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.




Mon., May 9 - Final Exam (music: Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Dharohar Project "Meheni Rachi" (5:02), "Devil's Spoke" (6:24)  )

Wed., May 4 - Last day of classes, Final Exam review pt. 1

Mon., May 2 - Grade summaries, information about the Final Exam, Final Exam Study Outline, in-class course evaluation
Fri., Apr. 29 - Hurricanes pt. 2
Wed., Apr. 27 - Quiz #4 (music: Isabelle Boulay & Eric Lapointe "La Boheme" (4:08), Zaz "Sous le Ciel de Paris" (3:16),
                                         Vanessa Paradis & Benjamin Biolay "Le Rempart" (3:46))
Mon., Apr. 25 - Hurricanes pt. 1
Fri., Apr. 22 - Lightning

Wed., Apr. 20 - Tornadoes pt. 2, life cycle, enhanced Fujita scale & tornado damage
Mon., Apr. 18 - Tornadoes pt. 1, tornado occurrence and characteristics

Fri., Apr. 15 -
Thunderstorms pt. 2, life cycle, gust fronts, haboobs, microbursts; severe thunderstorms, mesocyclones and wall clouds
Wed., Apr. 13 - Water draining from sinks and toilets in the N. & S. hemispheres, thunderstorms pt. 1
Mon., Apr. 11 - Why winds blow the way they do pt. 2: circular H and L pressure centers, surface winds
Fri., Apr. 8 - Why winds blow the way they do pt. 1: Newton's 1st law of motion, pressure gradient and Coriolis forces,

                     upper level winds in the northern & southern hemispheres


Wed., Apr. 06 - Quiz #3 (music: Don McLean "American Pie" (8:33), "Vincent" (4:11) )
Mon., Apr. 04 - The ice crystal process, types of precipitation
Fri., Apr. 01 - Processes that produce precipitation, collision coalescence process, cold clouds, supercooled water
Wed., Mar. 30 - Satellite photographs
Mon. & Wed., Mar. 28 & 30 - Identifying and naming clouds
Fri., Mar. 25 - Measuring humidity, wind chill and heat index, the drinking bird, condensation nuclei, haze and fog, cloud in a bottle demonstration (maybe)

Saturating the air with water vapor - Recommended reading
Wed., Mar. 23 - Humidity variable example problems, drying moist air, the rain shadow effect

Mon., Mar. 21 - Humidity variables

Wed., Mar. 09 - Quiz #2 (music: Andrea Bocelli & Elisa "La Voce del Silenzio" (5:22), Elisa "Dancing" (5:16), "Rock Your Soul" (5:05) )
Mon., Mar. 07 - Factors that determine annual mean and annual range of temperature, a field experiment in the tropical Pacific Ocean

Fri., Mar. 04 - Greenhouse effect warming, global warming misconception, effects of clouds on daytime & nighttime temperatures
Wed., Mar. 02 - R
adiative equilibrium, filtering effect of the atmosphere, the atmospheric greenhouse effect
Mon., Feb. 29 -
Rules governing the emission of EM radiation, EM radiation emitted by the earth and sun, color temperature
Fri., Feb. 26 - Electromagnetic (EM) radiation, EM spectrum

Wed., Feb. 24 - Latent heat energy transport; static electricity, electric fields, and electromagnetic (EM) radiation
Mon., Feb. 22 - Temperature & heat, temperature scales, energy transport by conduction & convection, wind chill
Fri., Feb. 19 - I
ntroduction to energy and energy transport, specific heat, measuring the energy needed to evaporate liquid nitrogen (time permitting)

Wed., Feb. 17 - Quiz #1 (music: First Aid Kit "Heavy Storm" (3:23), "Cedar Lane" (5:09), "When I Grow Up" (3:36),
                                         "Winter is All Over You" (3:40), "Emmylou" (4:24)
Upper level charts pt. 3 - Supplementary reading
Upper level charts pt. 2 - Supplementary reading
Upper level charts pt. 1 -"Required" reading

Mon., Feb. 15 - 3D structure of warm fronts, locating a warm front on a surface weather map, brief introduction to upper-level charts
Fri., Feb. 12 - Fronts and the weather they bring, 3-D structure of cold fronts, locating a cold front on a surface weather maps
Wed., Feb. 10 -
Surface weather maps, isobars & isotherms,  high & low pressure centers, pressure gradients, warm & cold fronts
Mon., Feb. 8 - The station model notation used to plot weather data on surface weather maps

Fri., Feb. 5 - Rising & sinking air, Charles' Law, vertical forces acting on air parcels, Archimedes principle, Galileo thermometer

Wed., Feb. 3 - Changes in air temperature with altitude - troposphere & stratosphere; Auguste, Jacques, & Bertrand Piccard; Practice Quiz
Mon., Feb. 1 - Air density changes with altitude, the ideal gas law
Fri., Jan. 29 -
mercury barometer; average & extreme values of sea level pressure; pressure decreases with increasing altitude; 
                      air pressure pushes downward, upward, and sideways

Wed., Jan. 27 - Mass, weight, density and pressure
Mon., Jan. 25 - Acid rain, particulate matter
Fri., Jan. 22 -
Tropospheric ozone & photochemical (LA-type) smog; sulfur dioxide, London-type smog
Supplementary reading - Air Quality Index (AQI), symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning

Wed., Jan. 20 - Trace gases in the atmosphere and air pollutants, carbon monoxide, light scattering
Fri., Jan. 15 - Dew point temperature & the summer monsoon, origin and evolution of the earth's atmosphere
Wed., Jan. 13
First day of class, composition of the atmosphere and dew point temperature