Atmospheric Sciences 501

Fundamentals of Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere

Professor Dennis L. Hartmann

Department of Atmospheric Sciences

This is a course on the fundamentals of hydrostatics, thermodynamics, radiation, cloud physics and atmospheric chemistry. This quarter we will place more emphasis on thermodynamics, since the other topics are covered in introductory courses for graduate students that specialize in dynamics, cloud physics, radiation and chemistry. So expect to get a quick overview of these subjects and then take a deep dive into thermodynamics, an elegant and important subject. A strong undergraduate-level background in physics and mathematics will be assumed, including differential calculus.