METR 215 Advanced Physical Meteorology- Lecture 1: Green-sheet and Introduction
Professor Menglin Susan JinSan Jose State University, Department of Meteorology and Climate Science
www.met.sjsu.edu/~jin
Outline of today’s lecture
1. Introduction and Welcome2. Discussion on the “greensheet”3. Learning Contract4. First glance on class roadmap5. Survey
New Class Schedule
For greensheet, class ppt notes, homework, reading materials
http://www.met.sjsu.edu/~jin/METR215.htm
About Professor
1.
2. to be an effective teacher
3.
www.met.sjsu.edu/~jin
Research projects: funded by NASA, NSF, Department of DefenseOn land surface climate change, urbanization, remote sensing
20 leading author papers on top journals
Goal of METR215METR215 discusses the fundamentals of
Thermodynamics Cloud microphysics
Aerosol-cloud interactionAtmospheric Electricity
ObservationsImportant papers
Content (see greensheet schedule)Part 1: Thermodynamics 1. The Gas Laws 2. The Hydrostatic Equation 3. The First Law of Thermodynamics 4. Adiabatic Processes 5. Water Vapor in Air 6. Static Stability 7. The Second Law of Thermodynamics Part 2: CLOUD Macrophysics and Microphysics
Cloud Modeling Part 3: Atmospheric Aerosols
Part 4. Lightning and Atmospheric Electricity
Book and Reading:
•1988 A Short Course in Cloud Physics by Rogers and Yau (Required)
•2006 Wallace and Hobbs Atmospheric Science (Recommended)
• more materials will be assigned on webpage/homework/class
Lecture Hour:
TTh 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM (to be changed!)Place: DH615
Office Hour: 10:30 PM‐11:30 PM, Wednesday12:00-13:00 Tuesday
Place: MSJ’s Office (DH621)
METR215
•I will meet with you for extra office hour whenever you need. •send email for appointment.
Homework: 20%Midterm Exam 1: 15%Midterm Exam 2: 15%Class Participation 5%Research Project: 20%
Final Exam: 25%Scale: 90+ A, 80’s B, 70’s C, 60’s D, <60 F
Homework will be assigned on Tuesdays in class collected in discussions on two weeks later.
Learning Contract
• Instructor– On time and prepared.– Answers questions.– Approachable and friendly.– Fair with assignments and grades.– Genuinely concerned about your learning and
intellectual development.
Learning Contract• Students
– Make every effort to arrive on time; and if late, enter class quietly.
– Preserve a good classroom learning environment by a) refraining from talking when other people
are talking b) turning off cell phones.
– Be courteous to other students and the instructor.– Aware that learning is primarily their responsibility.– Aware of universities policy on academic integrity
and pledge to abide by them at all times. – Have read and understand what plagiarism is and
know how to cite sources properly.
Academic Integrity• Integrity of university, its courses and
degrees relies on academic standards.• Cheating:
– Copying from another’s test, cheatsheet etc.– Sitting an exam by, or as, a surrogate.– Submitting work for another
• Plagiarism:– Representing the work of another as one’s own
(without giving appropriate credit)
Plagiarism• Judicial Affairs
http://sa.sjsu.edu/judicial_affairs/index.html
• Look at the Student Code of Conduct
• Read through SJSU library site on Plagiarismhttp://www.sjlibrary.org/services/literacy/info_comp/plagiarism.htm
• http://turnitin.com/
GreenSheet (see handout)
• Homework turn-in on time, will be stated in the homework, in general, 1 week after the assignment
• Class Participation
• Research Project
• Final grade
Let’s see where this class stands in the big picture….
.
One World
Atmosphere Composition and Structure
Table 1: Composition of the Atmosphere
GasPercentage by Volume
Nitrogen 78.08
Oxygen 20.95
Argon 0.93
Trace GasesCarbon dioxide 0.038Methane 0.00017Ozone 0.000004Chlorofluorocarbons 0.00000002Water vapor Highly variable
(0-4%)
Vertical Layers of the Lower Atmosphere
Pressure in the Atmosphere
•Atmospheric pressure can be imagined as the weight of the overlying column of air. •pressure decreases exponentially with altitude.
•but 80 percent of the atmosphere’s mass is contained within the 18 km closest to the surface.
•measured in millibars (mb)
•At sea level, pressure ranges from about 960 to 1,050 mb, with an average of 1,013 mb.
Observed temperature changes
1992-93Cooling due toMt. Pinatubo
Warming due to El Niño
Cooling due to La Niño
Although both nitrogen and oxygen are essential to human life on the planet, they have little effect on weather and other atmospheric processes.
The variable components, which make up far less than 1 percent of the atmosphere, have a much greater influence on both short-term weather and long-term climate. For example, variations in water vapor in the atmosphere are familiar to us as relative humidity.
Water vapor, CO2, CH4, N2O, and SO2 all have an important property: they absorb heat emitted by the earth and thus warm the atmosphere, creating what we call the "greenhouse effect." Without these so-called greenhouse gases, the surface of the earth would be about 30 degrees Celsius cooler - too cold for life to exist as we know it.
Global warming, on the other hand, is a separate process that can be caused by increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
1. Evaporation, transpiration (plants)
2. Atmospheric transport (vapor)
3. Condensation (liquid water, ice)
4. Precipitation
5. Surface transport (continental rivers, aquifers and ocean currents)
Earth’s Hydrological Cycle - Schematic
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
Clouds - The “Wet” Aerosol
• A cloud definition: visible suspension of water and/or ice particles in the atmosphere.
– Key word is visible, but not quantitative. Example, “sub-visual cirrus” (observed through non-visible, non-passive sensors/imagers or lidars).
• Cloud physics: branch of physical meteorology, study of cloud formation (macrophysical & microphysical), lifecycles, precipitation, radiation, etc.
– Macrophysical: larger scale spatial information, total/column water amounts, etc.
– Microphysical: thermodynamic phase, size distribution, ice particle shape (habit), water content, etc.
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
Why Clouds?• Weather
– Dynamics: Latent heat and/or radiative effects impacting atmospheric stability/instability, atmospheric heating/cooling
– Radiation (e.g., surface heating)
• Chemical processes
• Climate– General circulation– Hydrological cycle– Radiation budget
Clouds are a critical component of climate models (for reasons cited above) and therefore also to climate change studies
• Not well-represented in climate models• Climate change: cloud-climate feedback, cloud-aerosol
interactions (to be discussed), etc.
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
Earth’s Radiation Budget - Schematic
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
Cloud-aerosol interactions ex.: ship tracks (27 Jan. 2003, N. Atlantic)
MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)
Cold front - steep frontal slopes
Warm front - shallow frontal slopes
Convective development (mesoscale, local)
Synoptic development
PHYS 622 - Clouds, spring ‘04, lect. 1, Platnick
Review of Basic Concepts –see handout
• System• Surroundings• Open system • Close system• Property of System• State of System • Extensive property• Intensive property• Homogeneous system• Heterogeneous system• Equilibrium