Geography 257 (Spring 2007) – Topics in Climatology
Instructors: John Chiang and Norman Miller
Time: Wednesdays 1:30p-4p, 55A McCone. First meeting will be Wed 1/17 at that time and location.
Topic: This semester, we will be mostly covering aspects of atmospheric dynamics, primarily from Holton's "An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology" (4th edition, Elsevier). The preliminary plan is to cover the following chapters:
Norm Miller may also include specific outcomes of dynamic analyses in the current IPCC AR4.
Prerequisites: We're going to assume that you've seen atmospheric physics and dynamics at the level of the upper division 'Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics' course (GeogC139/EPS181); this is the website for that course:
http://geography.berkeley.edu/ProgramCourses/CoursePagesFA2006/GEOGC139/geogC139.html
Most, if not all, of you have seen the equations in some way, shape, or form, but not terribly familiar with how to use them. The idea would be give you a chance to understand and apply the basic equations. We will go back repeatedly to the earlier Holton chapters to clarify concepts. This will be very informal: we expect that about half the meeting time would be to discuss reading, and the other half to discuss problem sets.
The schedule (red is preliminary and subject to change):
|
Week and date |
Reading |
Homework |
Topic |
Notes and posts |
|
1 (1/17) |
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|
Logistics |
|
|
2 (1/24) |
Waves primer (Halliday and Resnick); and Holton 7.1, 7.2 |
Holton 7.2, 7.3, and M 7.2 |
Waves: basic concepts |
|
|
3 (1/31) |
Holton 7.3 |
Holton 7.4, 7.5, 7.7. |
Sound waves; shallow water gravity waves |
|
|
4 (2/7) |
Holton 7.4 |
Holton 7.8, 7.9, 7.12. If you have time, play with M7.3 |
Internal gravity waves |
Note: donŐt worry about the second part of question 7.8 – itŐs a bit dense. |
|
5 (2/14) |
Holton 7.5 |
Holton 7.18 |
Inertia-gravity waves |
|
|
6 (Fri 2/23) 9-11:30a NOTE special day and time |
Holton 7.5, 7.6 |
Holton 7.13, 1.11 (ch1) |
Inertia-gravity waves, Geostrophic adjustment |
JC and NM away Wed 2/21; class will meet on Friday |
|
7 (2/28) |
Holton 7.6 (geostrophic adjustment); and Holton 4.2-4.4(review of vorticity) |
Holton 4.13 |
Geostrophic adjustment, Vorticity |
|
|
8 (3/7) |
Holton 7.7 and 4.5 |
Holton 7.16, 7.20 |
Rossby waves |
|
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9 (3/14) |
Holton 11.4 and 11.5 |
Holton 11.6; and M11.4, M11.6. For the matlab exercises, just look at the animations to get a sense of the equatorial wave motions |
Equatorial waves; and the steady forced equatorial motions |
|
|
10 (3/21) |
Various readings on the Hadley circulation |
Readings can be found here |
Hadley circulation – initial understanding, and response to recent and future climate change |
Norm will send out an email about specific student tasks for the Hadley circulation readings. |
|
11 |
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|
Spring break |
|
|
12 (4/4) |
Section 4.1 and 4.2 of Ian JamesŐ book ŇIntro to Circulating AtmospheresÓ |
No homework for this week |
Hadley circulation – Held-Hou model |
If you have time, skim through section 4.3 on more realistic Hadley circulation models |
|
13 (4/11) |
Holton 10.1, 10.2 up to the end of 10.2.2; and 6.2 up to the end of 6.2.1. |
Holton 10.4 |
Zonal mean zonal equations of motion; EP flux. |
|
|
14 (4/18) |
Holton 10.3; and the Lorenz handout on angular
momentum considerations in atmospheric general circulation |
|
Angular momentum budget |
|
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15 (4/25) |
Holton 10.4 |
|
Lorenz energy cycle |
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16 (5/2) |
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|
JC away 4/30-5/8 |