GEOG 5921, BOUNDARY LAYER CLIMATOLOGY

Course Description and Goals

This course covers fundamentals of the energetic atmosphere-surface interactions, i.e. radiation fluxes, turbulent heat moisture and momentum fluxes, and subsurface conductive fluxes. The 'surface boundary layer' is the part of the atmosphere affected by energetic interactions of turbulence and radiation fluxes with the surface. Humans live in the surface boundary layer. Atmospheric pollutants are concentrated near the surface and diffuse into the atmosphere by turbulence regulated by daily and seasonal cycles of surface solar heating and depending further on surface properties. Large scale atmospheric motions are largely attributable to surface energy exchanges. Students will gain the conceptual framework necessary for an understanding of surface atmosphere interactions and their potential effects on weather development and human impacts.

Course Details

• Syllabus

• Schedule/Lecture PPT files
• Instructions for in-class presentation

How to prepare the presentation?

• Instructions for term paper

• Students’ in-class presentations

Some climate-related websites:

General

• NASA’s earth missions:

http://science.hq.nasa.gov/missions/earth.html

• NOAA Watch – NOAA’s All Hazard Monitor:

http://www.noaawatch.gov/

• El Nino Theme Page:

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/nino-home.html

• Hurricane Katrina

http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/

• Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC- 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Winner):

http://www.ipcc.ch/

• Climate TimeLine (Exploring weather & climate change through the powers of 10):

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/

Climate Datasets and on-line plots

• NOAA ESRL/PSD:

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/

• NASA International Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP):

http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov/

• National Hurricane Center:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

• NOAA AOML Hurricane Research Division:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/