Undergraduate; Spring
(Spring '09: Lectures T 11:30 - 1:00; R 11-12:30, Rm 54-1615)
Instructor: Alan Plumb, 54-1712, x3-6281, rap@rossby.mit.edu
Prereq.: 12.003
Units: 3-0-9
A survey of the fluid dynamics of atmospheric and oceanic phenomena, focusing on discussion of observations and theoretical interpretations. Topics covered include:
Oceanic and atmospheric waves: surface gravity waves; tides
Extratropical dynamics: Rossby waves, baroclinic eddies and fronts;
Tropical dynamics: hurricanes, monsoons, and El Nino;.
Assessment will be based on:
Class Notes
Chapter 1: Shallow Water Waves
Further reading:
Elementary but brief descriptions of water waves (not confined to those on shallow water) can be found in, e.g.:
- Elementary Fluid Dynamics, by D. J. Acheson, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990.
- An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology (Fourth Edition), by J. R. Holton, Elsevier (International Geophysics Series, vol. 88), 2004. [Shallow water gravity waves are discussed in Section 7.3.2]
Other treatments can be found in many fluid dynamics texts, but are usually much more advanced and more mathematical than these two. One particularly thorough treatment is in
- Waves in Fluids, by James Lighthill, Cambridge University Press, 1978 (Chapter 3).
Chapter 2: Deep Water Waves
The movie clip showing a propagating wave packet, and illustrating the distinction between phase and group velocity, is here. It shows a Gaussian packet about 7 wavelengths wide of small-amplitude surface waves, with carrier wavenumber k = 1/D, on deep water of mean depth D.
Further reading: As chapter 1.
Chapter 3: Tides
A touristy description of Bay of Fundy tides can be found at:
http://www.bayoffundy.com/highesttides.aspx
Chapter 4: Large-scale motions and barotropic flow
Chapter 5: Rossby waves
A movie of the lab Rossby wave demo (mpeg; 11MB) can be found here
Chapter 6: Extratropical storms
Prof. Marshall's baroclinic instability movie (from 12.307) can be found here.
Movies of baroclinic waves (in 3 different regimes) can be found on the Kyoto Uni. GFD web site (choose low resolution unless you have a fast connection).
You can plot current and past surface and upper air maps by going to the synoptic lab web site .
Local forecasts are available from the Boston Office
of the National Weather Service.
Chapter 7: The tropical atmosphere
Here are the power point slides of the presentation on monsoons.
Chapter 8: El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (Power Point)
NOAA has a usfeul and comprehensive web page on many aspects of ENSO, both general and current.
The presentation (pdf or ppt) on current status is available from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service (choose "Weekly ENSO update", pdf or ppt).
Chapter 9: Hurricanes
Problem Sets
Problem Set 1 (due March 3): Questions
Sample answers
Problem Set 2 (due March 19): Questions
Sample answers
Problem Set 3 (due April 14): Questions
Sample answers
Problem Set 4 (due April 28): Questions
Sample answers
Problem Set 5 (due May 7): Questions
Sample answers
R. Alan Plumb
Last updated 12 May 2009