This introductory course lays the foundation for many of the courses to follow in the upper division program.
The course is subdivided into two halves (Aug. 25-Oct. 13; Oct. 18-Dec. 8) with John Horel leading the first half and Steve Krueger the second.
The goals of the first half are to refresh and further develop the basic tools required for a professional in the field 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 assignments will be critiqued. The deficiencies of the average student's writing skills are noted frequently by prospective employers.
The second half of the course focusses on fundamental concepts in thermodynamics. Numerical methods used in the atmospheric sciences will be introduced and applied.
John Horel: "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. No matter what your career goals may be, you will need to have a firm foundation in computational science, applied numerical methods, and thermodynamics."
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).