UBC  ATSC 201 - Meteorology of Storms

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Week 10  6 - 12 Nov 2023
Monday (D1)Finish Homework from previous week.
Be sure your name, student number, and HW# are at top of every page.
Deadline:  Submit your HW electronically by the start of class, 2 pm Monday.
Morning
Midday
2 PMClass:
  1. During first 25 minutes, see slide show & mini-lecture on cloud identification.
  2. In the second 25 minutes, continue with discussion of general circulation, geostrophic winds, and the thermal wind relationship.


 .To refresh your knowledge about today's general-circulation topics, please re-read the following (from last week):

 S.Ch11.  p341 - 349.
Topic (in first 30 minutes): Tutorial on Cloud Identification.
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Learning Goals - Clouds
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Look at clouds and classify them into stratiform, cumuliform, or special.
  2. Look at normal clouds and identify/name them.
  3. Relate what you see with your eyes to what weather radars and satellites see.
  4. Be able to use high-dynamic-range (HDR) photography to take better cloud photos with your mobile device.
Topic (in last 20 minutes): General Circulation2: Thermal Wind.
Learning Goals - (Continuing unfinished parts from last week)
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Explain how each of the following dynamical processes works:
      a) hydrostatic thermal circulations
      b) geostrophic adjustment
      c) the thermal wind relationship

EveningReadings: 
  • S.Ch11., p354- 359, p 367 - 369, p 371 - 372,  p 374 - 378 (first 3 paragraphs of p 378)
Warm-up Questions:
Do quiz W10 D2 online on Canvas. 
Topic: Global Circulation - 3: Jet Streams and Rossby Waves
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Learning Goals
(Start now before holiday.   Completion will be on Monday after the holiday).
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Compare the driving forces of the subtropical jet and the polar jet.
  2. Explain how jet stream strength and location varies with season.
  3. Explain why the variation of Coriolis force with latitude causes the restoring force that drives the Rossby wave.
  4. Compare the speed of short and long Rossby waves.
  5. Look at a weather map of the mid or upper troposphere, identify where the jet stream is, and forecast the speed and movement of the troughs and ridges of different wavelengths.
  6. Synthesize all processes involved in the global circulation to explain why the Earth's atmosphere has 3 dominant circulation bands in the N. Hemisphere, rather than one big Hadley cell.
Tuesday (D2)
Morning
Midday
Evening
10 PMDeadline to finish warm-up Qs.
Wed (D3).
Morning
Midday
2 PMClass:
  1. Discussion & interaction on topics from readings (bring your clicker).
  2. Lecture on jet streams and Rossby waves.

EveningReadings: 
  • S.Ch12. p389-393, p397(starting at section 12.2.2)-402.
    Warm-up Questions:
    Do quiz W10 D4 online on Canvas. 
Topic: Airmasses and Fronts - part 1
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Learning Goals
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Locate on a map the favored formation region for the following airmasses near N. America:  cP, cT, mP, mT, cA, and explain why airmasses have favored formation regions at all.
  2. Contrast a ridge and a high-pressure center, and compare them to troughs and low-pressure centers.
  3. Recognize warm, cold, and occluded fronts on weather maps.
  4. Anticipate the weather changes associated with passage of each type of front.
  5. Synthesize you knowledge of clouds and fronts to be able to look in the sky and make a weather forecast based on the clouds that you see.



Thurs (D4)
Morning
Midday
Evening
10 PM Deadline to finish warm-up Qs.
Friday (D5)
Morning
Midday
2 PMClass:
  1. Discussion & interaction on topics from readings (bring your clicker).
  2. Lecture on Airmasses and surface fronts.


Evening
End-of-Week Numerical Homework Exercises.  
(Due at start of Monday's class, the week after Fall break.)
Homework 10:
S.Ch8 (use spreadsheet for all): A1e, A4e, A7e, A8e.

S.Ch11 (use spreadsheet for all): A11e, A22e, A23e.
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S.Ch12. (use spreadsheet for all): A1e, A7e, A8e, A11e, E21.  <--CAUTION, last exercise is E, not A.





Saturday(D6)
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Sunday (D7)
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Notes: The textbook for this course is Stull, 2018: "Practical Meteorology: An Algebra-based Survey of Atmospheric Science", available for free online, at  https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/books/Practical_Meteorology/ .

The reading and homework assignments use the following abbreviations to indicates various parts of this textbook:

Legend:
Ch = chapter.
A = "Apply" exercises.
p = page number.
S = Stull, 2018:  "Practical Meteorology" book (online).
s = "Synthesize" exercises.
E = "Evaluate & Analyze" exercises.