Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.
Ross Computational Resources Madison, WI
and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706 hopkins@meteor.wisc.eduValid as of Monday, 02 October 1995
ADVANCED (PROFESSIONAL GATEWAY) LEVEL
The following list of potential topics could be incorporated into an electronic lab manual for undergraduates majoring in the atmospheric sciences. Essentially all of these exercises have been used in the laboratory portion of the gateway or entry level core courses taught in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These courses have been designed to include the necessary depth and breadth requirements for being classified as a meteorologist by the various weather services of the U.S. Government.
The selection and arrangement of topics can be modified, with additional candidate topics.
INTRODUCTORY & GENERAL TOPICS
LAB 00: UNITS & GEOPHYSICAL DATA
LAB 00 A: THE SI or INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS
Objectives: To identify the fundamental, derived and supplementary units of the International System of Units (SI).
To identify the appropriate prefixes and symbols identifying the multiples and submultiples in the SI system.
(To perform unit analysis techniques)
LAB 00 B: USEFUL PHYSICAL & GEOPHYSICAL CONSTANTS
Objectives: None cited, except as a resource or:
To list some of the physical and geophysical constants to be used in the course.
LAB 00 C: THE WEATHER PROCESSOR: WXP
LAB 00 D: WXMAP
Objectives: To instruct students on how to access and operate the WXP and Wxmap programs on the X-terminals.
To make students use the Unidata feed.
To look at current weather information and apply these data to the concepts learned previously or concurrently.
(Note: These two entries are for in-house use only; modifications to include instructions for use of the Internet could be added or substituted)
LAB 00 E: OBSERVATION REPORTS
or LAB 00 F: WEATHER DIARY
Objectives: (1) To develop observational skills;
(2) To gain experience in explaining rationally the causes or mechanisms for various weather phenomena or weather-related events which you personally observe;
(3) To gain experience in writing concise observational reports, using s technical writing style.
LAB 01: CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA
LAB 01 A: LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA
Objectives: To identify some of the sources of published climatological data available for particular locale.
To determine the various climatological statistics for a particular locale from the Local Climatological Data.
LAB 01B: WORLD WEATHER EXTREMES
Objective: To identify and locate the occurrences of various recorded extrema in several weather indices.
LAB 02: VERTICAL VARIATIONS:
LAB 02A: IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE ATMOSPHERE
Objectives: To analyze the vertical variations in the composition of the earth's atmosphere.
To identify the approximate altitude separating the homosphere and heterosphere.
LAB 02B: IN THE TEMPERATURE STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE
Objectives: To analyze the magnitudes of the seasonal and latitudinal variations in several representative vertical temperature, pressure and density profiles in the atmosphere.
To outline the assumptions and equations used to specify the components of a reference atmosphere.
OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES & INSTRUMENTATION
LAB 03: WEATHER OBSERVATION PROCEDURES &
SURFACE WEATHER MAPS: Analysis of Spatial Weather Variations
Objectives: To convert between local civil times and UTC times.
To decode and encode a standard station model for a surface analysis chart.
To read and interpret the Surface Analysis, Weather Depiction and Radar Summary charts prepared by NMC.
To develop skills involved with subjective analysis of two-dimensional scalar field properties in the atmosphere, where time is constant.
LAB 04: HOURLY SURFACE WEATHER REPORTS
Objectives: To decode and interpret the information given by the hourly surface airways (SA) and special (SP) weather reports. * This will be modified to the new METAR reports.
To identify each weather element comprising a routine aviation weather observation
LAB 05: METEOROGRAM A Graphical Depiction
Objectives: To graphically display the sequence of observed weather elements (temperature, dewpoint, cloud cover, air pressure, wind speed and direction) at a particular location during a significant weather event, such as a frontal passage.
To use the meteorogram to interpret these temporal changes in the weather elements.
LAB 06: UPPER AIR ANALYSIS WITH CONSTANT PRESSURE CHARTS
Objectives: To identify the features of the standard NMC constant pressure charts
To analyze and interpret a constant pressure chart.
