Scientific methods and principles used to observe and analyze the physical processes underlying the climate system. Application of principles emphasizing seasonal, regional and global climates. Analysis of global climate changes.
Professor Terrence R. Nathan
Composition and thermal structure of the atmosphere radiation and the heat budget of the earth and its atmosphere. Cloud formation and precipitation processes. The atmosphere in motion, thunderstorms and other severe weather phenomena.
Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U
Acquisition, distribution and analysis of meteorological data. Vertical sounding analysis, stability indices, probability of local severe weather, weather map analysis. Use of National Weather Service analyses and forecast products. Laboratory makes use of computer-generated analyses.
Professor John J. Carroll III
Examination of climate as the forcing function for the hydrologic system. Emphasis on seasonal variations in the relationship between precipitation and evapotranspiration for meso-scale areas. Watershed modeling of floods and drought for evaluating the effects of climatic fluctuations.
Professor Marlyn L. Shelton
Climate trends and patterns spanning the recent past and the future. Emphasis on natural processes that produce climate variations and human influence on these processes. Evidence of climate change and the role of global climate models in understandingclimate variability.
Professor Ruth A. Reck
Atmospheric composition and structure, thermodynamics of atmospheric gases, thermal properties of dry and moist air, atmospheric stability; cloud nucleation, cloud growth by condensation and collision, cloud models.
Professor Bryan C. Weare
Fundamental forces of atmospheric flow; noninertial reference frames; development of the equations of motion for rotating stratified atmospheres; isobaric and natural coordinate systems; geostrophic flow; thermal wind; circulation and vorticity.
Professor Terrence R. Nathan
Dynamics of fluid motion in geophysical systems; quasi-geostrophic theory; fundamentals of wave propagation in fluids; Rossby waves; gravity waves; fundamentals of hydrodynamic instability; two-level model; baroclinic instability and cyclogenesis.
Professor Terrence R. Nathan
Modern meteorological instruments and their use in meteorological observations and measurements. Both standard and micrometeorological instruments are included.
Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U
Atmospheric and biological interactions. Physical and biological basis for water vapor, carbon dioxide and energy exchanges with the atmosphere associated with plants and animals, including humans. Microclimate of plant canopies and microclimatic modification such as frost protection and windbreaks.
Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U
Computational techniques used in physical sciences. Integral and differential equation numerical solution: mainly finite differencing and spectral (Fourier transform) methods. Includes introduction to C. Specific applications drawn from meteorology. Students write one C and several FORTRAN programs.
Professor Richard D. Grotjahn
Characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer under convective and nocturnal conditions. Heat budget at the surface and boundary layer forcing. Similarity theory and scaling of the boundary layer. Measurement and simulation techniques.
Professor Anthony S. Wexler
Dynamics and energetics of turbulence in the atmosphere including vorticity dynamics. Statistical description of turbulence; Eulerian and Lagrangian scales, spectral analysis, conditional sampling techniques. Turbulent diffusion; the closure problem, gradient-diffusion and second-order methods.
Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U
Dynamics of large-scale climatic variations over time periods from weeks to centuries. Description of the appropriate methods of analysis of atmospheric and oceanic observations. Conservation of mass, energy and momentum. Introduction to the range of climate simulations.
Professor Bryan C. Weare
Principles of numerical modeling of the dynamic, thermodynamic and physical processes of the atmosphere. Hands-on experiments on model development using the shallow water equations and the primitive equations. Operational forecast models.
Professor Shu-Hua Chen