AOSC 621 - PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF THE ATMOSPHERE II

Texts: Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean, Gary E. Thomas and Knut Stamnes, Cambridge University Press

Chemistry of Atmospheres, Richard P. Wayne, Oxford University Press

Lecturer: Professor Robert D. Hudson, Room 3421,

Computer and Space Sciences Building.

Phone 301-405-5394

E-mail hudson@atmos.umd.edu

The Department of Meteorology Web Site is www.meto.umd.edu

Lessons            Tuesday and Thursday, 11am to 12.15 pm, in CSS 1113

Office hours No set office hours will be posted. Students may come by my office at any time. If you wish to make a formal appointment send me an e-mail

The two textbooks listed above cover most of the material given in this course.. However, as AOSC 621 covers both chemistry and physics the course consists of selections from the textbooks. PowerPoint presentations have been prepared for each class, these will contain any material not covered by either book. The .ppt files may be found on my web page: http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~hudson/meto621.d/

            A schedule of the classes, homework assignments, etc can also be found on the same web site - AOSC621intro.htm . This schedule gives the material to be covered in each lecture. as well as the dates of the homework assignments . The homework assignments will be posted on my web site. In addition to the homework a project will be assigned at about mid-term.. There will be two exams, a mid-term exam and a final exam. 70% of the final grade will be based on these two exams, 15% on the project, and the remaining 15% on the homework assignments.

		METO 621 SCHEDULE, SPRING 2010
DATE	LESSON #	SUBJECT	READING	NOTES
26-Jan	1	Spectrum, radiative terms, Solar flux in UV VIS.	TS Chap 1, 1 to 16
		Thermal emission in IR. Optical line of sight.
		Atmospheric composition
28-Jan	2	Radiative Equilibrium and thermal structure	TS Chap 1, 17 to 29
		Radiative forcing and feedbacks
2-Feb	3	Geometrical optics. Polar coordinates	TS Chap 2, 34 to 45	Homework 1 given out
		Radiative flux
		Intensity and Energy density
4-Feb	4	Extinction law. Radaitice transfer equation	TS Chap 2, 46 to 53
		Lorentz theory for radiation/matter interactions	TS Chap3, 58 to 68
		Scattering from damped harmonic oscillator
		Resonance scattering and the Lorentz profile
9-Feb	5	Line broadening. Rayleigh scattering	TS Chap 3, 69 to 78
		Scattering Phase function. Mie and Rayleigh
		scattering phase functions
11-Feb	6	Planck's function. Absorption in molecular bands	TS Chap 4	Homework 1 due
		- vibrational and rotational levels. Ground state	Handout
		populations
16-Feb	7	Absorption in Molecular bands - electronic levels	TS Chap 4	Homework 2 given out
		Dissociation and Excitation. Photochemistry	Handout
		Line strengths.
18-Feb	8	Principles of Radiative transfer. Boundary	TS Chap 5, 130 to 146
		properties. Transmission through a Slab medium.
23-Feb	9	Absorption and scattering in Planetary Media.	TS Chap 5, 148 to 158	Homework 2 due
		Radiative transfer Equation for zero scattering
		Solution for zero scattering in slab geometry.
25-Feb	10	Gray slab medium in LTE. Formal solution	TS Chap 5, 159 to 164
		including scattering and emission. Radiative
		heating rates
2-Mar	11	Formulation of radiative transfer problems.	TS Chap 6, 170 to 175	Homework 3 given out
		Separation into diffuse and direct components
		Azimuthal dependence of radiation field
4-Mar	12	Scaling transformation for Anisotropic scattering	TS Chap 6, 177 to 196
		Prototype problems in Radiative Transfer.
9-Mar	13	Reciprocity, duality. In media surface reflection	TS Chap 6, 197 to 210	Homework 3 due
		Integral equation , Probability-Monte Carlo
11-Mar		Midterm Exam
15-19-Mar		SPRING BREAK
23-Mar	14	Approximate solutions of prototype problems	TS Chap 7, 217 to 247
		Separation into orders of scattering.
24-Mar	15	Two stream approximation - isotropic scattering	TS Chap 6, 248 to 263
		Discrete Ordinate method. Adding-Doubling	TS Chap 7, 281
			TS Chap 7, 320 to 323
30-Mar	16	Band models	TS Chap 11, 415 to 422	Project given out
1-Apr	17	Heating rates in the troposphere	Handout
6-Apr	18	Upwelling and downwelling intensities and flux	Handout	Homework 4 given out
		for the thermal infra-red. Effects of clouds
8-Apr	19	Role of Radiation in Climate	TS Chap 12, 438 to 450
		Radiative equilibrium with zero visible opacity
		Radiative equilibrium with finite visible opacity
13-Apr	20	Photochemistry, adiabatic processes,	RW Chap 2, 95-135	Homework 4 due
		Chemical kinetics
15-Apr	21	Multistep reaction schemes, Models	RW Chap 2, 136-147
		Stratosphee, ozone only chemistry	RW Chap 3, 155-189
20-Apr
	22	Perturbations in the stratosphere, Man's impact	RW Chap 3, 191-237	Homework 5 given out
22-Apr
	23	Polar ozone hole, Variations and trends	RW Chap 4, 238-266
27-Apr	24	Tropospheric Chemistry - Sources, sinks,	RW Chap 4, 321-360	Homework 5 due
		Oxidation, transformation, Biogenic species
29-Apr	25	Aromatic compounds, sulfur compounds	RW Chap 4, 361-402
		halogens, heterogeneous reactions, models
4-May	26	Air pollution	RW Chap4, 403,443
6-May	27	Anatomy of a pollution event at College Park	Handout
11-May	28	Coupling of chemistry and radiative transfer.	Handout	Project due
		Derivation of stratospheric ozone profiles
		from backscattered solar ultraviolet.
13-May		FINAL EXAM	8.00 to 10.00 am
		NOTES
		RW Richard Wayne
		TS Thomas and Stamnes