Mountain Weather and Climate ATM 619: Atmospheric Science Seninar Series Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University at Albany Fall 2002

Course description: This special seminar series examines the influence of the earth's topography upon weather and climate, with an emphasis on the meteorology of the western United States. The course builds upon concepts taught in upper-division undergraduate and graduate atmospheric science courses, although students with scientific background in other disciplines may take the course with the instructors' consent. Specific aspects of mountain meteorology that will be examined in detail include orographic impacts upon cyclone and frontal structure/dynamics, terrain-driven flows (mechanical and thermal), and orographic precipitation.

Format:A mixture of seminars and web-based learning modules are used. Class meets twice per week (T-Th) from 11:15-12:35 in ES 232. Course materials have been developed in collaboration with John Horel of the University of Utah and David Whiteman of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Text: None required. Reading assignments from scientific liturature assigned as necessary. The following texts are used frequently:

• Mountain Weather and Climate, 2nd Edition, by Roger Barry
• Atmospheric Processes over Complex Terrain, AMS Monograph No. 45
• Mountain Meteorology by C. David Whiteman

3 September

• Course overview (web pdf)
• Introduction to mountain weather and climate (web pdf)
• Assignment:
  • Read Barry (1978): H.B. de Saussure: The first mountain meteorologist. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 59, 709-705.
  • E-mail me the following before Thursday's class
    • A cool mountain meteorology photo and description (preferably taken by you, but others will do)
    • At least two scientific, literary, or artistic definitions or descriptions of mountains (not from dictionaries)

• Discussion of mountain meteorology photos
• Orographic impacts on stormtracks, cyclogenesis/lysis, anticylogenesis/lysis (web pdf)
• Orographically modified cyclone dynamics (web pdf)
• Rocky Mountain cyclone evolution (web pdf lab)

• Alpine lee cyclogenesis (web pdf)
• Rocky Mountain cyclone evolution lab
• Assignment: Work in groups on Rocky Mountain cyclone evolution lab

• Fronts and orography (web pdf)
• Assignment:
  • Read O'Handley, C. and L. F. Bosart, 1996: The impact of the Appalachian Mountains on cyclonic weather systems. Part I: A Climatology. Mon. Wea. Rev., 124, 1353-1373.
  • Read Schumacher, P. N., D. J. Knight, and L. F. Bosart, 1996: Frontal interaction with the Appalachian Mountains. Part I: A climatology. Mon. Wea. Rev., 124, 2453-2468.

• No class

• Rocky Mountain cyclone lab presentations and discussion
• Fronts and orography lab
• Assignment: Complete fronts and orography lab

• No class

• Discussion of fronts and orography lab
• Terrain-forced flows: Mountain waves, isolated obstacles, and gap winds (web pdf)
• Assignment:
  • Read Durran, D. R., 1986: Mountain Waves. Mesoscale Meteorology and Forecasting. P. S. Ray, Ed., 472-492.

• Terrain-forced flows wrap-up
• Thermally driven flows (web pdf)
• Thermally driven flows lab
• Assignment: Complete thermally driven flows lab

• Why study orographic precipitation? (web pdf)
• Review of cloud microphysics (web pdf)
• Orographic precipitation mechanisms (web pdf)

• Thermally driven flows lab discussion
• Dynamical and microphysical processes in Cascade, Sierra, San Juan, and Wasatch Mountain winter storms (web pdf)
• Assignment:
  • Read Steenburgh, W. J., 2002: One hundred inches in one hundred hours - Anatomy of a Wasatch Mountain winter storm cycle. Wea. Forecasting. In press.

• Wrap up
• Course assessment