Meteorology 301 - General Meteorology

Spring 2003


Instructor: William J. Gutowski, Jr.

gutowski@iastate.edu					294-5632 [tel]
3021 Agronomy						294-2619 [fax]

My page at the Ge-At Department faculty site.  

office hours:
    Monday 2-3 pm
    Wednesday 10-11 am


Goals

  1. To understand the fundamental physical and mathematical principles of meteorology

  2. To being developing self-learning skills needed for life-long professional development

Course Design

The course outline provided below is tentative but should be adequate enough to give you a reference for the order of topics and a reasonable idea of the course's pace. Students are expected to come to class prepared to participate actively in the learning process. As in any professional organization, absences should be justified and promptness is standard procedure. Your homework should be done with pride and submitted on time. Late homework will be given discounted credit.

Email

I communicate frequently with the class by email. The default email address I have for all students is their @iastate.edu address. Students who prefer to use some other email address should follow one of these two alternatives (the first is preferred):

  1. Follow the instructions to automatically forward your iastate.edu email to another system.
  2. Send to me by email your preferred address.

Choice 1 is preferable because faculty teaching other courses will also use email to communicate with you. They, too, will have your iastate.edu address, through AccessPlus, but not likely your other email address. Setting up automatic forwarding saves you from having to repeat these steps down the road.

Structure of Classes

Many classes will involve traditional lectures. However, some will be much more interactive. I will not give a lecture, but rather work on Class Review Problem Sets (see below). You will be expected to learn the material from the textbook and work on these problems before class. In these cases, I will spend short periods working with each group on the assigned problems.

The course outline below indicates how much material is part of any given class.

NOTE: If we do not finish a derivation during class, students will be responsible for completing it on their own. (Nearly all derivations are in the textbook.)

Student Portfolios

In this class, students will begin to construct their Student Portfolio. Background information and a template are avaliable for guidance.

Procedure for Standard Problem Sets

Most, if not all standard problem sets will be done by teams of students assigned to problem-set groups by me.
Problem set groups for Spring 2003: (a) web page (b) pdf file

Please follow these procedures for doing problem sets:

  1. Restate question, preferably in your own words.
  2. Without using equations, explain the physics of the problem. Figures are encouraged.
  3. Work the problem and include comments.
  4. Identify the solution (e.g. underline, put in a box, use an arrow pointer...)
  5. On each problem set, identify the team members who contributed and the person writing the solutions. The secretary position must be rotated.
  6. Occasionally, team members may be randomly picked to explain problem solutions to the class.
Every person who contributes to the solution will get the same score. Only one solution is to be submitted from the group. Persons not contributing will receive no credit. Problem sets are due by the end of class one week after they are assigned (unless stated otherwise).

Your problem set group likely will include people with whom you do not ordinarily work. It is important that you work out means of working together. When you enter the working world, you will not have much choice of who your colleagues are, but you will be expected to perform in a professional manner with whoever is part of your organization.

A schedule of Standard Problem Sets will be updated as the semester evolves.

Procedure for Class Review Problem Sets

These will be problems that I want you to work on with your groups in advance of classes where the material is covered. There are two motivations for these sets:

We will go over Class Review problem sets during the appointed class. These problems will cover several lectures in the Course Outline below. In doing these, I will not give formal lectures on the sections covered by these problems. Students will be responsible for reading and reviewing all appropriate material.

A schedule of Class Review Problem Sets will be updated as the semester evolves.

NOTE! Class Review problem set results will be handed in at the end of the next class after the one in which they are covered.

Procedure for Computer/Math Labs

Some of our classes will involve computer and mathematics exercises that are relevant to meteorology majors. These will typically occur on Tuesdays.
General rules:
  1. You are free to consult others on how to do the lab, but
  2. You must hand in your own report
  3. No photocopies!

The labs will often entail accessing meteorology computers . The labs have instructions in a lab list on the Web.

Labs are due one week after assigned, unless stated otherwise.

Grading

   3 Tests	 	         			60%
   Computer/math labs, class participation      	20%
   Problem sets	 			                20%
The course grade is determined by how each student performs. This is done in part by assessing how people do with respect to each other and how the class as a whole has done. This gives a starting point for reviewing what each student has demonstrated with regard to his/her grasp of the material. The total score from tests, labs, etc. is NOT judged on a scale of below 60 = F, 60 - 69 = D, etc.

Reminder

Tentatively, I will be away on the following dates:

Past tests are available for reviewing:

Class images are available for viewing.


Course Outline

Lecture   Text		Key Concept(s)

Chapter 1

	Read 1.1

L.1	1.2/1.3  	Composition of atmosphere & hydrosphere
			Water vapor versus height

	Read 1.4

L.2	1.5/1.6/1.7	Zonal average
			Global temperature and wind distributions


Chapter 2

L.3	2.1		Ideal gas

L.4	2.2		Hydrostatic equation

L.5	2.3		Conservation of Energy:  First Law of
			Thermodynamics

	Read 2.4

L.6	2.5		Potential temperature

	Read 2.5.4

L.7	2.6		Mixing ratio
			Saturation mixing ratio

L.8	2.6 (continued)

	Read 2.6.4,
	   2.6.5,2.6.6

L.9	2.7		Static stability


Chapter 3

L.10	3.1 - 3.2.1	500 mb heights
			500 mb wind speed/direction

L.11	3.2.2-3.3	Evolution of storm systems

L.12	3.4-3.5		Vertical structure of the temperature field
                        Special: Temperature sounding made by Prof. Gutowski.


Chapter 4

L.13	4.1		Aerosols:  distribution and climatic effects

L.14	4.2 		Nucleation of water vapor
			Role of CCN


			TEST:  	Chapters 1 - 3

	Read 4.3

L.15	4.4		Mechanisms of droplet growth


Chapter 5

L.16	5.1		Relationship of cloud characteristics to local
			   circulations

L.17	5.2		Convective & "stable" precipitation


Chapter 6

	Read 6.1

L. 18	6.2/6.3.1	Molecular absorption/emission of radiation

L.19	6.4		Black-body radiation

L.20	6.5		Emissivity

L.21 	6.6		Optical depth

L.22	6.8/6.9		Global radiative energy balance


Chapter 7

L.23	7.1		Balance of sources and sinks of energy

L.24	7.3/7.4		Roles of radiative, sensible heat and latent heat
			   fluxes
	
L.25	7.5		Time scales of variability


Chapter 8

	Read Introduction

L.26	8.1		Relationship between wind components and
			   coordinate systems
			Pressure as a coordinate  	

L.27	8.2		Rotating coordinates produces apparent forces
			Coriolis force

L.28	8.3		Pressure force from pressure gradient

			TEST:  Chapters 4-6


L.29	8.4		Newton's Second Law - Conservation of momentum
			   (in the horizontal)

L.30	8.4 (continued)

L.31	8.5, 8.6 (part) 
			Newton's Second Law - Conservation of momentum
			   (in the vertical)

L.32	8.7		First Law of Thermodynamics - Conservation of
			   thermodynamic energy

L.33	8.8		Continuity Equation - Conservation of mass

L.34	8.9		Primitive Equations


Chapter 9


L.35	9.1/9.2		Available potential energy

L.36	9.3		Maintenance of geostrophic balance

L.37	9.4		Stationary circulation patterns

L.38	9.5		Energy conversion in baroclinic waves

L.39	9.7/9.8/9.9	Cycling of conserved quantities


			TEST:  Chapters 7 - 9  (during exam period)


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