Introduction to Atmospheric Science

1 Page 1 of 120 4 Jan 2011 Introduction to Atmospheric Science Summary of notes and materials related to University of Washington introductory course Atm S 301, taught Fall 2010 by Professor Robert A. Houze (RAH), and compiled by Michael C. McGoodwin (MCM). Content last updated 1/4/2011 Table of Contents Introduction .. 3 Useful Web Links and Abbreviations Encountered .. 4 Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Symbols .. 4 Global/Planetary or Synoptic Scale Earth Weather .. 6 Washington, North America, and Eastern Pacific Ocean Weather .. 6 Tropics .. 7 General Atmospheric Science , Weather, and Climate .. 7 Space Weather (Earth Solar Interactions) .. 7 Mathematical Symbols; Meteorological Coordinate Systems .. 7 Basic Facts about the Sun Compared to the Earth .. 9 Atmospheric sciences Introduction .. 11 Scope of Atmospheric sciences .

2 11 Major Subdivisions of Atmospheric sciences .. 11 Meteorology and Forecasting .. 11 Weather and Climate .. 13 Chemical Composition of Air (Fixed and Variable Components): .. 14 Atmospheric Scales .. 16 Atmospheric Layers and Relation to Temperature .. 17 Global Air Circulation and Winds .. 18 Jet Streams .. 20 Pressure, Flows, and Fronts .. 21 Atmospheric Pressure Variation with Altitude (Geopotential Height) .. 22 Atmospheric Pressure Variation with Latitude, Longitude, and Season .. 24 Upper Level Atmospheric Pressures and Flows; Atmospheric Tides .. 27 Fronts and Their Relation to Baroclinic Waves .. 29 Thermodynamics, Physics of Gases, Water Vapor, Lifting, and Misc.. 32 Skew-T, Log-P diagram (STLPD) and Other Thermodynamic Diagrams .. 32 Symbols and Constants Employed in Equations .. 33 Gas Laws, Equation of State (Ideal Gas Law), Boyle s and Charles s Laws.

3 35 Virtual Temperature and Equations of State for Dry and Moist Air .. 35 Hydrostatic Equation, Geopotential (z) and Height Z, Hypsometric Equation .. 36 Reduction of Pressure to Sea Level .. 36 First Law of Thermodynamics (FLT) and Specific Heats .. 37 Dry Adiabatic Processes and Potential Temperature .. 37 Moist Air Processes .. 39 Lifted Moist Air Parcels, LCL, and LFC .. 40 Stability of Air Parcels With Respect to Convection: U, CU, and S .. 41 Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) and Convective Inhibition (CIN) .. 43 Clouds (Unit 3) .. 45 Cloud Classification by Atmosphere tages .. 45 Selected Cloud Terminology: .. 45 Droplet and Ice Crystal Formation .. 50 Thunderstorms (Unit 4) .. 54 Atmospheric Kinematics and Dynamics (Unit 5) .. 55 Kinematics of Fluid Flow .. 55 Dynamics .. 56 Weather Prediction (Unit 6).

4 64 Radiation and Climate Change (Unit 7) .. 67 Page 2 of 120 4 Jan 2011 Basic Properties of Light .. 69 Radiation Quantitation (Radiometry) .. 70 Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) of Earth; Relation to Sunspots; Local Irradiance Pattern .. 74 Blackbody Radiation .. 76 Radiation for Non-Black Bodies .. 79 Climate Change; The Greenhouse Effect and Factors Which Can Modify It .. 79 Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and the Ozone Hole Centered Over Antarctica .. 83 Pacific NW Weather (Unit 8) .. 86 Precipitation, Rain Shadow, and Chinook F hn Wind .. 86 Washington Storms .. 87 Seattle Area Rainfall and Temperatures .. 95 Tropical Meteorology (Unit 9) .. 96 Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) .. 96 Thermocline, Walker Circulation, ENSO .. 97 Monsoons and Deserts .. 100 Tropical Cyclones, Typhoons, and 101 Glossary and Miscellaneous Mini-Topics.

5 107 Atmosphere Layers and Their Mean Temperatures: Standardized Temperature Profile: An average temperature profile through the lower layers of the atmosphere. Height (in miles and kilometers) is indicated along each side. Temperatures in the thermosphere continue to climb, reaching as high as (3,600 F) 2,000 C. 1 1 Atmospheric Structure (NOAA): (per NOAA) The precise model used in this graph is not stated. Page 3 of 120 4 Jan 2011 Introduction I have compiled this summary to assist in learning materials relevant to the introductory study of Atmospheric Science the subject of University of Washington course Atm S 301, as presented in fall 2010. This course is taught by Professor Robert A. Houze ( RAH ).2 Sources : The materials in this summary represent selected course-related concepts assembled for the most part from various Web sources as well as the lecture notes, the textbook, the assigned materials, and other books.

