Teaching

• Click here for one-page version of syllabus

Course objectives: Students will learn to derive from first principles and apply the fundamental equations governing the formation of clouds and precipitation to study various research topics related to weather, climate and climate change in this graduate-level course.  The first five chapters cover fundamental concepts that will prepare the student for the latter part of the course that will focus on the microphysics of clouds. 

Required course textbook: 

·      Roddy R. Rogers, M. K. Peter Yau.  A Short Course in Cloud Physics. Elsevier, 2nd Edition (hard copy available at the McGill University Bookstore; electronic copy available via the McGill Library Course Reserves).

Recommended textbooks (electronic copies available via the McGill Library Course Reserves):

·      H. R. Pruppacher, J. D. Klett. Microphysics of Clouds and Precipitation, Springer, 2nd Edition.

·      U. Lohmann, F. Luond, F. Mahrt.  An Introduction to Clouds: from the microscale to climate, Cambridge, 1stEdition. 

Pre-requisites:

·      ATOC315: Thermodynamics and Convection

·      MATH 314: Advanced Calculus

·      MATH 315: Ordinary Differential Equations

·      An exemption can be made with the permission of the instructor 

Evaluation:

·      4 Homework Assignments: 25%

·      1 Midterm Examination: 25%

·      1 Final Examination: 50%

Policy on late assignments, missed exams and regrading:

·     There will a 20% late penalty per day on late assignments. No assignments will be accepted 48 hours after the due date.

·     There will be no make-up exams unless a certified medical note issued on the day of the missed assessment is provided and the instructor has been notified via e-mail within 24 hours of the assessment. No medical notes written for past illness will be accepted.

·     Requests for regrading require a clear justification of why the request is being made within 48 hours of receiving feedback. All requests will be carefully regraded at the same time and could result in the same, lower or higher grade.

·     In the event of circumstances beyond the instructor’s control, the evaluation scheme in this syllabus might be required to change.  In such cases, every effort will be made to obtain consensus agreement from the class.

Office hours: Mondays 1-2pm, BH717

Format of examinations: Full solution questions, some short-answer questions

Academic integrity:

·     McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. 

·     Please review www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/

Expectations: Students are to spend a minimum of 8 hours per week outside of lectures on reviewing lecture material, homework assignments and preparation for examinations.

Course content:

Chapter 1: Thermodynamics of dry air

·      Atmospheric composition

·      Ideal gas law for dry air

·      First law of thermodynamics

·      Entropy

·      Tephigram

Chapter 2: Moist thermodynamics

·      Ideal gas law for water vapour

·      Clausius-Clapeyron equation

·      Moist air 

·      Thermodynamics of unsaturated moist air

·      Ways of reaching saturation

·      Pseudoadiabatic processes

·      Adiabatic liquid water content

Chapter 3: Parcel Buoyancy and atmospheric stability

·      Hydrostatic balance

·      Dry adiabatic/pseudoadiabatic lapse rates

·      Buoyancy force

·      Stability criteria for dry and moist air

·      Convective instability 

Chapter 4: Mixing and convection

·      Mixing of air masses

·      Convective condensation level

·      Elementary parcel theory and its modifications

Chapter 5: Observed properties of clouds

·      Sizes and clouds and cloud systems

·      Microstructure of cumulus and stratiform clouds

·      Moments of size distributions

·      Likelihood of ice and precipitation in clouds

Chapter 6: Formation of cloud droplets

·      Kelvin’s Equation and Raoult’s Law

·      Kohler Theory

·      Cloud condensation nuclei 

Chapter 7: Droplet growth by condensation

·      Fick’s Laws

·      Diffusional growth of a droplet

·      Growth of a population of cloud droplets

·      Corrections to diffusional growth theory

Chapter 8: Initiation of rain in nonfreezing clouds

·      Setting the stage for coalescence

·      Droplet growth by collision and coalescence

·      The Bowen model

·      Statistical growth: the Telford model, stochastic collection equation

·      Condensation plus stochastic coalescence

·      Effects of turbulence on collisions and coalescence

Chapter 9: Formation and growth of ice crystals

·      Homogeneous nucleation of the ice phase

·      Ice-nucleating particles; modes of ice nucleation

·      Growth by accretion

·      Ice crystal process vs coalescence

·      Secondary ice production 

·      Physics of hail growth

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• Click here for one-page version of syllabus

Course objectives: This course serves as a basic introduction to atmospheric sciences, primarily for non-majors.  Students will understand and describe qualitatively in an intuitive way (and quantitatively in limited cases) basic concepts in meteorology and everyday atmospheric phenomena such as large and small-scale winds and the formation of clouds and precipitation.  

Recommended course textbook: C. Donald Ahrens, Peter L. Jackson, Christine E. J. Jackson. Meteorology Today: an introduction to weather, climate and the environment, 2nd Canadian Edition (hard and electronic copies available at the McGill University Bookstore).

Pre-requisites: CEGEP mathematics 

Evaluation:

·      4 Homework Assignments: 25%

·      1 Midterm Examination: 25%

·      1 Final Examination: 50%

Policy on late assignments, missed exams, and regrading:

·     There will a 10% late penalty per day on late assignments. No assignments will be accepted 5 days after the due date.

·     There will be no make-up exams unless a certified medical note issued on the day of the missed assessment is provided and the instructor has been notified via e-mail within 24 hours of the assessment. No medical notes written for past illness will be accepted.

