Welcome to the course website for EASC10127 (the reduced version of EASC10102 for 2020/2021), Earth's Atmospheric Composition. It contains all the material you need to complete the course.

• We will explore the chemical composition of the atmosphere, with an emphasis on the troposphere that includes the air in which we live and breathe, and the surface processes and atmospheric chemistry and transport that determine its variability.

• We will cover the fundamentals of atmospheric chemistry (kinetics, photolysis, spectroscopy) so there is no chemistry pre-requisite to this course. The course is focused on delivering content using online material, in-class interaction and problem sets.

• We will make use of current news, as appropriate.

Course administrator: Mr Johan De Klerk (0131 650 7010)

Recent new items

Week 1: Introduction/course overview/atmospheric properties/simple models

Week 2: Stratospheric chemistry

Week 3: Tropospheric chemistry 1 - CO, CH4, nitrogen oxides, ozone

Week 4: Tropospheric chemistry 2 - ozone pollution, acid rain

Week 5: Tropospheric chemistry 3 - emissions & dry/wet deposition

Week 6: Tropospheric chemistry 4 - aerosols

Week 7: Biogeochemical cycles

Week 8: Air quality and human health

Week 9: Atmospheric chemistry and transport

We are using Jupyter notebooks for the computer labs. We have three one-hour lab sessions. No prior computing experience necessary.

School of GeoSciences Jupyter Service: https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/notebook/hub/home

Step 1: Downloading notebooks and data files

You will be able to download a personal copy of the notebook to work individually in class. You can can download these files from github:

"git clone https://github.com/paulpalmerlab/eac2023" or go to https://github.com/paulpalmerlab/eac2023 and download a zip file containing the code.

Step 2: Getting started

1. Download a local copy of [insert lab #].ipynb and relevant data files

2. Login into the GeoSciences Jupyter Service using your UUN

3. Click on "My Server"

4. Click on "Upload" and point to your local copy of the *.ipynb file

5. Click on blue "Upload" button to confirm

6. Click on the filename in your notebook list. This should pop open a new browser window

7. Read the introductory instructions carefully before working through the notebook.

PLEASE TRY TO COMPLETE STEPS 1 & 2 PRIOR TO THE PRACTICAL

Learning objectives of computing practicals

Overarching objectives:

• reinforce key concepts introduced in the lectures

• appreciate information provided by data and models

Specific objectives:

Laboratory 1 (Week 3): Orientation. E-folding lifetimes. Mass balance. [not assessed]

Laboratory 2 (Week 5): Interpretation of ozone trends over the UK. [assessed]

Laboratory 3 (Week 8): Atmospheric distribution of atmospheric CH4; comparing models with data. [assessed]

Practicalities

During 2021, all teaching staff will be online. The lead will:

• distribute a Zoom link

• introduce the computer practical by sharing their screen

• help with specific questions, which may involve you sharing your screen.

Submitting your Computer Practical Answers

Answers are due at the same time as your literature survey. Please submit the answers in the same document as your literature survey, i.e. page 1 computer practical answers, page 2 literature survey.

Lecture location and times:

For the first time in nearly a decade, both lectures/week will be taught in the same room: Murchison House MH_G.31

Mondays 1210-1300; Tuesdays 1510-1600.

Revision classes:

Depending on your group: Crew Building, Room 304 or Murchison House G.04

Weeks 3, 5, 7, and 9 on Tuesdays 1610-1700.

Computer practicals (NOTE DIFFERENT PLACES):

Week 3, Weeks 5 and 7 on Tuesdays 1510-1600.

• Week 3 - Murchison House MH_1.20 Open Access Computing Lab

• Weeks 5 and 7 - Murchison House MH_LG.01 Open Access Computing Lab

A summary of the 22/23 teaching semester 2 for this course is shown below.

Two computer practicals (each worth 25%) and a final exam (50%) will be used to assess the course learning outcomes.

• The two assessed computer practicals (set in Weeks 5 and 8) will be run during the course. Each will include a tutorial and assessed component.

  • The assessed component will include written responses to the practical and a 300-word literature survey that helps to put your responses into a wider context. They will be due the week after the practical has taken place.

  • The written responses to each practical and the accompanying literature survey is worth 40% and 60%, respectively, of each computer practical. In other words, responses to each practical is worth 10% of your overall course mark and each literature survey is worth 15% of your overall course mark.

  • Further details are available to address the 300-word literature survey.

  • Submit to Turnitin your computer practical answers and 300-word literature as one PDF document, e.g. page 1 answers to the computer practical, page 2, literature survey (following the formatting requests).

• The final exam is slightly different from recent years. It will contain two (equally weighted) quantitative questions. Past exam papers for this course (listed as EASC10102) include example quantitative questions (for 2020/2021 you can ignore the final short essay question). [Need to be on University network]

• Online pop quizzes (weeks 3, 6, 7, and 9) will supplement the formal teaching. These will be used as teaching aids and supported by compulsory revision classes led by a teaching assistant.

I use an inverted lecture model in which core (book-work) material is delivered on-line before the physical lecture that can then focus on understanding material, current science and problem solving (including computer practicals that do not require knowledge of coding).

I have used Tophat in the past as part of the course. Below are the relevant codes.

COURSE JOIN CODE: 216370

REVISION QUIZ JOIN CODE: 090639

• Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry by Jacob (Recommended)

• The Atmosphere: A Very Short Introduction by Palmer (Recommended as a short and accessible overview of the subject that puts this course into a wider context)

• Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics by Seinfeld and Pandis (Further Reading).