Announcements

7/5/98: Your final grades for this class [including progressive scores on each component of work].

22/4/98: Discussion topics for Friday's class.

15/4/98: Final schedule of classes through until the end of semester can be found here.

10/4/98: Preparatory reading and complete references for all of your Project 2 papers are given here.

3/4/98: Dates for Project 2 first presentations.

31/3/98: Assessment for Project 2.

3/4/98: Reading on climate model treatment of physical parameterizations is listed here.

31/3/98: Parameterization topics for Project 2.

27/3/98: Andy Jacobsen gave a presentation on estimation theory for data analysis.

24/3/98: We joined Dr Frank's convection class in their discussion of the Betts Miller adjustment scheme.

5/3/98: Professor Kerry Emanuel from MIT gave the departmental seminar entitled "Hurricane intensity: Observations, theory and models".
6/3/98: 11:05-12:30 he spoke to the class about adaptive observations.

19/3/98: Thanks to Bob Hart for acting as a programming consultant for Project 1.
11/2/98: The code lines in the main program around the choice of vortex or Rossby wave have been rearranged to incorporate the mean flow into the vortex environment. Check the code online to be sure your code is up to date.
6/2/98: The code was updated to include an additional option for the boundary conditions (bounding streamline), revised wall BCs and a new Rossby wave IC.

6/4/98: Professor John Molinari from SUNY (Albany) presented the departmental seminar entitled Easterly waves and tropical cyclogenesis on Thursday, April 9th.
On Friday, April 10th, Professor Molinari spoke on making the appropriate choice of deep convection parameterization for a given physical problem.

Outline of course structure and performance evaluation.
Course syllabus.
In-class readings.
Recommended reference list (starter).
Project 1 goals, expectations and timeline - COMPLETED!
Description of project 2 goals, expectations and timeline.

Purpose of the Class

Numerical models are extensively used as adjuncts to weather forecasts and as a tool for explorations of weather and climate on all scales. In spite of this pervasiveness in the professional realm of the meteorologist, we do not acquaint ourselves with this powerful tool. In this class, we aim to address this information gap by critically investigating the features and limitations of numerical models. The focus is primarily on regional (mesoscale) numerical weather prediction models, however much of the material applies to models on other scales. In the first part of the course, we deal with spatial and temporal integration techniques and stability analyses. Later in the course, we turn to the role, assumptions and limitations of parameterizations.

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Last Updated: 22 April 1998