LAB 07A: CLOUD OBSERVATIONS & IDENTIFICATION
Objectives: To observe and report sky cover amounts.
To identify cloud types, using the conventional classification scheme.
To track cloud motions.
LAB 07B: VISIBILITY
Objectives: To observe and report prevailing horizontal visibility.
LAB 08: INSTRUMENTATION & INSTRUMENT THEORY
Objectives: To identify the components of meteorological instruments.
To describe the performance characteristics of an instrument.
LAB 09: THERMOMETERS & THERMOMETRY
Objectives: To identify the types of thermometer sensors and describe the principles used in temperature measurements.
To calibrate and read a mercury-in-glass thermometer.
To measure air temperature differences associated with instrument siting.
LAB 10: HYGROMETRY: HUMIDITY DETERMINATIONS [under isobaric conditions]
Objectives: To identify the various instruments used to measure atmospheric humidity and to describe the principles used in the measurement process.
To determine humidity parameters [the dewpoint and wet-bulb temperatures and the relative humidity] of the air at a particular time.
To illustrate spatial and temporal differences in the atmospheric water vapor content.
LAB 11: BAROMETRY
Objectives: To identify the various instruments used to measure air pressure and to describe the principles used in the measurement process.
To correctly determine the air pressure using a mercury barometer and a barograph, with application of the appropriate calibrations.
To determine the sea-level pressure and altimeter settings from the station pressure using standard reduction procedures.
To determine the altitude of an object by measuring the vertical change in the atmospheric pressure.
To ascertain the pressure tendency.
LAB 12: TRACKING THE WINDS ALOFT: PIBAL OBSERVATIONS
Objective: To determine the wind speed and direction at various levels in the lower atmosphere by use of a pibal.
THERMODYNAMICS
LAB 13: THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS I: KEY FEATURES & SOUNDINGS
Objectives: To inspect the features appearing on two commonly-used thermodynamic diagrams [a Stüve and a Skew-T, log P diagram].
To plot upon a thermodynamic diagram the vertical distribution of the scalar quantities [temperature and dewpoint temperatures] and wind velocity [speed and direction], as obtained from the routine RAOB report.
To define, identify and utilize the graphical procedure necessary for the determination of selected thermodynamic and moisture parameters from temperature and dewpoint profiles as a function of pressure.
LAB 14: THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS II: CONDENSATION LEVELS
Objectives: To define, identify and utilize the graphical procedure necessary for the determination of additional selected thermodynamic and moisture parameters from RAOB temperature and dewpoint profiles, expressed as a function of pressure.
To compare these graphical methods with computational methods.
LAB 15: THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS III: BULK PARAMETERS
Objectives: To assess the vertical variations in several observed and computed thermodynamic parameters for a RAOB sounding.
To compute the bulk parameters of: layer thickness, precipitable water and mean layer relative humidity from the sounding.
LAB 16: THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS IV: STATIC STABILITY CRITERIA
Objectives: To use a thermodynamic diagram to graphically determine the hydrostatic stability of individual layers as reported by a RAOB sounding.
To use a Skew-T diagram to identify positive and negative energy areas and to determine vertical motions of air parcels.
To assess various mechanisms involved with changes in the temperature lapse rate and static stability.
To identify several visual indicators of the static stability of the lower atmosphere.
LAB 17: THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS V: STABILITY INDICES
Objectives: To graphically determine the potential instability of individual layers as reported by a RAOB sounding using a thermodynamic diagram.
To evaluate various operational stability indices for a given sounding.
LAB 18: DIURNAL, SEASONAL AND LATITUDINAL VARIATIONS IN
INCOMING SOLAR RADIATION
Objectives: To calculate the intercepted extra atmospheric irradiance for any day of the year and at any latitude.
To assess the influence of the seasonal variations of the solar forcing upon the climate of a given locale.
