ATMS 534
 
REMOTE SENSING OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE SYSTEM
 
Spring 2006
 
Instructor:  Thomas Ackerman, Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
 
Meeting time: MWF 9:30-10:20, ATG 610
 
Course information:

Remote sensing is a natural follow-on from radiative transfer and involves translating theory into application. While it is often taught from a theoretical perspective, actual remote sensing is an interesting blend of the theoretical, the empirical, and the practical. We will begin the course with an overview of the theoretical, focusing on the features of emission and scattering that are useful for remote sensing. We will then move to a discussion of passive and active sensors, drawing primarily on ground-based remote sensors for illustration, but including satellite sensors as well. Because remote sensing is best learned by doing, each student will be asked to carry out a class project using data from a particular sensor or sensors. The idea will be develop a simple program that retrieves information from these sensors. The recently completed Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP ICE; http://science.arm.gov/twpice/; http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/wefor/research/twpice.htm) will serve as a source of data for the class. These projects will be an important aspect of the class and I will expect students to lead discussions on the instruments, as well as on the results. I hope that the sum of these discussions will lead us to a greater understanding of a particular event observed during the field campaign.

Course grading will depend heavily on the class project. Some homework may be assigned. There will be a midterm and a final exam. There will be no assigned textbook; journal articles will be the primary source of information.