Boundary Layer Meteorology Syllabus:

Week

Dates

Topics

Reading

Due

1

Sep 26 (Thu)
Oct 1 (Tue)

Introduction: the atmospheric boundary layer

 

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2

Oct 3 (Thu)
Oct 8 (Tue)

Energy budget near the surface: concepts and determining factors, budget of a layer, surface fluxes

Review class notes, and Chapter 2 in Arya

3

Oct 10 (Thu)
Oct 15 (Tue)

Energy budget near the surface: surface types, bare soil, canopies, water surfaces, applications


QUIZ (Thu Oct 10)

4

Oct 17(Thu)
Oct 22 (Tue)

Soil temperature and heat transfer: surface temperature, subsurface temperature, thermal properties of soils

Review class notes, and Chapter 4 in Arya

HW 1 (Thu Oct 17)

5

Oct 24 (Thu)
Oct 29 (Tue)

Soil temperature and heat transfer: theory of soil heat transfer, thermal wave propagation, ground flux
QUIZ (Thu Oct 24)

6

Oct 31 (Thu)
Nov 5 (Tue)

Air temperature and humidity in the planetary boundary layer: thermodynamic relations for dry and saturated air, static stability, nonlocal stability

Review class notes, and Chapter 5 in Arya

HW 2 (Thu Oct 31)

7

Nov 7 (Thu)
Nov 12 (Tue)

Mixed layers: concepts, properties, terrain effects

QUIZ (Thu Nov 7)

8

Nov 14 (Thu)
Nov 19 (Tue)

Wind distribution in the planetary boundary layer: geostrophic balance, frictional effects, stability effects

Review class notes, and Chapter 6 in Arya

HW 3 (Thu Nov 14)

9

Nov 21 (Thu)
Nov 26 (Tue)

Viscous flows: concept of viscosity, laminar and turbulent flowsequations of motion, laminar plane-parallel flows, laminar Ekman layers, developing laminar boundary layers

Review class notes, and Chapters 7 and 8 in Arya

QUIZ (Thu Nov 21)

10

Dec 3 (Tue)
Dec 5 (Thu)

Turbulence: instability and transition to turbulence, general characteristics, turbulence kinetic energy, covariances/fluxes, models of turbulence

HW 4 (Thu Dec 5)

11

Dec 9-13

FINAL EXAM, Monday, December 09, 2013, 1030-1220, ATG 310C