Lecture: George C. Craig
Wednesday | 10-12 | A248 |
Thursday | 12-14 | A248 |
Excercises: Kirstin Kober
Wednesday | 12-14 | A248 |
Goal of lecture
This course offers an advanced treatment of the dynamics of the midlatitude atmosphere, emphasising
the use of conserved quantities such as potential vorticity to gain insight into the behaviour of
the complex dynamical system that is the earth's atmosphere.
Course Content
1. Equations of motion and the quasi-geostrophic approximation
2. Balanced flow and potential vorticity
3. Time-evolution and secondary circulation
4. Rossby waves and baroclinic instability
5. Turbulence and predictability
References
General Reference:
Vallis, G.K., Atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics (Cambridge University Press)
Simple treatment with lots of physical examples:
Jonathan Martin: Mid-Latitude Atmospheric Dynamics. Wiley, 2006
Supplementary material, emphasising links to theoretical physics:
Salmon, R., Lectures on geophysical fluid dynamics (Oxford University Press)
Supplementary material, emphasising mathematical rigour:
Majda, A., Introduction to PDEs and waves for the atmosphere and ocean (American Mathematical Society)
German language:
Etling, D., Theoretische Meteorologie: Eine Einführung (Springer Verlag)
Lexture Notes
A first draft of a script is available. Warning: there are still many errors! |
Papers referred to in lectures |
Thorncroft et al.: Baroclinic Lifecycles
Ahmadi-Givi et al.: PV Analysis of a Cyclone
Slides used in lectures |