Phys3004-Atmospheric Physics

Fall 2017

 

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Fall streaks from altocumulus deck. These form if nucleation of ice particles occurred in the environment of super cooled droplets (metastable). Ice particles rapidly out grow the droplets. Increasing mass increases their terminal velocity – they fall.

Course Calendar

Course Moodle Site

UMM Weather station

Cloud Guide

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A water droplet on a maple branch has the whole world in it, contained within a rather tough surface.

 

Credit:

4 credits

Time and Place:

MWF 9:15-10:20 a.m., Science Building, Room 4650

Instructor:

Sylke Boyd

Office:

Science Building, Room 2315

Phone:

589-6315

e-mail:

sboyd@morris.umn.edu

Office Hours:

M 11-1, W 12:00 – 1:30 pm; F 11:00-1:00 or after arrangement

Text

Required text book in Fall 2017:

Atmospheric Science, 2nd Edition An Introductory Survey

John M Wallace, Peter V Hobbs

ISBN: ______9780127329512

 

 

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living. Of course I do not here speak of that beauty that strikes the senses, the beauty of qualities and appearances; not that I undervalue such beauty, far from it, but it has nothing to do with science; I mean that profounder beauty which comes from the harmonious order of the parts, and which a pure intelligence can grasp.”

 

Henry Poincare

 

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Winter evening over Willie’s parking lot

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Rain drops on lily leaves – water really likes to be round. Why?

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Fog over icy Lake Minnewaska. Warm humid air over ice becomes supersaturated and nucleates droplets.

 

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January frost on the window. Note the strange empty space around the larger crystals. What is being optimized here?

 

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A thunder head topping out at the tropopause. Why will it not rise any further?

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Hoar frost needles – an example of deposition in a supersaturated environment. But why does this not always happen?

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Wave propagation in a puddle. Simply the thing to watch on a rainy day.

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Anybody who studies in Morris recognizes this situation. It’s visible wind!

 

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Colors in a summer prairie sunset. How does Rayleigh scattering really work?

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An ocean of air above west-central Minnesota. Thick, not clear, and actually quite thin vertically.

 

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Some of 2011’s lightning

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Iridescent clouds. Evenly sized droplets or ice crystals diffract the light into color fringes.

 

Page maintained by Sylke Boyd

Last modified 8/25/2017 10:42 AM