ATM S 556, Spring Quarter 2000

Planetary Scale Dynamics

Instructors:
Professor James Holton
408A Atmospheric Sciences Bldg., 543-4010
holton@atmos.washington.edu
and
Professor David Battisti
718 Atmospheric Scienes Bldg., 543-2019
david@atmos.washington.edu

Meeting Times: T,Th, 10:30-11:50AM, 406ATG

Grading:Course is graded CR/NC. To receive credit each student must give a 25 minute presentation on a topic related to planetary-scale flow, to be approved by the instructors.

Course Outline:

I. Introduction: Review of potential vorticity, Rossby waves, Charney-Drazin theory.

II. Zonally symmetric flows:Eulerian mean, transformed Eulerian mean, Isentropic mean.

III. Planetary wave and zonal flow interaction: Sudden stratospheric warmings.

IV. Equatorial wave and zonal flow interactions: The Quasi-biennial oscillation.

V. Global aspects of trace constituent transport and stratosphere-Tropophere exchange.

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