Lecture Notes
These notes will normally
appear 12 to 24 hours after class has met.
You should always read through them
even if you were in class.
They're often put together is a hurry,
so keep an eye out for typos.
May 05 - Last day of
class, information about the Final Exam, hurricanes
Apr. 28 - Tornadoes Pt. 2 damage,
lightning
Apr. 23 - Tornadoes Pt. 1
characteristics
Apr. 21 - Thunderstorms, gust
fronts, microbursts
Thermal circulations
- Optional reading
Apr. 16 - Surface winds in
the northern & southern hemispheres, water
draining from sinks & toilets; 3-cell model of
global scale wind and pressure belts
Cause of the
Coriolis force
Apr. 14 -
Newton's
1st law of
motion,
pressure
gradient and
Coriolis
forces, upper
level and
surface winds
in the
northern &
southern
hemispheres
Apr. 09 - Quiz #3 (music: Sigur Ros
"Festival",
"Gooan
Daginn",
"Olsen
Olsen", "Von"
Apr.
07 - Cold clouds, the ice crystal process, types of
precipitation
Apr. 02 - Identifying and
name clouds, precipitation producing processes
Mar. 31 - Condensation
nuclei, cloud in a bottle, identifying and naming clouds
Mar. 26 - Humidity
problems, drying moist air, the rainshadow
effect, measuring humidity, heat index, the
drinking bird?
Saturating the air with
water vapor - suggested reading
Mar. 24 - Realistic energy
balance on the earth, effects of clouds on high and low
temperatures, global warming misconception, introduction
to humidity variables
Spring Break
Mar. 12 - Quiz #2 (music: Playing
for Change "Groove
in G", Ballyhoo! "She
Wants to Destroy Me", "Overnight
Sensation", "Walk
Away", "Battle
Cry",
"Cali
Girl", The
Specials "A
Message to You, Rudy")
Mar. 10 - Light
emitted by the earth & sun, radiative equilibrium,
filtering effect of the atmosphere, the atmospheric
greenhouse effect
Mar. 05 - Electromagnetic
radiation, rules governing the emission of EM
radiation, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and
color temperature
Mar.
03 - Energy transport by conduction, convection, and
latent heat
Upper level charts Pt.
3 - Supplementary reading
Upper level charts Pt.
2 - Supplementary reading
Upper
level charts Pt. 1 - Required/suggested reading
Feb. 26 - Upper
level charts (brief mention), introduction to
energy and energy transport, measuring the energy
needed to evaporate liquid nitrogen
Feb. 24 - Weather changes associated
with warm and cold fronts, locating warm and cold fronts on a
surface weather map
Feb. 19 - Quiz #1 (music:
Andrea
Bocelli, Laura Pausini "Dare To Live",
Andrea Bocelli, Elisa "La Voce del Silenzio",
Elisa "Dancing"
Feb. 17 - Surface
weather maps, high and low pressure centers, pressure
gradients, warm and cold fronts
Feb. 12 - The
station model notation, Galileo thermometers and lava
lamps
Feb. 10 - Charles law;
forces that cause air to rise and sink; Archimedes
principle; Auguste, Jacques, & Bertrand Piccard
Feb. 05 - The ideal gas law,
Practice Quiz
Feb. 03 - Rate
of pressure decrease with altitude; air pressure pushes
upward, downward, & sideways; air
density changes with altitude;
principle of the mercury barometer; and troposphere
& stratosphere (maybe)
Jan. 29 - Mass, weight,
density, and pressure
Jan. 27 - Air
quality index, carbon monoxide poisoning, sulfur
dioxide & London-type smog, acid rain, particulate
matter
Jan. 22 - Air
pollutants, carbon monoxide, ozone and photochemical smog,
scattering of light
Jan. 20 - Origin
& evolution of the earth's atmosphere; oxygen
and ozone;
photosynthesis, stromatolites and banded iron
formation; trace gases and pollutants
Jan. 15 - First day
of class, composition of the atmosphere, dew point temperature