LAB 19: ENERGY BUDGETS, LONG WAVE RADIATION AND
EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURES
Objectives: To identify and partition the energy fluxes intercepted by the earth atmosphere system in an energy balance relationship.
To evaluate the effect of the atmosphere upon the radiative surface and atmospheric temperatures.
To consider the effect of changes in the radiative characteristics of the earth-atmosphere system to simulate two extreme climatic scenarios [the "greenhouse effect" and the "nuclear winter"].
HYDROLOGY
LAB 20: WORLD WATER BUDGET
Objectives: To identify the relative sizes of the reservoirs in the global hydrologic cycle.
To calculate the residence time of water in each reservoir.
To evaluate the equivalent depths of the annual, global evaporation and precipitation rates.
DYNAMICS
LAB 21: VECTOR ANALYSIS I: FUNDAMENTAL VECTOR OPERATIONS
Objectives: To specify a vector in various coordinate systems.
To review and perform the mathematical operations involved with vector quantities such as vector addition, subtract and multiplication.
To define the vector differentiation and integration operations.
LAB 22: METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF VECTOR ANALYSIS I:
WIND STATISTICS
Objectives: To calculate various meteorological quantities involving vectors.
To relate the meteorological wind convention routinely reported with wind vector expressed in Cartesian coordinates.
LAB 23: VECTOR ANALYSIS II: OTHER COORDINATE SYSTEMS
Objectives: To determine the transformations of the unit vectors associated with other coordinate systems typically used in meteorology.
To evaluate the time derivatives of the unit vectors for a spherical polar coordinate system.
LAB 24: THE EQUATION OF ATMOSPHERIC MOTION AND SCALE ANALYSIS
Objectives: To identify the components in the atmospheric equation of motion.
To perform scale analysis on atmospheric motion.
LAB 25: METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF VECTOR ANALYSIS II:
GRAPHICAL PROCEDURES, GRADIENTS & ADVECTION
Objectives: To calculate various meteorological quantities involving vectors:
To determine the horizontal gradients of a scalar field.
To determine the horizontal advection of a scalar quantity.
To determine a gradient of a scalar field on a weather map through the use of finite differencing techniques.
LAB 26: VERTICAL PRESSURE COORDINATES & THE GEOSTROPHIC WIND MODEL
Objectives: To compare and contrast the vertical geometric and pressure coordinate systems.
To determine the geostrophic wind relationship in various coordinate systems.
To evaluate the geostrophic wind speed from the contour spacing on an analyzed upper air (constant pressure) chart.
LAB 27: ATMOSPHERIC MOTION ALONG CURVED PATHS & DYNAMIC FLOWS
Objectives: To identify the conditions and assumptions associated with special cases of curved atmospheric flow.
To determine the gradient wind relationship in various coordinate systems.
To evaluate the gradient wind speed from the contour spacing on an analyzed upper air (constant pressure) chart.
LAB 28: THE ISENTROPIC VERTICAL COORDINATE SYSTEM &
ISENTROPIC ANALYSIS
Objectives: To compare and contrast the isentropic coordinate system with the pressure coordinate system.
To analyze and interpret an isentropic chart and an isentropic cross-section.
LAB 29: VERTICAL VARIATIONS IN THE WIND FIELD
Objectives: To plot a hodograph from RAOB data and interpret the display.
To graphically determine the thickness field.
To determine the thermal wind from graphical and theoretical means.
KINEMATICS
LAB 30: KINEMATIC ANALYSIS I: WIND FIELDS
Objectives: To distinguish between streamlines, trajectories and streak lines.
To construct isogons and streamlines.
To identify several simple flow cases.
LAB 31: KINEMATIC ANALYSIS II: DIVERGENCE & VERTICAL MOTION
Objectives: To determine the horizontal divergence by analytical and graphical means.
To consider some of the meteorological implications of divergence.
To distinguish between mass and velocity divergence and between divergence (convergence) and diffluence (confluence).
LAB 32: KINEMATIC ANALYSIS III: VORTICITY
Objectives: To distinguish between circulation and vorticity.
