Weather, Climate & Society

Lecture Notes

Introduction

Class Outline

Syllabus

Calendar

Lecture Summaries

Lecture Notes

Homework Assignments

Term Paper Info

Past Exams

Grades

Interesting Links

Instructor's Homepage

Lecture Notes

These notes are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. To obtain a free copy of this software package click here.

• Class Description/Syllabus/Calendar

Section 1 - Atmospheric composition and structure

• Atmospheric Composition and Structure
• The Missing Carbon Sink
• Seas and Soils Emerge as Keys to Climate By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, The New York Times, May 16, 2000.
• Stratospheric Ozone and the Thinning of the Ozone Layer
• PERSONAL HEALTH -- Yet Another Reminder: Forget the Suntan
• The Earth's Energy Balance and the Greenhouse Effect
• Atmospheric Pollutants

Section 2 - The atmosphere and the weather

• The Behavior of Air - An Overview of Pressure and Density
• Air in Motion
• Water Vapor in the Atmosphere
• Temperature, Humidity and Human Comfort
• Clouds, Cloud Development and Precipitation
• Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
• Tropical Cyclones and Hurricanes
• Normalized Hurricane Damages in the United States: 1925--1995 by Roger A. Pielke, Jr. and Christopher W. Landsea
• Lightning and Thunder

Section 3 - Climate and the General Circulation

• Climate Defined
• Urban Climate
• General Circulation of the Atmosphere
• Scientists Watch Cities Make Their Own Weather The New York Times, August 15, 2000.
• Causes of Climate Change

Section 4 - Climate Through Human History

• Reconstructing Past Climates
• The Pleistocene: The Age of Ice
• Climate and the Rise of Man U.S. News and World Report, June 8, 1992; by William F. Allman with Betsy Wagner
• Towards the age of Humankind - Figures
• The Climate of the Last Millenium

Section 5 - Modeling weather and climate

• The Coming Climate Scientific American, May 1997
• The Human Impact on Climate by Thomas R. Karl and Kevin E. Trenberth, Scientific American, December 1999