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GFD II
ATM S 542

MWF 11:30-12:20, ATG Rm. 610
This schedule will be updated as the quarter progresses.  

Week 1:
The Richardson NWP experiment and why it failed.   The Charney, Fjortoff, and von Neumann NWP experiment.   The barotropic vorticity equation.   Linearizing the BVE.   Rossby waves.   Barotropic instability.

Readings: Review Vallis Chapters 1-5 (especially parts about the BVE would be useful for the first few weeks). Also Vallis Section 6.2.
Lecture 1/2 materials: 500 hPa height WV
GFS model 500 mbar heights and absolute vorticity
Peter Lynch's talk on Richardson's experiment
Peter Lynch's book
Lecture 1 slides

Week 2:
Barotropic instability.   Interacting edge waves.   Rayleigh criterion.   Fjortoff criterion.   Energetics.

Wednesday slides
Barotropic instability in the atmosphere (thanks to Greg Hakim) 1 2 3
Reading: Vallis 6.2-6.3.

Week 3:
Momentum fluxes of Rossby waves.   Pseudomomentum.   Geostrophic scaling the shallow water equations.   Planetary geostrophic equations.  

Reading: Vallis 5.1-5.2.
Review reading: Vallis Chap 1 for continuously stratified equations.   Vallis Chap 2 for spherical coordinates, primitive equations.

Week 4:
SW QG equations.  Continuously stratified QG equations.

Reading: Vallis 5.3-5.4.

Week 5:
PV thinking. Conservation and inversion. W-thinking.

Greg Hakim's isentropic PV/tropopause maps
PV thinking and omega thinking slides
Hoskins Q-vector paper
Hoskins PV thinking review

Week 6:
Rossby wave lab.  Q-vectors.  Test 1

Week 7:
Cyclogenesis. Baroclinic instability. Available potential energy. Charney-Stern criterion. Eady edge waves.

Week 8:
Eady model. Alternative models of baroclinic instability: two-layer, the Charney problem, nonlinear baroclinic instability.
5-18-11 and 5-20-11 slides
Cronin and Watts paper w/ baroclinic instability "weather maps" in the ocean
Muraki et al QG+1 paper
Rotunno et al paper with QG and PE baroclinic lifecycles

Week 9:
Energetics. EP fluxes, wave-mean flow interaction, and general circulation.

Reading: Vallis Chapter 7.

Week 10:
Ferrel cell and TEM.   Frontogenesis and ageostrophic circulations.  The semi-geostrophic approximation.   Effect of moisture on occlusion.

Final exam will be handed out on Wed June 1 and due Wed June 8

Week 10 slides: here.