To construct a vorticity analysis involving graphical methods.
To interpret the vorticity patterns on an upper air weather analysis chart.
To relate the vorticity centers with upper level flow patterns.
To determine the regions of positive and negative vorticity advection.
LAB (Summary lab from 323): QUANTITATIVE CIRCULATION ANALYSIS
Objective: To perform kinematic analysis involving graphical methods.
SYNOPTIC ANALYSIS
LAB 33: SURFACE ANALYSIS & WIND FIELDS
Objectives: To analyze the sea level pressure field, the temperature field and the mixing ratio fields.
To construct streamlines and isotachs.
To evaluate the thermal advection at a given surface locale.
LAB 34: UPPER AIR ANALYSIS & WIND FIELDS
Objectives: To analyze the geopotential height field and the temperature field.
To construct isotachs.
To evaluate the thermal advection at a given upper air locale.
To evaluate the vertical wind shear in pressure coordinates at a given location aloft and compare this computed shear vector with the shear vector determined graphically from wind observations at three pressure levels.
LAB 35: CYCLONE-ANTICYCLONE TRACKING
Objectives: To track migratory cyclones and anticyclones for an extended time interval upon a continuity chart.
LAB 36: ANALYSIS OF THE VERTICAL VARIATIONS OF A STORM
Objectives: To construct a cross section of the atmosphere from RAOB data.
To compare this cross section with conventional surface and upper level charts for the same time.
LAB 37: VERTICAL CROSS-SECTION ANALYSIS:
ATMOSPHERIC CROSS SECTION APPLICATIONS
Objectives: To construct a cross section of the atmosphere from RAOB data, identify salient features, interpret the information and calculate important dynamical parameters.
To make a potential temperature, normal wind speed and mixing ratio analysis of a vertical cross section.
LAB 38: VERTICAL CROSS-SECTION ANALYSIS:
OCEANIC CROSS SECTION APPLICATIONS
Objectives: To inspect an ocean cross section, make some calculations and compare with an atmospheric vertical cross section.
LAB 39: LONGITUDE-TIME DIAGRAMS
Objectives: To determine the temporal variability of the upper level ridge and trough patterns.
LAB 40: TROPICAL CIRCULATIONS
Objectives: To examine the tropical atmospheric circulation regime.
LAB 41: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MESOSCALE PHENOMENA
Objectives: To interpret mesoscale data representations, calculate various parameters (e.g., periods of oscillations), and analyze physical processes for several examples of mesoscale phenomena.
LAB 42: FINITE DIFFERENCE PREDICTION
Objectives: To learn about practical numerical prediction problems using finite difference methods.
LAB 43: STRATOSPHERIC HEIGHT-TIME VARIABILITY
Objectives: To determine the height variations of transient stratospheric phenomena over a particular area.
SURVEY or GENERAL EDUCATION ("100/101") LEVEL
The following list of potential topics could be incorporated into an electronic lab manual for undergraduates enrolled in a survey course in meteorology (or the atmospheric sciences). A majority of the students in such a general education course are non-science majors with a minimum amount of mathematics. Many of these exercises have been used in the laboratory portion of the introductory courses taught in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (and the Geography Department of Northern Illinois University).
The selection and arrangement of topics can be modified, with additional candidate topics.
Vertical Temperature and Pressure Variations
Objectives: To develop graphing skills; to interpolate data from a graph.
To determine the temperature lapse rate of individual layers from the graph.
(To analyze the magnitudes of the seasonal and latitudinal variations in several representative vertical temperature and pressure profiles in the atmosphere.)
Atmospheric Moisture
Objectives: To identify two of the instruments routinely used to measure atmospheric humidity.
To determine humidity parameters [the dewpoint and wet-bulb temperatures and the relative humidity] of the air at a particular time.
To illustrate spatial and temporal differences in the atmospheric water vapor content.
Surface Analysis I
Objectives: To evaluate UTC times in terms of local time.
To read and interpret the Surface Analysis chart prepared by NMC.
