This introductory course lays the foundation for many of the courses to follow in the upper division program.
The course is subdivided roughly into two halves.
The goals of the first half are to refresh and further develop the basic tools required for a professional in the f ield of atmospheric sciences. These include:
How to access and use weather information over the Web is first established. Then, the focus shifts to applying UNIX, Fortran, C, and Perl to solve problems related to the atmosphere. You are expected to submit assignments via email and grammar and spelling of ass ignments will be critiqued. The deficiencies of the average student's writing sk ills are noted frequently by prospective employers.
During the second half of the semester, fundamental methods used to measure basic atmospheric quantitites are investigated. Characteristics of instrumentation used to measure temperature, wind, moisture, pressure, and precipitation will be studied.
Each year I become more firmly convinced that the goal of undergraduate education should not be to fill you (the student) up with information that may become obsolete in a few years. The companion course (Meteo 3110) and this course should be considered to be fundamental ones to which you devote significant amounts of effort.
Prerequisites:
The following repeats the information regarding admission to upper division status. Students who have not completed the following courses will find themselves at a significant disadvantage with respect to those who have. There is some flexibility for those who are nearing completion of all of the requirements, since otherwise you would need to wait until next year to begin the upper-division course sequence. Transfer students are given a little more flexibility than those enrolled at the university for one or more years. If you have received a grade of C- or below in one or more of the following, this may be a precursor to a rough time in the next year.
(1) Math 1210, 1220, 2250, 2500 (Math 3150 may be taken concurrently)
(2) Physics 2210, 2220, 2219
(3) Chemistry 1210, 1230
(4) Computer Science 1000, 1010, 1020 (Unix)
(1) good Fortran, C, and Unix references (such as Unix in a Nutshell)
(2) general sources on weather that include comprehensive cloud photos e.g., Field Guide to the Atmosphere by Schaefer or the Petersen field Guide
(3) upper division level meteorology texts (Holton, Bluestein volume I).