Welcome to ATM 210 – Online in Fall 2020

Atmospheric Structure, Thermodynamics, and Circulation

Course Description:
This course is a technical survey of the atmosphere that introduces and applies essential principles and concepts from atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics, radiative energy transfer, and cloud and precipitation physics to describe and understand the processes that govern weather and climate.

Textbook: Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment, 12th ed. C. D. Ahrens and R. Henson

Web: Via Blackboard

Course Learning Objectives: By taking this course you will be able to

• Explain how atmospheric composition impacts the global energy balance of Earth's atmosphere.
• Understand and discuss the various roles of water in our atmosphere.
• Identify and explain the role of atmospheric forces in atmospheric phenomena at different weather and climate timescales.
• Evaluate the role of atmospheric composition, water, and atmospheric forces in real world examples of atmospheric flow.

Successful completion of the Fall 2020 version of ATM 210 course requires:

• Reliable internet access
• An environment conducive to watching educational video content
• Engaging in course content on at least a weekly basis
• A device with a camera for documenting assignments and other activities

Grading: A-E

• Homework problem sets (6): 30% (5% each)
• Homework will involve answering questions related to the recent course material, sometime involving calculations or longer explanations or activities. These will be due every 2 weeks.
• Assignments & Activities: 15%
• Assignments and Activities will include 3-4 mini-projects you’ll do on your own or via a small group discussion and be based on the weekly content. The dates of these are TBD.
• Course engagement: 10%
• On at least a bi-weekly basis, you are expected to upload, via a BB Journal post, documentation of your engagement with the course video content. See the course schedule for the bi-weekly periods of assessment and see BB for instructions about of these posts. Example scores out of 10: (10) well thought out, reflective update, (5) minimal content, but I turned something in, (0) did nothing.
• Quizzes: 30 % (top 10 of 12 used, 3% each)
• Once a week, on average, we will have a short ‘quiz’ of 5-7 questions. These will be online in BB, open note, and will cover the topics in the weekly course content. Your top 10 of the 12 quiz scores will be used in the calculation of you final grade, where each of the 10 quizzes used will be 3% of you overall grade. Quizzes will be open for 24 hours, but may only be submitted once.
• Final Exam: 15%
• The final will be cumulative and similar in question types and format to the quizzes. This will be a time exam with more details to come later this semester.

A PDF copy of the syllabus is avaialble here

Assignments

Links to PDF versions of the homework or in-class assignments are posted in Blackboard

Log into: Blackboard

Topics

Topics and notes from class will be posted on Fridays of each week, unless otherwise noted.

The tentative schedule for the semester is below:

Week	Dates		ATM 210 Topics	HW Schedule	Quiz Schedule
1	Aug 24–28		Welcome! Defining the atmosphere (Ch1)
2	Aug 31–Sept 4		Atmospheric density, pressure, & temperature. Atmospheric layers  (Ch1) & Energy transfer (Ch2)		Quiz 1 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
3	Sept 7–11		Types of energy transfer in the atmosphere (Ch2)	HW 1 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;	Quiz 2 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
4	Sept 14–18		Earth's global energy budget and climate (Ch2) & seasons and local energy budgets (Ch3)		Quiz 3 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
5	Sept 21–25		Controls of surface temperature (Ch3) & water in the atmosphere (Ch4)	HW 2 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;	Quiz 4 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
6	Sept 28–Oct 2		Dew point temperature (Ch4) & dew, fog, and clouds (Ch5)		Quiz 5 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
7	Oct 5–9		Atmospheric stability (Ch6)	HW 3 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;	Quiz 6 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
8	Oct 12-16		Atmospheric stability and clouds (Ch6) & precipitation processes (Ch7)		Quiz 7 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
9	Oct 19–23		Precipitation types (Ch7) & Atmospheric pressure and atmospheric forces (Ch8)	HW 4 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;	Quiz 8 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
10	Oct 26–30		Atmospheric force balances and wind (Ch8)		Quiz 9 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
11	Nov 2–6		Large-scale atmospheric circulation and climate (Ch9&10)	HW 5 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;	Quiz 10 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
12	Nov 9–13		Synoptic-scale atmospheric circulations (Ch12)		Quiz 11 by Friday @ 4:00 PM ET
13	Nov 16–20		Small-scale atmospheric circulations (Ch14)	HW 6 due by Thur @ 11:00 PM ET;
14	Nov 23–27		Bringing it all together.		Quiz 12 by Monday @ 4:00 PM ET
Finals	Nov 30–Dec 7		Date and time are TBA

Relevant links

Links you may find useful

Links of interest:

• The National Weather Service
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• NOAA Climate
• The National Center for Environmental Information
• The National Ocean Service
• The National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
• U.S. National Ice Center (NIC)
• The NOAA Satellite and Information Service
• MOSAiC Expedition in the Arctic