Welcome to the GEOS 501, Dynamic Meteorology, webpage for the Fall 2015 semester.
This page will be updated every few days as the course progresses...


Fall 2015 Lectures: MWF, 9:00 - 9:50 AM. Location: Physical Science Building 130

Click here for a PDF of the Syllabus.

Mon., 24 Aug., Review syllabus. Lecture: Nature of fluids, continuum, Knudsen number.
Wed., 25 Aug., Begin transport phenomena at molecular level: Ficks, Fourier's law and Newton's law of viscosity. Shear stress.
Fri., 28 Aug., Momentum flux, Cauchy stress tensor, Reynolds stress in turbulent flow.
Mon., 31 Aug., Quiz #1. Lecture: continue Reynolds stress: covariance. Begin Newton's first and second laws.
Wed., 2 Sept., Lecture: Begin body forces and surface forces acting on a cubic fluid parcel.
Fri., 4 Sept., Lecture: Derivation of differential viscous stress resulting in acceleration of a cubic fluid parcel.
Mon., 7 Sept., Labor Day. Campus closed.
Wed., 9 Sept., Quiz #2. Homework #1 due. Lecture: Review development of an equation of motion. Vector vs component form.
Fri., 11 Sept., Lecture: Discussion on stress tensor for small cube of air (with no assumptions).
Mon., 14 Sept., Quiz #3. Lecture: Index notation: Einstein's summation notation; dummy indices; free indices.
Wed., 16 Sept., Homework #3 due. Lecture: continuation on index notation; Kronecker delta.
Fri., 18 Sept., Homework #2 due. Lecture: review of viscous stress/strain; Newtonian fluid; 3D stress tensor.
Mon., 21 Sept., Lecture: a closer look at the 3D stress tensor for compressible fluids
Wed., 23 Sept., Lecture: Kinematics of fluid flow: divergence, rotation, stretching deformation, shearing deformation.
Fri., 25 Sept., Lecture: Derivation of Navier-Stokes eqn.
Mon., 28 Sept., Lecture: Derivation of Navier-Stokes eqn.
Wed., 30 Sept., Quiz #4: Lecture: Complete derivation of Navier-Stokes eqn.
Fri., 2 Oct., Student team derivation of Navier-Stokes.
Mon., 5 Oct., Student team derivation of Navier-Stokes.
Wed., 7 Oct., Student team derivation of Navier-Stokes.
Fri., 9 Oct., Lecture: Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of fluid flow. Local derivative and advection terms.
Mon., 12 Oct., Student review of transformation between Lagrangian and Eulerian forms of Navier-Stokes
Wed., 14 Oct., Lecture: advection terms
Fri., 16 Oct., Lecture: Begin gravity.
Mon., 19 Oct., Lecture: Complete gravity, geopotential; Start rotation.
Wed., 21 Oct., Lecture: Continue rotation: introduce cross-product.
Fri., 23 Oct., Lecture: cross-product, Coriolis
Mon., 26 Oct., Lecture: Coriolis and centripetal accelerations
Wed., 28 Oct., Lecture: Derive curvature terms
Fri., 30 Oct., Lecture: Expanding Coriolis into spherical coordinates. Review all terms in the equations of motion.
Mon., 2 Nov., Lecture: Use of the acceleration and Coriolis terms to compute deflections.
Wed., 4 Nov., Lecture: Scale analysis of horizontal equations of motion for mid-latitude, synoptic systems; geostrophy.
Fri., 6 Nov., Lecture: Scale analysis of vertical equation of motion; hydrostatic equation; hypsometric equation; begin derivation of thermal wind.
Mon., 9 Nov., Lecture: Complete derivation of the thermal wind equation.
Wed., 11 Nov., Veterans Day. Campus closed.
Fri., 13 Nov., New homework assigned (due 11/20). Lecture: barotropic fluid; equivalent barotropic fluid; and thermal wind.
Mon., 16 Nov., Lecture: Continue discussion of barotropy, equivalent barotropy, and thermal wind.
Wed., 18 Nov., Lecture: Taylor-Proudman theorem; baroclinity; baroclinic instability.
Fri., 20 Nov., Lecture: UCAR MetEd video on the thermal wind and temperature advection.
Mon., 23 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Wed., 25 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Fri., 27 Nov., Thanksgiving holiday. No classes.
Mon., 30 Nov., Lecture: Review of barotropic atmosphere and baroclinicity. Then begin vorticity.
Wed., 2 Dec., Quiz. Lecture: how to calculate vorticity analytically and w finite difference approximation.
Fri., 4 Dec., Lecture: rotational and irrotational vortices; Begin circulation.
Mon., 7 Dec., Lecture: circulation and vorticity; show that circulation remains constant for barotropic, inviscid flow.
Wed., 9 Dec., Lecture: derivation of Taylor-Proudman and characteristics of a homogeneous, rotating, inviscid, incompressible flow.
Fri., 11 Dec., Lecture: Taylor columns; review stability and potential temperature; then conservation of absolute vorticity, Rossby waves.
Mon., 14 - 18 Dec., Comprehensive final exam: Monday, Dec. 14 from 10:00 - 11:50 AM

Dr. Mayor's page
CSU Chico Atmospheric Lidar Research Group

This page updated 12/04/2015.