old AOSC 620 SYLLABUS

AOSC 620

PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF THE ATMOSPHERE I

Text: A Short Course in Cloud Physics, Third Edition, by R.R. Rogers and M.K. Yau
(Pergamon Press, Elmsford, N.Y.), 1989.

Recommended: Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere, Finlayson-Pitts and Pitts, 2000.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Seinfeld and Pandis, 2006.

Professor Russell Dickerson
Room 2413, Computer & Space Sciences Building
Phone(301) 405-5391
russ@atmos.umd.edu,
http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~russ/

 

 

Course Outline FALL 2009

I. Atmospheric Thermodynamics & Convection
II. Chemical Thermodynamics
III. Kinetics, Steady State, Photochemistry
IV. Atmos. Layers & Biogeochemical Cycles
V. Aerosol Physics & Chemistry
VI. Cloud & Precipitation Physics
VII. Precipitation Processes & Radar

R&Y Chapters 1-4
Outside Readings
F&P Chapters 3-5
F&P Chapter 12
F&P Chapt 9; R&Y Chapts 6 & 9
R&Y Chapts 5 & 12
R&Y Chapts 8, 10, 11

8 classes
2 classes
3 classes
2 classes
4 classes
3 classes
4 classes




Lecture Notes
Caveat: For your convenience only - no guarantees of accuracy until the lecture is delivered!

Lecture 1, Thermodynamics of Dry Air

Lecture 2, Thermody of Moist air (2009)

Lecture 3, Chem Thermo

Lecture 4, Chem Thermo & CC Eq

Lecture 4B, Thermodiagrams

Lecture 5A, Saturated Temp Dfn's

Lecture 5B, Parcel Stability (2009)

Lecture 6, Mixing & Convection

Lecture 6B, Reactive Nitrogen

Lecture 7, Dry Parcel Theory

Lecture 8, Wet Parcel Theory

Lecture 9, Slice Method

Lecture 10, Bubble Theory

Lecture 11, Intro to Kinetics

Lecture 12, Kinetics Cont.

Lecture 13, Steady State Ananysis

Midterm Exam 2009

Lecture 14, Spectroscopy and Photochemistry

Lecture 15, Layers in the Atmosphere, Ozone

Lecture 16, The Ozone Hole

Lecture 17, Tropospheric Aerosols

Lecture 18, Tropospheric Ozone

Lecture 19, Nitrous Oxide, N2O

Lecture 20, Cloud Properties

Lecture 21, Cloud Nucleation

Lecture 22, Droplet Growth

Lecture 23, Population Growth

Regular Examination Dates: October 15, December 3.

Final Examination 2009: Thursday, December 17, 1030am -1230 p.m.

Course grade will be determined by:

Homework
Exams
Final Exam
Term Paper
TOTAL


15%
40%
25%
20%
100%

 

*For the first day of class: bring a thermometer, and read Chapter 1 in Rogers & Yao. 


Due 9/15/09 HW #1 problems 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, and repeat 1.1 for the atmosphere of another planet or moon.

Due 9/29/09 HW #2 problems 2.2, 2.4 (or 2.5); for 2.4 you may use a skew T diagram to estimate the constant and n to test for consistency. For the combustion of propane, C3H8, calculate the enthalpy of combustion, and the Gibbs free energy and entropy of the reaction at room temperature. What would be the equilibrium constant for this reaction if it were reversible?

Due 10/15/09 HW #3 problems 3.1 and
HW3 photolysis See Finlayson and Pitts or the JPL compendium (above) for cross sections and quantum yields.


Due 11/10/09 HW #4 Rogers and Yao Problems 4.3, 4.5, and 4.6

Due 11/24/09 HW #5

Lecture/Seminar on Soot

Old Final Exam

Nice Herry's Law Page from MPI

Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Studies from NASA/JPL

Ozone Criteria Document from EPA

2002 August 15 00Z sounding doc

2002 August 15 00Z sounding image


Prepared by Russell Dickerson & Z. Li (russ@atmos.umd.edu, zli@atmos.umd.edu ) - Last updated on October 29, 2009