Synoptic Meteorology II – Mesoscale Research Group

Course Documents

Course Syllabus
The Principle of “Me Too”

Important Dates

7 March: Exam #1
11 April: Exam #2
13 May: Final Exam
(Monday, 10-noon)

All course materials are in Adobe PDF format. A free reader for PDF files is available from Adobe’s website and is included with recent versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Please notify me if you require assistance in obtaining such a utility.

Lecture Materials

January 22, 24: The Life Cycle of Mid-Latitude Cyclones (Cyclone Structure References)
January 29, 31: Frontogenesis and Frontolysis (Examples)
February 14: The Quasi-Geostrophic Vorticity Equation
February 19, 21: The Quasi-Geostrophic Height Tendency Equation (Examples)
February 26, 28: The Quasi-Geostrophic Omega Equation (Examples)
March 5, 12: The Q-Vector form of the Quasi-Geostrophic Omega Equation (Examples)
March 14, 26, 28: Cyclone Development in the Quasi-Geostrophic System (Application Material)
March 19, 21: NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK
April 2, 4: Isentropic Analysis (Examples)
April 9, 16, 18: An Introduction to Isentropic Potential Vorticity (IPV) (Constructing the Dynamic Tropopause Example)
April 23, 25: IPV Anomaly Structures and Impacts (Examples)
April 30, May 2: Impacts of Diabatic Heating and Friction upon IPV (Examples)
May 2: Contrasting the Quasi-Geostropic and IPV Frameworks (updated 8 May)
May 7, 9: Cyclone Development from an IPV Perspective

Exercises

Exercise 1: due Tuesday, February 5
Exercise 2: due Tuesday, February 26
Exercise 3: due Tuesday, March 12
Exercise 4: due Tuesday, March 26
Exercise 5: due Tuesday, April 2
Exercise 6: due Tuesday, April 9
Exercise 7: due Tuesday, April 23
Exercise 8: due Tuesday, May 7

Miscellany

February 28: Quasi-Geostrophic Height Tendency and Omega Equation Quick References

Resources

NCAR/RAL Weather Pages