Lecture Notes

Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modelling

Department of Mathematical Physics, UCD

Location: Mathematical Computation Laboratory (Opp. Room 30)
First Lecture: 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, 7th January, 2004.

Peter Lynch
Met Éireann, Glasnevin Hill, Dublin 9.

Overall Purpose of Course

To introduce students to the fundamental principles of dynamical meteorology and to describe the application of these principles to modelling the atmosphere. To provide an introduction to numerical weather analysis and prediction.

Specific Goals of the Course

To introduce the fundamental dynamical concepts governing the behaviour of the atmosphere and oceans
To derive a set of simple equations, the shallow water equations, whose solutions encapsulate the essential features of large scale atmospheric and oceanic motion systems
To examine the linear solutions of the shallow water equations, and to relate them to observed geophysical phenomena
To reduce the equations to a single principle, the conservation of potential vorticity, expressed as a PDE
To investigate methods of solving the nonlinear equations by numerical means
To introduce the rudiments of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP)
To investigate a number of specific processes (Geostrophic adjustment, Baroclinic Instability, Ekman Spiral, etc.) important in atmospheric dynamics.

PDF Files of Lecture Notes.

Notes for each Lecture are available in two formats

The Screen Version contains the slides as presented, one per page, with build-ups.
This is suitable for viewing on screen, but not for printing.
The Print Version contains the slides four per page.

Lecture 1: Introduction to NWP. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 2: The Continuity Equation. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 3: The Equations of Motion. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 4: The Shallow Water Equations. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 5: Steady Vortical Flows. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 6: Vorticity and Divergence. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 7: Potential Vorticity. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 8: Linear Wave Solutions. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 9: Mixed Rossby and Gravity Waves. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 10: Rossby Wave Packets. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 11: Numerical Methods for Time Integration. Screen Version . Print Version
Lecture 12: Semi-Lagrangian Advection Schemes. Screen Version . Print Version

Recommended Books:

Basic theory of Atmospheric Dynamics
Holton, J R, 1992: An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. Third Edition, Academic Press, 511 pp.
Numerical Weather Prediction Methods
Kalnay, Eugenia, 2002: Atmospheric Modeling, Data Assimilation and Predictability. Cambridge University Press, 364pp.
Additional Texts
Pedlosky, J, 1987: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics. Second Edition, Springer-Verlag, 710pp.
Haltiner, G J and T Williams, 1980: Numerical Prediction and Dynamic Meteorology. Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 477pp.

Additional Comments

As well as the formal lectures, students will be given reading assignments and selected problems. Problem solutions will be examined in tutorial sessions. Students will be expected to carry out about two hours of study for each hour of lectures. An examination will be set, based on the material presented in the lectures.