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  • Unit 0: Weather, Climate, and You [unit]

    • what is weather?
      • observed conditions in a location, like temp, precip, wind, moisture, pressure, cloudiness
      • basic of these elements of weather: units, measurement, relationships
    • what is climate?
      • average weather considering multiple (usually 30) years
    • why should you care?
      • even in the digital age, we are safer and more productive if we understand weather
      • human activities change land and air, affecting weather patterns
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  • Unit 1: Origin, Composition, and Structure of the Atmosphere [unit]

    • what differentiates the troposphere and the stratosphere?
      • temp changes with height
      • ozone concentration
      • air pressure and density
    • Is atmospheric composition constant?
      • permanent gases (mostly N2 and O2) are constant
      • variable gases (water vapor and GHGs) and aerosols are not
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  • Unit 2: Heat and Energy Transfer [unit]

    • Conduction: heat transfers through contact
    • Convection: heat moves via displacement
    • Radiation: heat is transmitted via oscillating magnetic and electrostatic fields
    • radiation is reflected, scattered and absorbed; when it is absorbed, it is converted to heat
    • While a great deal of radiation is emitted from the sun, Earth and its atmosphere are also important emitters
    • The proportion of received radiation that is absorbed by an object is described by its albedo; a “black body” is a perfect absorber with an albedo of 0
    • gases in the atmosphere absorb radiation of specific radiation, called absorption bands. These gases allow the atmosphere to warm, as well as the Earth’s surface (due to re-emittance and positive feedback looping).
    • Incoming radiation is stronger near equator than poles (due to angles through atmosphere and incident on surface), but emitted radiation is about constant over globe. This leads to net warming at equator and net cooling at poles. This is exacerbated by high-albedo snow and ice at the poles versus low-albedo oceans at equator.
    • Changes in angles of incoming radiation also lead to seasons.
    • surface warming begins after sunrise, when incoming radiation exceeds outgoing; similarly, surface cooling begins before sunset, when incoming radiation drops to less than outgoing. Along these lines, the peak surface temps come just before surface cooling begins.
    • conduction and convection mix surface warmth up into the atmosphere in daytime
    • conduction cools the lowest atmosphere in the nighttime
    • clouds flatten the diurnal cycle due to scattering incoming radiation and absorbing/re-emitting outgoing radiation.
    • water has a high heat capacity, making it slower to warm via incoming radiation
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  • Unit 3: Water [unit]

    • energy is circulated around the globe via latent heat, or the energy required to change phase of water
    • the amount of water that air can hold depends on its temperature. When air holds its max amount of water, it has reached saturation
    • The amount of water vapor in the air is called humidity. Relative humidity depends on air temperature.
    • When air cools, water vapor condenses. The temperature at which this occurs is called the dew point and it depends on the water vapor pressure. In other words, the dew point is the temperature at which the actual water vapor pressure is equal to the saturation water vapor pressure.
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  • Unit 4: Cloud Formation [unit]

    • clouds form when air rises, and correspondingly pressure decreases and temperature decreases until the temperature is below the dew point. Then water vapor condenses around cloud condensation nucleii
    • The height at which this occurs is called the lifting condensation level and can be calculated from the surface air temp and moisture, using the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the dew point lapse rate
    • air parcel lifting can occur via convection (when env. lapse rates lower than dry adiabatic lapse rates), orographic lifting (winds encountering barriers such as mountains), convergence, or frontal lifting
    • cloud height is determined by the starting air temp and moisture, and the moist adiabatic lapse rate and the dew point lapse rate. 
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  • Unit 5: Precipitation [unit]

    • water droplets supercool then turn to ice as pushed upward
    • in warm clouds, water droplets grow by colliding and coalescing
    • highest rate of coalescence (collision efficiency) comes when droplets are varied in size but not too disparate
    • In temps warmer than -40 C, water droplets need an ice nucleus to initiate freezing
    • ice crystals grow (by deposition) while rain droplets shrink because e_sw > e_si (Bergeron process)
    • ice crystals have vastly different shapes, based on temp, moisture content, turbulence, updrafts, etc.
    • hail forms when cloud droplets are suspended a long time and move throughout a cloud with varying temp and moisture characteristics, growing layers onto graupel
    • lake-effect snow occurs when water is warmer than land and winds blow a long distance (fetch) over water before converging on land and lifting to form precip
    • fronts and precip
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  • Unit 6: Wind [unit]

    • changes in temperature cause pressure gradients which drive winds
    • wind direction gets altered by Coriolis Force
    • When PGF and CF balance, winds are in geostrophic equilibrium
    • Centrifugal force alters winds around curves
    • Surface friction also alters winds
    • Local geography can also drive winds—sea and land breezes, mountain and valley breezes
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  • Unit 7: Global Wind Systems [unit]

    • Cyclones and anticyclones
    • Jet streams
    • Trade winds and ITCZ
    • Subtropical highs
    • subpolar lows
    • polar highs
    • easterly trade winds
    • mid-latitude westerly winds
    • polar easterly winds
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  • Unit 8: Air Masses, Fronts, and Midlattitude Cyclones [unit]

    • types of air masses
    • cold front
    • warm front
    • life cycle of midlatitude cyclone
    • overrunning
    • occluded front 
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  • Unit 9: Climate and Climate Zones [unit]

    • climate (average weather) is primarily influenced by latitude, proximity to ocean, and topography
    • climates can be classified by averages of weather observations (climatology) or by climate influencers
    • since vegetation is so influenced by climate, it is a good indicator of climate types
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  • Unit 10: Climate Change and Weather [unit]

    • what is causing climate change (focus on natural vs anthropogenic forcings)
    • how will climate respond?
    • what new weather will we see?
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  • Final [unit]

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  • Ungrouped

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While focused on a reorder icon, press the Enter key or spacebar to "select" the icon. While a reorder icon is selected, pressing the up and down arrows will change the order of the selected item within the list. Pressing Enter key or spacebar again will drop the selected item at that location in the list.