Prof. Tapio Schneider
NO G 55
tapio@ethz.ch
Office hours: Fridays 15:45-16:30h
Held, I. M., 2000: The General Circulation of the Atmosphere. Lecture Notes, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Available here.
Holton, J. R., 2004: An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. 4th ed. Elsevier.
Vallis, G. K., 2006: Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics. Cambridge UP.
Ori Adam
NO G 60
ori.adam@erdw.ethz.ch
Lectures
Wednesdays 13-15h, NO D 69
Recitations
Mondays 13-14h, NO D 69
General circulation of atmospheres: observations and nature of the problem. Angular momentum balance.
Surface winds, jets, and mean meridional circulations. Thermal wind balance and Ekman balance.
Vallis, chapters 1-2. Overview of observations (chapter 1 only). Angular momentum slides.
The role of vorticity mixing in the maintenance of surface winds. Barotropic flow on a beta-plane.
Held, Lecture 1. Vallis, chapter 12.1. Lecture slides.
Rossby waves, phase and group velocities, propagation mechanism.
Vallis, Chapter 5.7.
Rossby wave momentum fluxes; absorption in critical layers. Hadley circulation.
Held, Lecture 2. Critical Layer Slides. Schneider (2006), sections 1 & 2. Hadley Slides 1. Held and Hou Model slides (recitation).
Tropical-extratropical interactions. Hadley circulation.
Monsoons. Atmospheric stationary waves and prevalent weather patterns.
Monsoons slides. Vallis, chapter 13.1 and 13.2. Stationary waves slides
Shallow-water model: Potential vorticity conservation.
Vallis, Chapters 3.1-3.7. Held, Lecture 2.
Non-acceleration theorem, pseudomomentum, wave-mean flow interaction.
Held, Lectures 3. Vallis, Chapter 5.3.2.
Quasigeostrophic two-layer model: Baroclinic instability and general circulation.
Vallis, Chapter 6.6-6.8. Phillips (1956)
Two-layer model: heat fluxes, momentum fluxes, transformed Eulerian mean theory. Eliassen-Palm fluxes
Held, Lecture 4. Vallis, Chapter 7.1-7.5. Edmon et al. (1980).
Lorenz energy cycle and thermodynamic efficiency of atmospheres. Storm tracks.
Energetic effects of baroclinic instability. Direction of eddy fluxes.
Response of atmospheric turbulence and general circulation to climate change.
First numerical simulation of the general circulation with a two-layer model.
Charney-Drazin filtering: why only the largest planetary waves make it into the stratosphere.
Life cycles of baroclinic waves that become nonlinear.
Eliassen-Palm and potential vorticity fluxes and how to use them to analyze atmospheric dynamics.
Genesis and ray tracing of stationary waves and how they give rise to teleconnections.
Shows that waves dominating the momentum transport dissipate near critical latitudes.
Review of storm track dynamics.
Present evidence for weakening of tropical Walker circulation under global warming.
Review of ocean overturning theories and upwelling in Southern Ocean
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