MAE578 Environmental Fluid Dynamics (Fall 2010)

Update of schedule & deadlines

* HW8 will be handed out on 11/17, is due 12/1 before class

* Last class is 12/6

* No regular office hours after 12/6; Meeting with instructor will

 be by appointment only.

* Term paper is due 5 PM, Monday 12/13 - paper version only; No electronic submission

* Term paper will be collected at instructor's office (ISTB2 219A)

 Monday 12/13 from 9AM-5PM (allow a lunch break). Early submission

 is welcome; please contact the instructor.

* Preliminary report/outline of the term paper is due 12/1 before class.

 Submission of this report is voluntary. The preliminary report will

 not be graded. Instructor will return the reports on 12/6 with comments.

Twentieth Century Reanalysis (V2): Summary

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.20thC_ReanV2.html

Barotropic vorticity equation:

http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~ross/Science/BarVor.html

A simplified form of the vorticity equation for an inviscid, divergence-free flow (solenoidal velocity field), the barotropic vorticity equation can simply be stated as[1]

where is the material derivative and

η = ζ + f

is absolute vorticity, with ζ being relative vorticity, defined as the vertical component of the curl of the fluid velocity and f is the Coriolis parameter

f = 2Ωsinφ,

where Ω is the angular frequency of the planet's rotation (Ω=0.7272*10−4 s−1 for the earth) and φ is latitude.

In terms of relative vorticity, the equation can be rewritten as

where is the variation of the Coriolis parameter with distance y in the north-south direction and v is the component of velocity in this direction.

In 1950, Charney, Fjorloft, and von Neumann integrated this equation (with an added diffusion term on the RHS) on a computer for the first time, using an observed field of 500 hPa geopotential height for the first timestep. This was the one of the first successful instances of numerical weather forecasting.

MAE578 Term Paper: guideline & tips

• Paper version of final report is due 5 PM, (Monday) December 13. No electronic submission.

Instructor's office (ISTB2 #219A) will be open from 9AM-5PM (allow a lunch break) on December 13

for collection of term papers. Early submission is welcome; please contact instructor.

• Deadline is firm. No partial credit for late submission.

• Report should be typed.

• Use equations when needed, but do not populate the report with extremely long derivations of

equations. The definitions of mathematical symbols in equations should be clearly given. To maintain

the flow of discussion in the main text, lengthy mathematical derivations can be collected in an

appendix.

• Avoid hand-drawn figures unless there is no alternative. All figures must have captions.

Tip: Be precise of what you are presenting. For example, a color/contour plot should be

accompanied by a description of the color scale and/or contour interval.

• Include key computer codes in the report. (This is mainly for those who choose to work on Topic 2 or

Topic 3.) They can be collected in an appendix.

• Suggested length of report is 15-20 pages single space, figures/tables/references/appendices included.

A slightly shorter report is acceptable as long as it is of high quality.

Tips:

(1) Be purposeful in your writing. Avoid writing in the style of a "laundry list".

(2) Avoid overstretching your results/arguments. When you make a statement, there should be

concrete evidence to back it up.

• Be diligent about citations. Proper credit should be given to original sources. "I got it from

Wikipedia" will not be sufficient! If you use a figure/table/computer code from a paper or other

published sources, a proper citation must also be given.

• Verbatim copying of others' writing is prohibited. If a verbatim repeat of a short sentence or

paragraph from a paper or website/public source is deemed useful for making your point, use a

proper quotation and give the original source credit.

• Discussion with peers is allowed/encouraged but the final report should be your own writing. If

you receive substantial help from a classmate, it is not out of the norm to express your appreciation

in an acknowledgment. This is usually placed at the end of the article. (This is not mandatory but is

between you and your peers.)

• A preliminary report/outline is due on December 1 (same time as HW8). Submission of this report is

voluntary but those who do so will receive comments from the instructor by December 6. The

preliminary report can be of any format/length (3-4 pages should suffice but anything from a 1-page

outline to a full-length draft of final report is acceptable). It is encouraged (especially for those who

will work on Topic 1) that the report includes a list of references.

• Use office hours or contact the instructor directly to resolve any technical issues.

For citing sources:

http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?start=#