ATSC 201 · Meteorology of Storms

Learning Goals

Aim

• This is a course on practical meteorology.
• It is designed for students and professionals in science and engineering who want to understand and use basic concepts, but who don't need to derive the equations.
• These concepts are demonstrated in the context of storms.
• This course serves both as a terminal meteorology course for science & engineering students, and as an entry course for atmospheric-science (ATSC) majors.

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Goals:

By the end of this course, you should be able to: 

• Enjoy the beauty and power of storms without fear.(Affective)
• Describe the characteristics and evolution of:(Cognitive)
  • thunderstorms (lightning, thunder, tornadoes, hail, rain, downbursts, gust fronts)
  • mid-latitude cyclones (lows, fronts, air masses)
  • hurricanes
  • general circulation (global climate, jet streams, Rossby waves)
• Use the following meteorological tools skillfully to diagnose the atmospheric condition:  (Psychomotor)
  • radar images
  • satellite images
  • weather maps
  • thermo diagrams (for temperature soundings & stability)
  • hodographs (for wind soundings)
  • Excel (for calculations and graphs)
• Forecast your local weather by looking at the sky, identifying the clouds, and using the meteorological tools.  (Psychomotor)
• Explain the role of dynamics (forces and winds) and thermodynamics (heat and moisture) in atmospheric processes and phenomena.(Cognitive)
• Relate atmospheric phenomena to the equations that describe them.(Cognitive)
• Reliably compute numerical answers in the face of missing data and mismatched units, and to qualitatively interpret the result.(Psychomotor & Cognitive)
• Defend and criticize meteorological issues (such as why perfect forecast skill is impossible for a chaotic fluid like the atmosphere).(Cognitive)

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Approach

• There will be lots of interaction with your classmates during the class meetings -- an approach called "peer instruction."
• Also, based on a couple warm-up exercises that you do online the day before each class, I will learn which topics you are having difficulty with, and will focus my lectures on those topics -- an approach called "just-in-time teaching."

This course is part of EOS-SEI, the EOS Science Education Initiative.

Instructors

Prof. Roland Stull

Textbook

Required are the FREE online textbook  and the FREE "iClicker Student" app for your cell phone or iPad:

• Textbook:  Stull, 2018: "Practical Meteorology: An Algebra-based Survey of Atmospheric Science".  https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/books/Practical_Meteorology/ 
• i-clicker: The "i-clicker" brand of personal response system has been adopted UBC-wide. We will use it extensively during each lecture. (We use the free app for your cell phone or electronic pad.  We don't use the old iClicker handheld transmitter.)

Lecture Topics