The media tends to focus on the occasional unusual weather or climate event. What causes the severe drought in Maryland? Tornadoes in Utah? Global warming? My sense is that the general public sees the atmosphere as constantly running amok. However, an alternative view is that the atmosphere is almost always in a balanced state from which deviations are relatively rare. Even when the atmosphere is locally out of balance, the forces of fluid motion tend to drive the atmosphere back towards a more balanced state.
This core course in the graduate curriculum lays the foundation for many of the courses to follow. The course focusses on developing a basic understanding for fluid motion in the atmosphere over the wide span of spatial and temporal scales exhibited in the atmosphere. For the most part, the atmosphere remains in a nearly balanced state. Deviations from the balanced state lead to the often violent instabilities associated with severe thunderstorms and rapidly developing mid-latitude cyclones. The physical principles responsible for the balanced state and deviations from it will be developed.
The course is structured in part based on the order of material presented in the text by Murry Salby. Course notes and handouts will be used to supplement the text in order to cover additional topics. Students are expected to spend time reviewing basic math concepts prior to or at the beginning of the semester. Notes can be obtained from me. It also will help to begin looking at the text as soon as possible.