Transcript Document

AOSC 200 FALL 2011
Everybody talks about the weather but
nobody does anything about it.
- Charles Dudley Warner
AOSC 200 Weather and Climate
Lecture Time and Location:
There are two sessions of lectures for this course.
Session 1 12.30 pm – 1.45 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in CSS2324
Session 2 2.00 pm – 3.15 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in PHY1412
Discussion Time and Location
For Session 1:
0101 Wednesday 1.00 pm to 1.50 pm in CSS 2428
0102 Wednesday 2.00 pm to 2.50 pm in CSS 2428
0103 Wednesday 3.00 pm to 3.50 pm in CSS 2428
0104 Wednesday 1.00 pm to 1.50 pm in PLS 1146
For Session 2
0201 Wednesday 2.00 pm to 2.50 pm in CHM 1228
0202 Wednesday 3.00 pm to 3.50 pm in KEB 1200
0203 Monday 1.00 pm to 1.50 pm in CSS 2428
0204 Monday 2.00 pm to 2.50 pm in CSS 2428
Textbook: Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere,
by Ackerman and Knox
TA’s
• 0101, 0104,Stephen Baxter,
[email protected]
• 0204, Ben Johnston,
[email protected]
• 0201, 0202, Allison Monarski,
[email protected]
• 0203, Jordan Foley, [email protected]
• 0102, 0103, Dr. Jeffrey Stehr,
[email protected]
AOSC 200 Weather and Climate
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Course website
www.atmos.umd.edu/~hudson/aosc200.d
Contains:
Each lecture in Power-point format on web page.
Go to AOSC200 LECTURES
user name:
aosc200
password:
aosc200f09
Syllabus and class schedule
The projects
All class information will be posted on the website.
A weather forecasting primer can be found at
www.atmos.umd.edu/~hudson/forecastchecklist.htm
Grading
• The course will be graded on the basis of a mid-term
exams (25% of the final grade) , a final exam(30% of
the final grade), three projects (25% of the final grade),
and 6 quizzes (20% of the final grade).
• The projects will be group efforts. Students in each
discussion section will be assigned to groups of from
five to six students.
• The subject of each project will be the application of
weather/climate to our every day lives, e.g. prepare a
poster on ’The impact of climate forecasting on the
commodities market’.
• The projects are in lieu of homework, students are
expected to work on the project outside of classroom
hours. Also 20 minutes of each discussion session will
be allocated to group meetings.
Projects
• Work on the projects will be in three stages:
• (1) An outline of the product and group
assignments (20%)
• (2) A draft of the product for comments
• (3) The final product.(50%)
• (4) Presentation (30%)
• Each group member will also be asked to grade
the other members of the group on their overall
contribution to the project.
Who am I?
• My PhD was in Physics. My research thesis was in
Spectroscopy. Each molecule or atom emits and absorbs
radiation in unique regions – like a finger print. One can
use this fact to identify the molecule or atom.
• Before joining UM in 1990, I worked for NASA
developing instruments to identify atmospheric
molecules from satellites.
• It was at NASA that I became an atmospheric physicist
• Research on the Ozone layer in the Stratosphere.
• Current research is on applying this ozone data to
climate studies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
YfcNRWefEEU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
YfcNRWefEEU
Hurricane Irene
http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurrican
es/hurricane-irene-dead-millionpower/story?id=14393026http://abc
news.go.com/US/hurricanes/hurrica
ne-irene-dead-millionpower/story?id=14393026
BLUE MARBLE ROTATING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
CEe8vzJjj3M&feature=relatedhttp:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEe
8vzJjj3M&feature=related
The Blue Marble
Weather Satellite Image, July 7, 2005
Fig. 1-1, p. 2
Weather vs. Climate
Weather
Climate
Instantaneous description
of what the atmosphere
is doing at a particular
time and place
Description of what
weather is usually like in
a region (large or small).
Not just the average
weather, but a
description of what the
extremes are like too.
Different hemispheres –
different weather
Why?
Different ratios of land to
oceans.
Oceans tend to act like a
thermostat.
Mountains cause instabilities in
the air flow. Southern
hemisphere is calmer.
Fig. 1-2, p. 3
Mean Percentage of possible sunshine for November
Typical Weather Map
Typical Climatology Map
Surface Pressure Map Jan 25
850 Mb chart for Monday Jan 25
FRONTS
• You will often hear TV meteorologists refer to cold
and warm fronts when describing the weather.
• Fronts are regions where cold and warm air masses
meet.
• This is the region where most of the ‘weather’ is
generated.
• We identifiy four main classes of fronts, warm, cold,
stationary, occluded.
• Each front has an unique symbol on weather maps.
Fig. 1-15, p. 18
Warm Front
Fig. 9.13
Cold front
Fig. 9.15
Weather Symbols
Fig. 1-17, p. 21
Detailed weather symbols
(1) Direction of arrow into the circle gives the wind direction. Number of barbs
on the arrow gives the wind speed. Full barb = 10 miles per hour, half barb=5.
(2) Sign, middle left, gives the type of precipitation. In the top left symbol the
sign is fot thunder. In the bottom left it stands for steady rain.
(3) Shading in inner circle gives the cloud fraction.
(4) Top number on left is the temperature, bottom number the dew point
Weather symbols
• The numbers at top right of each symbol represent the
pressure in millibars (mb)
• The pressure seldom drops below 950 mb and seldom
gets above 1049 mb
• In the days of teletype the object was to shorten the
amount of information sent.
• So if I say the pressure was 98 then the receiver could
assume that I meant 998. And if I sent 14 then 1014
was assumed.
• To further confuse the issue it was decided to sent the
tenth of a mb. So now if I sent 998 I meant 999.8.
Similarly 117 means 1011.7.
Weather Forecasting
• A website has been prepared to guide you
through the process of making a simple
weather forecast.
• You can either go to Dr. Hudson’s web
page and then click on:
Forecast Checklist
• Or go to:
http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~hudson/forecas
tchecklist2.htm