Teaching
Introduction to meteorology and climatology [140531] (Fall Semester)
Introduction to atmospheric and climate dynamics, with an emphasis on fondamental physical mechanisms and applications in meteorological and climatological analysis and prediction. The course aims at providing Masters students, coming from different university curricula, a common background on the basics of the earth's atmosphere processes. Topics include phenomenology of the climate system, atmospheric thermodynamics and stability, atmospheric comvection, dynamics of large-scale motions, radiative energy balance, greenhouse effect, climate feedbacks.
Tropical meteorology and climatology [140575] (Spring Semester)
Just slightly less than half of the world’s population lives in the tropics, in highly densely populated, rapidly growing and socially vulnerable regions that are highly susceptible to changes in weather and climate on a myriad of temporal scales. This course will examine tropical atmospheric circulations that induce variations in tropical weather and climate from daily to climatic timescales, starting from the large-scale energy balance and moving down to cumulus convection. Topics include phenomenology of the tropical atmosphere, radiative-convective equilibrium, Hadley cell, the Walker cell and monsoons, equatorial waves, the MJO, El-Nino/Southern Oscillation and tropical cyclones.
Introduction to Climate Change [140607] (Spring Semester)
with Prof. Zardi and other guest lecturers
The course offers an introduction to the basics of climate change, which is arguably one of the greatest challenges humanity is presently facing., addressing the following fundamental questions: How does the climate system work? What do we know about changes occurred in the past, and mechanisms behind those change? How can we understand how climate will change in the future? What is the scientific basis of future climate projections? And what are the associated uncertainties? How can we assess the impact of climate-change mitigation policies at the global scale?
Numerical Modeling of Weather and Climate [ICAM0077]
with Prof. Giovannini
The course provides an introduction to atmosphere and climate modelling, starting from the governing physical principles, that are presented in the first part. The following parts of the course focus on climate, meteorological and dispersion models, introducing specific relevant topics for the different types of models, including parameterizations, initial and boundary conditions and ensemble modelling. The course offers both theoretical contents and practical exercises. The practical sessions consist in the analysis of data from climate prediction models and in two exercises on meteorological and dispersion modelling.
Teaching at Caltech
ESE 130: Atmosphere Dynamics (Fall 2014, 2013, 2015, 2018 Winter 2018, 2017, 2013, 2012)
Introduction to geophysical fluid dynamics of large-scale flows in the atmosphere. Governing equations and approximations that describe these rotation and stratification dominated flows. Topics include: conservation laws, equations of state, geostrophic and thermal wind balance, vorticity and potential vorticity dynamics, shallow water dynamics, atmospheric waves.
ESE 133: Global Atmospheric Circulations (Winter 2019, 2014)
Introduction to the global-scale fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, beginning with an analysis of classical models of instabilities in atmospheric flows and leading to currently unsolved problems. Topics include barotropic Rossby waves and barotropic instability; the quasigeostrophic two-layer model and baroclinic instability; conservation laws for wave quantities and wave-mean flow interaction theory; turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum; geostrophic turbulence; genesis of zonal jets; Hadley cell dynamics.
ESE 132: Tropical Atmosphere Dynamics (Spring 2012, 2015, 2018)
Phenomenological description of tropical atmospheric circulations at differen scales, and theories or models that capture the underlying fundamental dynamics, starting from the large-scale energy balance and moving down to cumulus convection and hurricanes. Topics to be addressed include: large-scale circulations such as the Hadley, Walker and monsoonal circulations, the intertropical convergence zone, equatorial waves, convectively coupled waves, and hurricanes.
ESE 135: Topics in Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics (Spring 2016, Fall 2016)
A lecture and discussion course on current research in atmosphere and ocean dynamics. Topics covered vary from year to year and may include global circulations of planetary atmospheres, geostrophic turbulence, atmospheric convection and cloud dynamics, wave dynamics and large-scale circulations in the tropics, marine physical-biogeochemical interactions, and dynamics of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation.
ESE 134: Boundary layer and Cloud Dynamics (Spring 2013) -- with JoaoTeixeira
Introduction to the dynamics of clouds and atmospheric boundary layers, from a phenomenological overview of cloud and boundary layer morphologies to closure theories for turbulence and convection. Topics include: similarity theories for neutral and thermally stratified boundary layers; dry convective boundary layers; mixed-layer models; stably stratified boundary layers; moist thermodynamics and stability; stratocumulus and trade-cumulus boundary layers; shallow cumulus convection and deep convection.
ESE/GE 148b: Atmosphere-Ocean circulation (Spring 2010)
Large-scale motion in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Effect of planetary rotation. Dry and moist convection. Gravity and vorticity waves. Climate models and parameteriziations. Dynamical aspects of El-Nino, global warming, and ozone hole.