MPO 663 (Convective and Mesoscale Meteorology), Spring 2011

Course preliminaries: grading expectations; books and other materials

Weather briefing wiki page

Loose ends and lingering questions wiki page

--------The course: 27 class sessions, in 3 Parts ---------

Part I. Moist convection in 0D (thermo) and 1D - 1.5D (parcel ascent; and then 1D convecting layers)

Part I has one problem set involving thermo computations.
On course Wiki-HW1. Due date: Feb 28.

Class topics:

    1. Weds Jan 19 : Course basics and review of skew-T (M&R 2.6; Comet "skew-T mastery") (Sil's notes)
    2. Mon Jan 24: More moist thermodynamics (Sil's notes)
    3. Wed Jan 26: The w equation, buoyancy and pressure (M&R 2.5, 3.1) (Briefing ppt) (Sil Notes)
    4. Mon Jan 31: Parcel processes: mixing & microphysics, conserved variables. Sil's notes (pdf)
        nice entrainment ppt.pdf from Alan Blyth
    5. Wed Feb 2: Cumulus dynamics stuff Sil's notes (pdf)
    6. Mon Feb 7: Buoyancy reversal & mixing in cumulus dynamics. Sil's notes (PDF)
    7. Wed. Feb 9: CuPIDO field program material ppt, time lapses
    8. Mon Feb 14: CuPIDO mountain-scale flow (in ppt); Convection Initiation (M&R Ch 7 figs) Sil's notes
    9. Wed Feb 16: Isolated and supercellular convection (M&R Ch8 figs - PDF, 12MB) Sil's notes
    10. Mon Feb 21: Supercells contd, and Hazards (M&R ch10 figs - PDF, 40MB!) Sil's notes
    11. Wed Feb 23: Courtney Schumacher guest lecture: mesoscale convective systems.

Radar: M&R Appendix figs

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Part II. Mesoscale dynamics in 2D and 3D

Part II has one problem set involving dynamics.

Class topics:

    12. Mon Feb 28: 1D view of convecting layers: Equation set (Boussinesq, Anelastic) Sil's notes
    13. Wed Mar 2 HW1 finality; Boussinesq TKE equation, PBL (M&R Ch 4), and mesoscale complications. Sil notes
    14. Mon Mar 7 Mesoscale equation solutions: gravity waves (M&R Ch. 6, 12, 3)
    15. Wed Mar 9 Thermally forced/ waves of adjustment gravity waves
    16. Mon Mar 21 Finish thermally forced gravity waves; Homework 2 (Wiki page) handed out
    17. Wed Mar 23 The near-f end of forced gravity waves: Sea breeze, US low level jet
    18. Mon Mar 28 Mesoscale instabilities - Markowski Ch 3
    Wed Mar 30 CANCELED (makeup?)
    20. Mon Apr 4 Fronts (M&R chapter 5, and frontogenesis -> Q -> ω in semigeostrophic system ppt)
    21. Wed Apr 6 Prefrontal squall line (from yesterday!), BryanParker soundings in squall paper.
begin multiscale flow/ turbulence
    22. Mon Apr 11 - Sil project. More multiscale / turbulence / predictability. HW3 - Fourier spectra
Powerpoint on Sac City tornado that destroyed my grandparents' farm yesterday.

    Wed Apr 13 - Multiscale "scale interactions and predictability" from large 34MB powerpoint file - bits and pieces
    Mon Apr 18 - Marcela project, Will project
    Wed Apr 20 - Zhujun project,
            AN ISSUE: spontaneous vs. forced convective/mesoscale. tornado outbreak vs. my roof leak this week. ppt
             Floriza seabreeze satellite movies http://www.ems.psu.edu/~nese/movies.htm
    Mon Apr 25 - Siwon project, Yumin project
        Summarizing whole course scope in 10MB Conv_Meso_scope_MPO663_2011.ppt
        See "spectral slopes in art" results at http://mpo663.wikispaces.com/Homework+3+2D+FFT
    Wed Apr 27 - David project, Roque project
Great satellite images of big tornado outbreak from NASA

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Part III. Multiscale flow, other topics

Part III has one problem set involving quantitative scale decomposition.

Stray topics:
    Scale decomposition: Fourier spectra vs. coherent structures.
    'Upscale' vs. 'downscale' development of mesoscale structure: cascades and spectral slopes
    Multiscale modeling
    Cumulus parameterization
    Convection-wave coupling
    Trade layer and troposphere as convecting layers (boundary layers)