PHYSICAL METEOROLOGY (MTR 3440)

Metropolitan State College of Denver

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

SYLLABUS: SPRING 2008 (PDF here )


Time: MW 2:30 – 3:45 PM

Place: Science Building 103 (SI-103)

Instructor: Dr. Sean Davis

Office: Science 233-C

Phone: 720-381-1031

E-mail: seand@colorado.edu

Web page: http://atoc.colorado.edu/~seand/class/MTR3440/

Office Hours: M/W 4:00-5:00pm, or before class by appointment

Text: A Short Course on Cloud Physics, Rogers and Yau, 3rd ed.

This text will be supplemented with additional material.

Prerequisites:

MTR 3430 Atmospheric Thermodynamics

CHE 1800 General Chemistry

MTH 2410 Calculus II (Prereq. For MTR 3430)

PHY 2311 General Physics I (Prereq. For MTR 3430)


Exams and Grading:

Your grade will be determined as follows: Grading Scale

EXAM 1 25% A: 90-100%

EXAM 2 25% B: 80-89%

Cumulative Final Exam 20% C: 70-79%

Homework Assignments 25% D: 60-69%

Blog Project 5%


Homework:

Five problem sets will each count for 5% of the course grade. The due dates for each assignment are indicated above. Late homework will be assessed a 20% penalty. Because problem sets will be graded and discussed in class one week following the due date, no homework will be accepted later than one week late (before class).


Blog Project:

The purpose of this project is to develop your scientific writing skills by publishing a short (500 – 1000 word) post to the Head in a Cloud blog (http://atoc.colorado.edu/headinacloud/). The post should be a summary of a recent article (published in 2008) on a topic you are interested in that is related to class. I will provide more details on this project. It should be fun. Be creative!


No Credit (NC) and Religious Holiday Policies:

Complete descriptions of the NC policy and the procedures designed to excuse class attendance on religious holidays are available in the MSCD Student Handbook.


DATES

TOPIC

EXAMS & HOMEWORK

Part 1: ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION

Jan 23

Introduction, physical radiation laws, radiation units and terminology


Jan. 28, 30

Solar radiation and solar geometry


Feb. 4, 6

Terrestrial radiation, energy budgets

Problem Set #1 due Feb. 6

Feb. 11, 13

Absorption and emission processes, radiative transfer theory


Feb. 18, 20

Radiation applications: thermodynamics, satellites and remote sensing

Problem Set #2 due Feb. 18

Feb. 25

Review


Feb. 27


EXAM 1

Part 2: CLOUD PHYSICS

Mar. 3, 5

Properties of clouds, condensation nuclei, cloud droplet formation


Mar. 10, 12

Droplet growth by condensation


Mar. 17, 19

Initiation of rain in non-freezing clouds,

Problem Set #3 due Mar. 19

Mar. 24, 26

SPRING BREAK


Mar. 31, Apr. 2

Formation and growth of ice crystals


Apr. 7, 9

Rain and Snow, Precipitation processes

Problem Set #4 due Apr. 7

Apr. 14

Review and Applications


Apr. 16


EXAM 2

Part 3: ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS

Apr. 21, 23

Rainbows, sundogs, mirages, sky colors, etc.


Part 4: ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY

Apr. 28, 30

Lightning theory and detection

Problem Set #5 due April 30

Part 5: WEATHER MODIFICATION

Apr. 5, May 7

Snow enhancement, fog dispersal, hail suppression; inadvertent modification


May 12 or 14


FINAL EXAM (date TBA)