Fall 2014 Lectures: MWF, 9:00 - 9:50 AM. Location: Physical Science Building room 130
Syllabus
Required Book:
Fundamentals of Weather and Climate, 2nd Edition, by Robin McIlveen
Mon., 25 Aug., Handout & review syllabus; Lecture: Began Chapter 1
Wed., 27 Aug., Lecture: Finish Chapter 1 and Begin Chapter 2. Slides: temperature measurements.
Fri., 29 Aug., Lecture: Measurements: Temperature, humidity, wind, pressure.
Mon., 1 Sept., Labor Day. No classes.
Wed., 3 Sept., Lecture: Big impact of small things, continuum, pressure; instruments to measure solar and longwave radiation.
Fri., 5 Sept., Lecture: Begin Chapter 3: Homosphere and heterosphere. Mixing versus diffusion. Reservoirs, sources, sinks. Constituents: argon, nitrogen, oxygen.
Last day to add or drop classes without special permission of instructor.
Mon., 8 Sept., Homework set 1 due. Lecture: Oxygen and ozone, residence time, carbon dioxide.
Wed., 10 Sept., Lecture: carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, aerosol, water (3.5 - 3.8 in book).
Fri., 12 Sept., Lecture: Begin Chapter 4. Equation of state; lapse rate; atmospheric shells (4.2 in book).
Mon., 15 Sept., Lecture: Hydrostatic balance and equation (4.3 - 4.4 in book); derivation of barometric eqn.
Wed., 17 Sept., Lecture: Hypsometric equation; pressure surfaces, cross-sections, meridional and zonal
Fri., 19 Sept., Lecture: Review of all equations thus far. Pressure and density profiles in air and water. How horizontal pressure gradients form. General circulation.
Census date: no adding or dropping or changing of grade option beyond this date without a serious or compelling reason approved by the instructor, chair, and dean.
Mon., 22 Sept., Lecture: Begin Chapter 5. Atmospheric Thermodynamics. Derivation of Eqn 5.1.
Wed., 24 Sept., Assignment number 2 due. Lecture: Derivation of Eqn 5.2.
Fri., 26 Sept., Exam #1 on Chapters 1 --- 4.
Mon., 29 Sept., Lecture: Derivation of Poisson's Eqn (5.14) and Potential temperature (5.15).
Wed., 1 Oct., Return and review exam. Lecture: Review sections 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.6.
Fri., 3 Oct., Lecture: Begin section 5.4 on P. 126. Water vapour. Vapor pressure (e) and equilibrium vapor pressure (e_s).
Mon., 6 Oct., Lecture: Continue 5.4: relative hunidity; discussion of changes in state of water, "latent heat".
Wed., 8 Oct., Lecture: Sections 5.5, 5.6, 5.7: Wet-bulb temperature, dry adiabtic lapse rate, saturation adiabatic lapse rate.
Fri., 10 Oct., Assignment number 3 due. Assignment number 4 given.Lecture: Static stability. ("Convective Stability", section 5.10 in book.)
Mon., 13 Oct., Lecture: Buoyancy of displaced parcels; saturation adiabatic lapse rate; conditional instability.
Wed., 15 Oct., Lecture: Pressure as an ordinate axis. Begin atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams.
Fri., 17 Oct., Lecture: Conserved property; mixing ratio lines, Skew-T ln-P diagram (not in book).
Mon., 20 Oct., Assignment number 4 due. Assignment #5 given. Lecture: Begin Chapter 6: Clouds and precipitation. Introduce Kelvin effect.
Wed., 22 Oct., Lecture: Return Assignment #4. Introduce solute effect. Combine to Köhler curves.
Fri., 24 Oct., Lecture: Growth of cloud droplets, activation, diffusion of water vapor toward droplet and condensation. (Sections 6.9 and 6.11)
Mon., 27 Oct., Assignment number 5 due. Lecture: Step by step coverage of box 6.3 on P. 181. (Diffusion and condensation.)
Wed., 29 Oct., Return assignment 5. Assignment 6 given. Lecture: Step by step coverage of box 6.6 on P. 185. (Collision and coalescence). Movie.
Fri., 31 Oct., Lecture: Supercooled droplets, cold clouds, mixed clouds, ice nuclei, homogeneous and heteorogeneous nucleation. (6.11.2 and 6.11.3 in book.)
Mon., 3 Nov., Lecture: Ice particles; saturation vapor pressure over ice; Bergeron-Findeisen mechanism (6.11.3); growth of ice particles.
Wed., 5 Nov., Assignment 6 due. Lecture: Review for Exam #2.
Fri., 7 Nov., Exam #2 on chapters 5 (atmospheric thermodynamics) and 6 (cloud physics)
Mon., 10 Nov., Return Exam #2 and Assignment #6. Lecture: Math concepts necessary for Chapter 7. Newton's laws.
Wed., 12 Nov., SET completed. Assignment #7 given. Lecture: Newton's second law and pressure gradients as forces. (Section 7.4)
Fri., 14 Nov., Lecture: partial derivatives, pressure gradients, gravitational force (7.4.2), laminar flow, turbulent flow, shear.
Mon., 17 Nov., Assignment #7 due. Assignment #8 given. Lecture: Begin 7.4.3 on friction forces in fluid. Viscosity.
Wed., 19 Nov., Lecture: Continue 7.4.3 on friction forces in fluid: effects of viscosity in sheared laminar flow.
Fri., 21 Nov., Lecture: Finish 7.4.3. Friction forces due to turbulence; eddy viscosity; subgrid-scale parameterization.
Mon., 24 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Wed., 26 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Fri., 28 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Mon., 1 Dec., Assignment #8 due. Assignment #9 given. Lecture: Begin section 7.5: Effects of rotation. Inertial coordinate system; review of uniform circular motion.
Wed., 3 Dec., Lecture: Sections 7.5 - 7.8. Derived magnitude of centripetal acceleration; apparent gravity; Coriolis on a sphere.
Fri., 5 Dec., Lecture: Lagrangian versus Eularian frames; total derivative; deflection due to Coriolis; scale analysis of synoptic motions (7.9); geostrophy.
Mon., 8 Dec., Assignment #9 due. Lecture: Example of scale analysis for synoptic-scale motions; geostrophic balance; effect of friction on balance of forces.
Wed., 10 Dec., Return assignment #9. Lecture: Review of Chapter 7. (Sections 7.1 - 7.11 will be on final exam.)
Fri., 12 Dec., Lecture: Review of Chapters 1 - 6.
Mon., 15 Dec., Final comprehensive exam: 10:00 - 11:50 AM.
Dr. Mayor's page
CSU Chico Atmospheric Lidar Research Group