Basic Administration Details

3 sessions per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:15-12:05

Please keep the classtime immediately following ours on Monday and Wednesday (12:15-1:05) free. We will use extended times for speakers and presentations.

Sessions will be a combination of lectures or student presentations.

There will also be a couple of invited seminars.

6/4/98: Details of assessment (other than weights) have been updated. Please check on individual project sections for relevant assessment criteria.

Assessment

• 50 % First Assignment - LITERATURE SURVEY AND FINITE D IFFERENCING PROJECT

  This project will consist of a short written paper and the coding of a simple numerical model (a 1-D shallow water model). Begin by focussing on the work of one of the Japanese scientists mentioned in the paper by Dr John Lewis:

  Meteorologists from the University of Tokyo: Their exodus to the United States following World War II (BAMS, 74, 1351-1360).

  The final version of this project will include:

  1. revised literature review (see below)
  2. numerical model code and stability analysis (Note: if the stability analysis is not done adequately, it will be impossible to get an A on this project)
  3. a journal-style article, documenting

     

     the model (briefly, since I know it well)

     

     any changes to the model you have made (more detail needed)

     

     description and justification of (context for) experiments chosen

     

     discussion of results and

     

     conclusions drawn.

  A reasonable draft of the literature survey will be due on Monday, February 16. A completed Project One will be due by Monday, March 16 (Note change of date).

• 5 % Midterm exam - COVERS: (i) the concept of ``models''; (ii) components of a moist physics numerical model; (iii) finite differencing; (iv) overview of spectral models; (v) semi-Lagrangian techniques.

  This exam will be held in class on Monday, April 20.

• 40 % Second Assignment - GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL PROJECT ON PARAMETERIZATION

  This project will involve both a group (journal style) paper and a 15 minute individual presentation (formal conference talk with questions from ``the floor'') to the class.

  The focus of the project will be to compare and contrast the approaches taken to various parameterization schemes in a limited area model and a global climate models. The Penn State/NCAR mesoscale model (MM5) and the Community Climate Model (CCM2), as well as the GENESIS Climate GCM are all on site here, however you are not restricted to choices from these model suites only.

  Project Two talks will be presented between 6-15 April 1998. The written component of Project Two will be due on the last day of classes, however there are preliminary deadlines that must be met.

  Progressive Deadlines: The ``journal article'' (and assessment of contributions by the individuals) is due by 10am on Friday, April 17. All students will review all papers by Wednesday, April 22. We will have a feedback ``journal paper review'' discussion on this day. Those student teams wishing to act on these recommendations will be able to re-submit their papers again by the last day of classes.

• You should ensure immediately that you have a computer account and are clear on the basics of editing and compiling Fortran codes on this account. If you have any problems, see me before the end of this week.
• I strongly recommend that you become familiar with a Unix operating system as one of your goals for this course (if you are not already working on the department's new system).