Atmospheric Sciences 340 Professor R. A. Houze Updated: 21 January 2013*#

Instructor

Text

Class Calendar

Problem Sets

Tests

Current weather

Cloud Atlas

Skew T

Syllabus
Topics	Reading
Part I: Basic Thermodynamics Thermodynamics terms and conditions Boyle's and Charles' Laws--Ideal Gas Law Molecular weight	Wallace and Hobbs pp 63-66
First Law Joule's Law Heat Capacity	WH 72-75
Equipartition of energy Pressure-volume diagram for an ideal gas Isothermal and adiabatic processes	WH 75-77
Cyclical and reversible processes Carnot cycle	WH 93-95
Second Law Carnot's Theorems Entropy	WH 95-97, 100-101 Heat Pumps and Refrigerators
Clausius Clapeyron equation Partial Pressure Dalton's Law	WH 66, 97-99
Part II: Atmospheric Thermodynamics Composition of dry air. Apparent molecular weight Ideal gas law for dry air Hydrostatic Equation Geopotential and geopotential height	301 Thermodynamics Notes WH 67-69
Hypsometric equation Scale height Thickness	WH 69-71
Reduction of pressure to sea level Concept of an air parcel First law for dry air Dry static energy Dry adiabatic lapse rate	WH 72, 76-77
Static stability of dry air Inversions Gravity waves	WH 88-91
Potential temperature	WH 77-78
Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams	WH 78-79
Measures of water vapor in air Ideal gas equation for pure water vapor and for moist air Virtual temperature Hypsometric equation for moist air	WH 80
Saturation vapor pressure and saturation mixing ratio Relative humidity, dew point, and lifting condensation level (LCL) Moist adiababatic vs pseudoadiabatic processes First law for saturated parcel displacements	WH 80-85
Moist adiabatic lapse rate Adiabatic liquid water content Equivalent potential temperature	WH 85-86
Wet bulb temperature Normand's rule Wet-bulb potential temperature	WH 83-84, 86-87
Conditional and potential instability Level of free convection (LFC) Convective available potential energy (CAPE) Convective inhibition (CIN)	WH 88-93, 344-347
Part III: Cloud Physics Cloud nomenclature Cloud formation processes	301 Cloud Physics Notes
Homogenous nucleation of cloud droplets Kelvin's equation	WH 209-212
Heterogeneous nucleation of cloud droplets Koehler curves CN and CNN	WH 212-215
Growth of cloud droplets by condensation	WH 221-224
Growth of cloud drops to raindrops by coalescence	WH 224-230
Ice particle nucleation Ice enhancement	WH 223-228
Growth of ice particles by vapor deposition Ice particle habits	WH 228-241
Riming and aggregation	WH 241-245
Cloud electrification and lightning	WH 252-259