Oberlin College

Oberlin, OH

 

Geology 110: Weather and Climate: Past, Present, and Future (3 credits)

Instructor: Dr. Benjamin Felzer

Day and time: MWF 9:00 – 9:50 am

Class Location: King 101

Office (Carnegie 414A) Hours: Tues. 3 - 5 pm, Wed. 10 - 12 am or by appointment

Phone: 58351

Email: ben.felzer@oberlin.edu

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

An introduction to the basic principles of meteorology, as they pertain to past, present, and future climates.  The course considers the earth’s energy balance, cloud formation and precipitation, winds and atmospheric circulation, regional climatologies, past warm periods and ice ages in earth’s history, and the latest ideas about future climate change and global warming.  Students will maintain a weather notebook to enable them to relate theory to observations from real weather data. 

 

Three class hours per week.  No prerequisites, but course will contain simple mathematical applications and you will learn how to use MS Excel.

 

 

TEXTS AND MATERIALS

 

·  Meteorology Today (Eighth Edition, Classic) – C. Donald Ahrens

(You are responsible to read specific sections of each chapter that will be assigned by the instructor on a class-by-class basis.)

·  Meteorology Lab Manual – Reeves and Riordan

 

OBJECTIVES

 

·  Display basic knowledge and comprehension about weather and climate

·  Interpret daily weather data

·  Understand U.S. meteorological environment

·  Know current issues in climatology, including paleoclimatology and global change

·  Develop critical thinking skills

 

CLASS FORMAT

 

The lecture period will include more quantitative material to supplement the associated reading assignments. Homeworks will include exercises from the lab manual as well as several external exercises to help reinforce the material learned in class and from the readings.  There will also be external readings, especially for the paleoclimate and future climate parts of the course.  Students are expected to keep a weather notebook to record the weather for two months to provide hands-on application of how to use readily-available data for in-depth scientific analysis. 

 

Honor Code

The Oberlin Honor Code, which is a vital part of the College, governs all of your participation in this class.  I encourage you to review it at: 

http://www.oberlin.edu/students/links-life/rules-regs07-08/honorcode.pdf

An important excerpt:

The Honor Code: Students are on their honor to do their own academic work. The Honor Code is based on the assumption that academic honesty lies at the heart of the academic enterprise. It provides the foundation for the intellectual freedom that is encouraged and shared by all members of the academic community and embodies the belief that true academic freedom and discourse can only exist within a framework of honesty, integrity, and responsibility, values essential to the life of an engaged citizenry. Adhering to the Honor Code involves at a minimum acknowledging by means of proper citation the sources of all quotations and ideas not the writer’s own. Students are required to utilize principled and sound judgment regarding all interactions within the academic enterprise and to abide by the regulations set forth below.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, I expect that all the work you turn in for this class is written by you — in your own words — and is not the copying of someone else’s thinking and write-up.  It is imperative that you be the person who composes the work that you turn in.  Collaboration before you do your final write-up is allowed and is, in fact, encouraged.  All work on exams must be strictly your own.

 

 

GRADING:

2 Tests                                    30%

Homeworks                            25%

Weather Notebook                  20%

Participation/Attendance          10%

Final Exam                             15%

 

 

SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

 

 

Week of          Topics (Reading)                                                       Homework (due date)          

1 (2/4)            Introduction to Weather and Climate   (Ch. 1, 11)       Ex 1 (2/8)

2 (2/11)           Radiation Laws and Energy Budget (Ch. 2)                Ex 2 (2/15)

3 (2/18)           To Be Announced (Lorenz reading and questions)     Ex. 3, Radiation (2/25)                       

4 (2/25)           Moisture, Clouds, Precipitation (Ch. 4, 5, 7)              Ex 4 (3/3)

5 (3/3)             Convective Stability (Ch. 6)                                        Thermodynamic Diag. (3/10)

Exam 1: 3/7

6 (3/10)           Winds: Equations of Motion (Ch. 8)                           Ex 6 (3/14)     

7 (3/17)           Equations of Motion (cont.)                                        Wind (3/21)

8 (3/24)           Spring Break                                                              

9 (3/31)           Jet Stream, Atmosphere-Ocean Variability (Ch. 10)   Ex 5 (4/4)

First Weather Notebook due April 4

10 (4/7)           Regional Weather (Ch.12, 15)                        Ex 7 (4/11)

Exam 2: 4/14

11 (4/14)         Severe Weather, Climatology (Ch. 14)                        Upper Level Synoptic  (4/18)

12 (4/21)         Paleoclimatology (Ch. 16, 17)                         Paleoclimatology (4/28)

13 (4/28)         Paleoclimatology and Future Climate  (Ch. 18)          Computer Exercise(5/5)

14 (5/5)           Future Climate (IPCC)

Final Weather Notebook due May 9

15 (5/15)         Final Exam: 9:00 – 11:00 am