6 When I quote or paraphrase RAH, I am referring to his oral lectures, the excellent PDF outlines of his lectures which he has provided, and his website. I appreciate Professor Houze s remarkable expertise and his willingness to allow me to audit his course. 3 For students with password access, see also the professor s PDF class and Key Book Resources: The main textbook used in this course in 2010 is Atmospheric sciences : An introductory Survey (2nd Edition), J. M. Wallace and P. V. Hobbs, Academic Press, 2006. This is abbreviated below as ASI, so that ASI-7 is page 7 from this book. Professor Houze is a co-author of parts of this textbook s Chapter 8, Weather Systems , and the authors are or were UW Atm S professors (Prof. Hobbs died in 2005). The current course does not discuss a number of the chapters of this rather advanced textbook (some of which are used in a graduate level course, Atm S 501).

7 Specifically we did not study the following chapters or chapter sections in any detail: Chapter 2. The Earth system ; Chapter The Second Law of Thermodynamics and Entropy; parts of Chapter 4 (listed below); Chapter 5. Atmospheric Chemistry; Chapter 6. Cloud Microphysics; Chapter 8. Weather Systems, sections Extratropical Cyclones and Orographic Effects; Chapter 9. The Atmospheric Boundary Layer, and Chapter 10. Climate Dynamics. With one exception (a UW-derived weather map), no image in my summary comes directly from his PDFs. No assumptions are made regarding the ultimate authoritativeness of Web sources utilized such as Wikipedia, although I believe such sources can frequently provide helpful overview perspectives and links to more definitive scholarly materials. Note that links (URLs) shown in footnotes and elsewhere are live and can be followed by clicking on them in PDF documents such as this.

8 Prof. Houze also references for this course his own 1993 advanced textbook, Cloud Dynamics,5 The beginning student just starting out in Atmospheric sciences , perhaps struggling to make progress in Wallace and Hobbs, might also wish to look over a truly introductory college textbook in meteorology, such as C. Donald Ahrens, Meteorology today: an Introduction to weather, climate, and the environment 8th Ed, Belmont, California, Thomson/Brooks/Cole, 2007. in particular Chapter 1, as well as Chapter 1 ( The Butterfly Effect ) of James Gleick s excellent 1987 popular book, Chaos. 6 2 RAH webpage brief excerpts: After reviewing this textbook, I learned from Prof. Houze ~houze/ : At the UW Professor Houze teaches classes on cloud physics and dynamics, thermodynamics, and general meteorology.

9 His research interests are mesoscale meteorology, radar meteorology, tropical meteorology, precipitation processes, cloud dynamics, cloud microphysics, and storm Professor Houze leads a research team at the UW called the Mesoscale Group. He and his group have participated in many international field projects employing weather radar and aircraft in the tropics and Professor Houze's approach integrates observations, models, and theory, and utilizes data sets collected in both the tropics and midlatitudes. In 1999 .. tropical precipitation at Kwajalein Atoll .. and storms producing heavy rains and floods in the Alps in northern . In 2001 .. winter storms over the Oregon Cascades. From 1985-present, .. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite (TRMM).. He is now also on the NASA Science Team for CloudSat, another satellite that uses a radar to study clouds.

10 He is also on the Science Team for the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Program. In 2005, .. Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment (RAINEX) in which he co-directed flights of aircraft into Hurricanes Katrina, Ophelia, and Rita. 3 ~houze/301/ 4 ~houze/301/protected/Notes2009 ' 5 Cloud Dynamics, Robert A. Houze, Jr., Academic Press, 573 pp., 1993. Described as a graduate textbook. 6 It is unfortunate that textbooks have become so expensive, as otherwise it would in my opinion be useful to also use a textbook dealing specifically with meteorology, which is a major focus of this introductory class. Starting out learning meteorology using Wallace and Hobbs and Web resources was for me quite difficult. The Wallace and Hobbs textbook currently sells at Amazon for $50, whereas the Ahrens textbook is $100 at Page 4 of 120 4 Jan 2011 that he uses it in his 100 level introductory course.