #10 due. Quiz #10. Meridional vs zonal. The Walker circulation and El Niño and La Niña
Mon., 27 Apr., Chapter 11: Airmasses and fronts. (Entire chapter in 1 lecture!)
Weds., 29 Apr., Begin Chapter 12: Mid-latitude cyclones. Polar front theory. Cyclogenesis. Deep dynamic lows.
Fri., 1 May, Chapter #11 homework due. Rossby waves and shortwaves, cold and warm advecton, baroclinicity.
Mon., 4 May, Divergence and vorticity, planetary vorticity, conservation of absolute vorticity, and Rossby waves.
Weds., 6 May, Review concepts of density, mean temperature profile, sources of heating, adiabatic lapse rate.
Fri., 8 May, Quiz on Chapters 11 and 12. Chapter #12 homework due.
Weds., 13 May, Final Exam Week (12:00 - 1:50 PM)
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