To develop skills involved with the analysis of two-dimensional scalar field properties in the atmosphere, where time is constant.
Surface Analysis II
Objectives: To develop the key points of the geostrophic and gradient wind models using graphical techniques.
To analyze a surface weather map.
Surface Analysis III
Objectives: To perform a realistic frontal analysis on the surface weather chart, based upon consideration of the extratropical cyclone model.
To examine some of the features of the Norwegian cyclone model.
To determine the time sequence of weather events at various locations as a midlatitude cyclone passes.
Air Parcels and Thermodynamic Diagrams
Objectives: To inspect the features and lines appearing on a commonly-used thermodynamic diagram.
To plot upon a thermodynamic diagram the vertical distribution of the scalar quantities [temperature and dewpoint temperatures] and wind velocity [speed and direction], as obtained from the routine RAOB report.
To distinguish between the process and environmental temperature lapse rates.
To define, identify and utilize the graphical procedure necessary for the determination of additional selected thermodynamic and moisture parameters from temperature and dewpoint profiles, expressed as a function of pressure.
To compare these graphical methods with computational methods.
Thermodynamic Diagrams and Atmospheric Stability
Objectives: To use a thermodynamic diagram to graphically determine the hydrostatic stability of individual layers as reported by a RAOB sounding.
To assess various mechanisms involved with changes in the temperature lapse rate and static stability.
To identify several visual indicators of the static stability of the lower atmosphere.
ADDITIONAL
AIR MASSES AND AIR MASS MODIFICATION
Objectives: To identify and classify air masses according to traditional classification scheme.
To determine the modification of an air mass.
CLOUD OBSERVATIONS & IDENTIFICATION
Objectives: To observe and report sky cover amounts.
To identify cloud types, using the conventional classification scheme.
REGIONAL CLIMATOLOGY
Objective: To plot and interpret a climagram from the climatic data for a selected station.
To determine the climate classification for a locale, using the traditional classification scheme.
To determine the time of year when the annual march of daily average air temperature at various locales reaches a minimum or maximum.
To analyze the latitudinal variation of air temperature.
To compare the annual temperature range for continental versus maritime influences.
DEGREE DAY COMPUTATIONS
Objectives: To determine the heating or cooling degree day units.
To determine the relationship between heating degree day units and energy consumption for spacing heating a dwelling.
ENERGY BUDGETS
Objectives: To identify and partition the energy fluxes intercepted by the earth atmosphere system in an energy balance relationship.
WATER BUDGETS
Objectives: To construct a water budget for the globe and a continental locale.
To identify the relative sizes of the reservoirs in the global hydrologic cycle.
To calculate the residence time of water in each reservoir.
To evaluate the equivalent depths of the annual, global evaporation and precipitation rates.
HEAT INDICES
Objectives: To determine the heat indices and apparent temperatures from the tabulation.
To assess the potential danger to humans associated with high air temperatures and high atmospheric humidity.
GENERAL GEOGRAPHICAL TOPICS
Objectives: To develop fundamental map reading skills.
To locate places on a map using latitude and longitude.
To locate and identify several key physiographic features of the world.
HURRICANES
Objectives: To estimate the magnitude of a hurricane using the Saffir-Simpson scale.
To plot the daily positions of a hurricane upon an official hurricane tracking chart.
To describe the potential weather sequences associated with an approaching hurricane.
To examine the hurricane climatology, to include the risks to specific coastal areas.
MATHEMATICS APPENDIX
Objectives: To review and evaluate trigonometric functions.
To perform various mathematical operations using scientific notation.
To convert between SI to English units of measure.
METEOROGRAM - A GRAPHICAL DEPICTION
Objectives: To graphically display the sequence of observed weather elements (temperature, dewpoint, cloud cover, air pressure, wind speed and direction) at a particular location during a frontal passage.
To use the meteorogram to interpret these temporal changes in the weather elements.
WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN THE NEWS
Objective: To identify, interpret and evaluate a current news item concerning a weather or climate related topic found in a newspaper or news magazine.
