FALL 2004 ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES COURSES

FALL COURSE OVERVIEW (details below)

ATM 401/601 (3 credits) INTRODUCTION TO ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE
stacked with CHEM601
Instructor: Prof. Nicole Mölders

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3:30 p.m. IARC 319

Introduction to atmospheric science includes the thermodynamics and dynamics of properties of constituent gases, energy and mass conservation in the atmosphere, internal energy and entropy in dry and moist processes (cloud physics and cloud microphysics), water vapor in the atmosphere, static and conditional stability, non-internal equations of motion, hydrostatics, geostropy, and general circulation. Chemistry discussions includes thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetic processes in the atmosphere, role of photolysis and gas phase oxidation processes, heterogeneous and aqueous chemistry, origin of the ozone, layer, fundamentals of biogeochemical cycles (e.g., CO2, H2O, nitrogen, etc.). Radiation discussion includes solar and terrestrial radiation, major absorbers, radiation balance, radiative equilibrium, radiative-convective equilibrium, basics of molecular, aerosol, and cloud adsorption and scattering. Interactions of the global energy, water, and trace gas cycle are discussed.

This class is mandatory for all atmospheric science students (master and Ph.D.) as it provides the fundamentals for the other mandatory classes of the atmospheric science program.

 Prerequisite: graduate standing, fundamentals of calculus, basics in physics, chemistry or another related physical science. Students attending at the graduate level should be able to program in FORTRAN, C or another programming language, and apply plot software (e.g., EXCEL, idl, etc.).

For more information contact Prof. Mölders

ATM 688(1 credits) Atmospheric Science Informal Seminar

Instructor: Prof. Nicole Mölders

Wednesdays, 1:30-3:00 p.m. IARC 401

The Atmospheric Science Informal Seminar is a seminar series wherein ongoing research in Atmospheric Sciences is presented by the scientists. This seminar is the opportunity to get to know about newest research results, ideas and direction long before they are published in peer-reviewed journals. Presentations cover the broad range of Atmospheric Sciences and the links to neighbored sciences as they are required to answer questions on global variability, climate change, and assessment studies.

The full seminar schedule can be found at www.gi.alaska.edu/~molders/zeitplan.htm

ATM 693 Special Topics in Polar Climatology (1-3 Credits)

EARTH'S CLIMATE: PAST CHANGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Instructor: Prof. John Kutzbach
Dept of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The series will consist of 8 one-hour lectures followed by 1/2 hour discussions:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 p.m. at the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Elvey Auditorium
First lecture 9 September 2004 & Final lecture 5 October 2004

Summary

The lecture series will examine the history of earth’s climate as a complex system of physical and biological processes. Recent developments, documented by two centuries of instrumental records, indicate a high probability of man-made effects.  Model-based scenarios will be used to illustrate both the importance and the fundamental difficulty of predicting future climates.

Professor Kutzbach

 has been a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin Madison since 1966 and for the past 22 years has been the Director of the University’s Center for Climate Research.  He has served on numerous national and international committees and has received many professional awards, including the Milankovic Medal of the European Geophysical Society, an Honorary Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Fellowships from the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.

   This course can be taken for 1-3 credits as ATM 693 Polar Climatology CRN: 78400 . For details on the course please contact Dr. Untersteiner  (n-u@runbox.com).

ATM 693 (1 Credit) CLIMATE JOURNAL CLUB

Instructor: Dr. Valdimir Alexeev and Dr. Uma Bhatt

Friday, 3:30-4:30 p.m. IARC 319

The "Climate Group" is an informal meeting for researchers, Ph.D and Masters students to be held at IARC. The meetings will include both progress reports on ongoing research and journal paper discussions. New (including very raw) ideas, interesting articles, formal and not so formal presentations by locals and visitors will be on the agenda. Participating students will be exposed to a free format discussion of modern ideas in climate related disciplines. All students are encouraged to contribute and students taking the course for credit are required to lead at least one discussion during the semester. This may include either presenting a research plan, research results, or leading a discussion of a journal article.
The main interests include topics in: Climate dynamics, Meteorology, Oceanography, and Glaciology.

Pre-Requisite: Graduate standing

For more information contact Dr. Bhatt (907-474-2662)

Instructor: Dr. Gerhard Kramm

Tuesday & Thursday, 3:40-5:40 pm , IARC 407

The course Physics of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer mainly comprises the physics of the atmospheric surface layer (also called the Prandtl-layer) and the spiral layer (also called the Ekman layer). The balance equations for macroscopic systems are derived and discussed. Averaging procedures of Reynolds, Hesselberg, and Swinbank are explained and applied to derive the balance equations for turbulent atmospheric systems. Various closure principles of turbulence are presented and their pros and cons are discussed. Measuring techniques and the results of earlier field experiments are evaluated. Spectra of atmospheric turbulence are described, and techniques for analyzing time series data (Fourier analysis and wavelet analysis) are explained and applied to typical data sets. Buckingham's pi-theorem serves to analyze various similarity hypotheses (Monin-Obukhov scaling, Prandtl-Obukhov-Priestley scaling, Kolmogorov-Obukhov-Heisenberg scaling). The effects of surface properties and the energy conversion at land and water surfaces (including snow and ice coverages) on the turbulent state of the atmospheric boundary layer are pointed out, where, in particular, the interaction between the atmosphere and the vegetation-soil system is described. This includes also the effects of heterogeneous surface properties and the thermal stratification as well as orographic effects and boundary layer clouds. The pros and cons of various modeling techniques to predict boundary layer flows are discussed, and examples of numerical simulations are presented.

For more information contact Dr. Kramm (907-474-5992)