·     Requests for regrading require a clear justification of why the request is being made within 48 hours of receiving feedback. All requests will be carefully regraded at the same time and could result in the same, lower or higher grade.

·     In the event of circumstances beyond the instructor’s control, the evaluation scheme in this syllabus might be required to change.  In such cases, every effort will be made to obtain consensus agreement from the class.

Teaching assistants: 

1)    Yan-Ting Chen

2)    Juliann Wray

3)    Qiurun Yu

Teaching assistant-led office hours: Mondays 1-2pm, BH717

Format of examinations: multiple choice questions, short-answer questions, simple calculation questions

Academic integrity:

·     McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. 

·     Please review www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/

Expectations: Students are to spend a minimum of 6 hours per week outside of lectures on reviewing lecture material, homework assignments and preparation for examinations.

Course content:

Chapter 1: The earth and its atmosphere

·      Composition

·      Vertical structure/lapse rates

·      Air pressure and density

·      Atmospheric layers

·      Radiosondes

Chapter 2: Energy

·      Specific heat

·      Latent and sensible heat

·      Heat transfer: conduction/convection/radiation

·      Adiabatic processes

·      Radiation: absorption/emission, greenhouse effect

Chapter 3: Temperature

·      Why the earth has seasons

·      Diurnal temperature variations

·      Temperature inversions

Chapter 4: Humidity

·     Metrics: absolute humidity, specific humidity, mixing ratio, vapour pressure, relative humidity, dew point

Chapter 5: Condensation: dew, fog and clouds

·     Dew, frost, formation and dissipation of fog (radiation, advection radiation-advection, upslope, mixing, evaporation), cloud condensation nuclei, basic satellite imagery of clouds

Chapter 6: Stability and cloud development

·     Stable, neutral, unstable, conditionally unstable atmosphere

·     Causes of stability/instability

·     Cloud formation and cumulus cloud development

·     Orographic lifting, cloud streets

·     Cloud classification

Chapter 7: Precipitation

·     Precipitation formation: qualitative description of growth by condensation, collision, coalescence, ice crystal processes including nucleation, deposition, aggregation

·     Precipitation types: rain, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, virga, graupel, hail

Chapter 8: Air pressure & winds

·     Surface and upper-level charts

·     Coriolis force, geostrophic wind

Chapter 9: Small-scale and local winds

·     Land and sea breezes, anabatic and katabatic winds

·     Monsoons

·     Wind measurements

Chapter 10: Global wind systems

·     General circulation of the atmosphere, ENSO

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• Click here for one-page version of syllabus

Course objectives: The primary focus of this course is on the basic theory and practical application and interpretation of ground-based (first half of course) and space-based radars as well as passive remote sensing instruments (second half of course) for monitoring wind, clouds, temperature, humidity and precipitation.  

Required course textbook: 

·      F. Fabry.  Radar Meteorology: principles and practice, Cambridge (hard copy available at the McGill University Bookstore; electronic copy available via the McGill Library Course Reserves).

Recommended textbooks:

·      E. D. Conway.  An Introduction to Satellite Image Interpretation. John Hopkins University Press (hard and electronic copy available via the McGill LIbrary Course Reserves).

Pre-requisites:

·      ATOC 214: Physics of the Atmosphere

·      ATOC 215: Oceans, Weather and Climate

·      CEGEP mathematics

Evaluation:

5 Homework Assignments: 25%

1 Midterm Examination: 25%

1 Final Examination: 50%

Policy on late assignments, missed exams, and regrading:

·     There will a 20% late penalty per day on late assignments. No assignments will be accepted 48 hours after the due date.

·     There will be no make-up exams unless a certified medical note issued on the day of the missed assessment is provided and the instructor has been notified via e-mail within 24 hours of the assessment. No medical notes written for past illness will be accepted.

·     Requests for regrading require a clear justification of why the request is being made within 48 hours of receiving feedback. All requests will be carefully regraded at the same time and could result in the same, lower or higher grade.

·     In the event of circumstances beyond the instructor’s control, the evaluation scheme in this syllabus might be required to change.  In such cases, every effort will be made to obtain consensus agreement from the class.

Format of examinations: short-answer questions, simple calculation questions

Academic integrity:

·      McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. 

·      Please review www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/

Expectations: Students are to spend a minimum of 6 hours per week outside of lectures on reviewing lecture material, homework assignments and preparation for examinations.

Course content:

Part I: Satellites

·     Introduction to satellites

·     Basic radiative transfer: absorption, emission, scattering, Planck’s Law, Wien’s Law, Stefan-Boltzmann Law, radiative transfer equation, inverse problem

·     Thermal infrared imagery

·     Visible imagery, false colour imagery

·     4µm imagery

·     Water vapour imagery and soundings

·     Microwave radiometry 

·     Satellite imagery interpretation: large-scale and convective cloud patterns

·     Introduction to data assimilation

·     Other remote sensing instruments and applications: radiometers, GPS/GNSS, lightning detection

·     New satellite mission concepts

Part II: Weather radars

·       Introduction to weather radars: hardware, benefits and shortcomings

·       Radar displays

·       Radar equation

·       Z-R relationships

·       Doppler velocity

·       Dual-polarization radars, co-polarization

·       Radar imagery: Doppler signatures of widespread precipitation and convection

Click here for schedule

Syllabus coming soon