Atmospheric Sciences 340 Professor R. A. Houze Updated: 27 December 2011*#

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Current weather

Cloud Atlas

Skew T

Syllabus
Topics	W&H Reading
Part I: Basic Thermodynamics Thermodynamics terms and conditions Boyle's and Charles' Laws--Ideal Gas Law Molecular weight	63-66
First Law Joule's Law Heat Capacity	72-75
Equipartition of energy Pressure-volume diagram for an ideal gas Isothermal and adiabatic processes	75-77
Cyclical and reversible processes Carnot cycle How a heat pump works How a nuclear plant works	93-95
Second Law Carnot's Theorems Entropy	95-97, 100-101
Clausius Clapeyron equation Partial Pressure Dalton's Law	66, 97-99
Part II: Atmospheric Thermodynamics 301 Thermodynamics Notes Composition of dry air. Apparent molecular weight Ideal gas law for dry air Hydrostatic Equation Geopotential and geopotential height	67-69
Hypsometric equation Scale height Thickness	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	72, 76-77
Static stability of dry air Inversions Gravity waves	88-91
Potential temperature	77-78
Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams	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	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	80-85
Moist adiabatic lapse rate Adiabatic liquid water content Equivalent potential temperature	85-86
Wet bulb temperature Normand's rule Wet-bulb potential temperature	83-84, 86-87
Conditional and potential instability Level of free convection (LFC) Convective available potential energy (CAPE) Convective inhibition (CIN)	88-93, 344-347
Part III: Cloud Physics 301 Cloud Physics Notes Cloud nomenclature Cloud formation processes
Homogenous nucleation of cloud droplets Kelvin's equation	209-212
Heterogeneous nucleation of cloud droplets Koehler curves CN and CNN	212-215
Growth of cloud droplets by condensation	221-224
Growth of cloud drops to raindrops by coalescence	224-230
Ice particle nucleation Ice enhancement	223-228
Growth of ice particles by vapor deposition Ice particle habits	228-241
Riming and aggregation	241-245
Cloud electrification and lightning	252-259