Climates of the World ATM SC 3600

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Climates of the WorldATM SC 3600

• Instructor Steve Lack and Dr. Tony Lupo
• TA Dave Jankowski
• Web http//solberg.snr.missouri.edu/People/lack

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Outline

• Syllabus
• Defining the Class
• Atmospheric Origin and Composition

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Note

• This is not the same climates class that was
  taught previously, this will move a bit faster
  and cover a lot of material
• Those who have had Intro Meteorology will have an
  advantage as the first part will be some review
  of concepts
• There will be quizzes, some homework, and a final
  project
• I expect you to work, this is not necessarily an
  intro course (aka 3600 number)

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Syllabus

• Suggested Books
• Wallace and Hobbs Atmospheric Science An
  Introductory Survey, ISBN 0127329501
• H. Critchfield General Climatology, 4 ed.
  ISBN 0133492176
• G. Bigg The Oceans and Climate, ISBN
  0521016347
• W. Burroughs Climate Change A
  Multidisciplinary Approach, ISBN 0521567718

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Final Project

• To be done in groups of 4 (or 3) (Internal Group
  Evaluations will be done so dont be lazy)
• Pick people with similar schedule
• Counts as 25 of your grade
• 10-12 pages of textfigures do not count but
  should be included where appropriate
• Must cite your sources using your disciplines
  format, for meteorologists, follow AMS standards
• 16-20 minute presentations (questions are not
  included in the time interval) during the last
  week and your peers will have input into your
  grade with evaluations
• We may have quizzes over some presentations
  during presentations week, so make sure you are
  there

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Scope of this class

• The scope can be understood by looking at the
  class calendar in the syllabus
• The first 4 weeks should mostly be a review of
  Introductory Meteorology, taught by Dr. Lupo
• We will introduce some basic concepts of general
  circulation and atmosphere-ocean interactions for
  a couple of weeks then move to the focus of the
  classGlobal Climate

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Scope (cont.)

• We will go through each continent and identify
  the major climatic patterns of the given regions,
  we will mix in topics such as climate
  measurements and oscillations such as El Nino and
  La Nina.
• Depending on how fast we go through the course we
  may do a little bit of climate change in the last
  week of lectures
• Hopefully the final projects will shed light on
  other aspects of climate or go more in depth on
  some of the topics in class

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Some Questions to Answer

• Tests most likely multiple choice and 2- 4
  critical thinking
• Some questions to answer throughout the semester
• What is the difference between weather and
  climate, climate and microclimate, physical and
  applied climatology?
• What does the global energy balance look like?
• What does the water cycle look like?

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Questions (cont.)

• What is the three-cell model of the atmosphere?
• What are some of the main ocean currents and how
  do they regulate climate?
• Do tornadoes form in the Sahara, if so, How?
• Why does Siberia have the coldest temperatures?
• What are some of the winds of the world and how
  do they regulate climate in its specific region?
• Why is the United States unique for severe
  weather cases, where can we occasionally find
  severe weather throughout the world?

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Lets Start Answering

• Some definitions that we will come back to
  throughout the course
• Weather The present state of the atmosphere.
  Weather consists of the short-term (minutes to
  days) variations in the atmosphere.
• Climate The slowly varying aspects of the
  atmospherehydrosphereland surface system.
  Taking averages of variable in space and time
  over a month or more.

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Climate Terms

• Microclimate The fine climatic structure of the
  air space that extends from the very surface of
  the earth to a height where the effects of the
  immediate character of the underlying surface no
  longer can be distinguished from the general
  local climate.
• Dense forest underneath canopy
• Small River Basin
• Isolated Valleys

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Climate Terms (cont.)

• physical climatology The major branch of
  climatology that deals with the explanation of
  climate, rather than with presentation of it
  (climatography).
• Laws and equations governing large scale flow
• We will look at mainly climatography and basic
  physical and applied climatology.

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Climate Terms (cont.)

• applied climatologyThe scientific analysis of
  climatic data in the light of a useful
  application for an operational purpose.
• includes agricultural climatology, aviation
  climatology, bioclimatology, industrial
  climatology, and others

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Some work to do

• http//fraser.cc/
• Get some bad myths out of the way now
• Look over these pages especially, go to teaching,
  then to bad science
• Look over bad meteorology and the other links
  there, pay close attention to bad greenhouse
• The explanations to the answers to the attendance
  quiz can be found here

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Quiz Answers

• Question 1
• Clouds can form in the atmosphere because cold
  air cannot hold as much moisture (water vapor) as
  warm air can hold.
• TRUE FALSE
• Question 2
• The air flowing around the low pressure center of
  a large storm rotates
• a) cyclonically in both hemispheres. b)
  anti-cyclonically in both hemispheres. c)
  cyclonically in the northern hemispheres and
  anti-cyclonically in the southern hemisphere. d)
  anti-cyclonically in the northern hemisphere and
  cyclonically in the southern hemisphere.
• Question 3
• The greenhouse effect causes the surface of the
  earth to be warmer than it would have been in the
  absence of an atmosphere, because
• a) the atmosphere behaves like a greenhouse. b)
  the atmosphere works like a blanket. c) the
  greenhouse gases trap heat. d) the surface is
  warmed by radiation from both the air and the
  sun.

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Quiz Answers

• Question 4
• The basic cause of the greenhouse effect is
• a) the burning of fossil fuels. b) forest
  clearing in the Amazon. c) both of the above.
  d) none of the above.
• Question 5
• What is the stability of a parcel of air which
  is buoyant?
• a) stable b) unstable c) neutral d) undefined
  
• Question 6
• If you were looking down at earth from a weather
  satellite and your eyes could see in the infrared
  portion of the spectrum (say, from 8 - 12
  micrometer wavelength), then the warmest things
  (earth's surface) would appear brightest (white),
  and the coldest things (high clouds) would appear
  darkest (black).
• TRUE FALSE

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Quiz Answers

• Question 7
• The blue of the sky is caused when sunlight is
  scattered primarily by
• a) dust. b) nitrogen and oxygen. c) water
  vapor d) ozone
• Question 8
• Water draining from a bathtub or sink rotates
• a) clockwise in the northern and
  counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere. b)
  counter-clockwise in the northern and clockwise
  in the southern hemisphere. c) cyclonically in
  both hemispheres. d) in a direction unrelated to
  the hemisphere.
• Question 9
• A mirage is an optical illusion.
• TRUE FALSE
• Question 10
• On the (primary) rainbow, red is seen
• a) on the inside of the bow. b) on the outside
  of the bow. c) in the middle (between the other
  colors) of the bow. d) it varies from storm to
  storm.