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) |