OBSERVATIONAL REPORTS OF SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PHENOMENA
Objectives: (1) To develop observational skills;
(2) To gain experience in explaining rationally the causes or mechanisms for various weather phenomena or weather-related events which you personally observe;
(3) To gain experience in writing concise observational reports, using s technical writing style.
ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS
Objectives: To identify the commonly observed atmospheric optical phenomena.
To explain the cause of these atmospheric optical phenomena.
To identify the weather conditions and locate the direction to look in order to observe these phenomena.
To relate the occurrence of these phenomena to current or anticipated meteorological conditions.
AIR POLLUTION
Objectives: To study the behavior of smoke plumes to determine atmospheric static stability and the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere.
To locate regions where air pollution episodes are more frequent.
To measure the acidity or pH of precipitation to determine the degree of acid rain.
PRECIPITATION
Objectives: To distinguish between various precipitation types.
To identify the precipitation formation theories.
BAROMETER LAB and VERTICAL VARIATIONS in PRESSURE
Objectives: To determine the atmospheric pressure using a barometer.
To determine and interpret the pressure tendency (pressure variations over time).
RAINDROP COLLECTION AND SPECTRA
Objectives: To measure the diameters of raindrops and to compute the raindrop spectra.
WEATHER SATELLITE IMAGES AND IMAGE INTERPRETATION
Objectives: To identify the types of operational weather satellites.
To identify and interpret various features appearing on meteorological satellite images.
To estimate cloud heights based on their speed of motion.
SNOW FLAKES & ICE CRYSTALS
Objectives: To collect snowflakes and to produce permanent snowflake replicas.
To estimate environmental conditions where snowflakes formed.
To seed a cold cloud with ice crystals.
SUN ANGLES AND ILLUMINATION GEOMETRY
Objectives: To determine the sun's altitude angle for various locations on earth and for different seasons.
To determine the cause of seasons.
SEVERE WEATHER FORECASTING
Objectives: To identify the criteria for severe weather.
To investigate the ingredients for severe thunderstorms.
To identify the factors needed for forecasting severe weather.
To distinguish between severe weather watches and warnings.
SNOW MEASUREMENTS
Objectives: To determine the snowfall.
To determine the snow cover.
To determine the water equivalent of snowfall and snow cover.
TORNADOES
Objectives: To make a tornado model.
To estimate the magnitude of a tornado using the Fujita scale.
To determine the tornado climatology for the local area and state.
To plot various tornado statistics, as provided, on an assortment of chart types.
To identify those parts of the country prone to significant tornado risks.
To describe the relative risk of tornadoes in your area.
CYCLONE-ANTICYCLONE TRACKING
Objectives: To track migratory cyclones and anticyclones for an extended time interval upon a continuity chart.
UPPER AIR ANALYSIS CHARTS
Objectives: To analyze and interpret a constant pressure chart.
WIND CHILL INDEX & WIND CHILL EQUIVALENT TEMPERATURES
Objectives: To determine the wind chill and wind chill equivalent temperatures from the tabulation.
To assess the potential danger to humans associated with low temperatures and high wind speeds.
WIND REPRESENTATION
Objectives: To encode and decode wind vector reports.
To plot frequency wind rose diagrams.
WORLD WEATHER EXTREMES
Objective: To identify and locate the occurrences of various recorded extrema in several weather indices.
DATA HANDLING and ANALYSIS
Objectives:: To gain expertise in various forms of data handling, to include graphing, using meteorological examples.
To express numbers and use mathematical operations in scientific notation.
To use unit analysis techniques in solving problems.
To recognize and use the prefixes used in the SI system of units.
To convert dimensions from the British system to the SI system of units.
To construct a Cartesian graph with suitable range and scale and then to plot meteorological data on this graph.
To recognize functional relationships within data sets from inspection of the graph.
To interpolate data from the graph.
WEATHER OBSERVATIONS AND A WEATHER DIARY
Objective: To gain experience in systematically observing the local weather and recording its changes.
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