Course Syllabus

Class information

This class enables students to understand the basic concepts of cloud microphysics, water continuity in clouds, cloud dynamics, and cloud models. Offered: jointly with ESS 573; Offered Spring quarter

Class description: Introduction to cloud microphysics: cloud-forming aerosols, thermodynamical processes important for cloud droplet formation and growth, cloud droplet activation, condensational growth, coalescence and rain formation, ice processes. Introduction to different cloud types, structures and dynamics, and evolution

Class Schedule: LINK

Instructor: Prof. Rob Wood. 718 ATG Bldg. Phone: 206-543-1203; Email: robwood2@uw.edu

Student learning goals: Students will gain an appreciation for cloud processes in the atmosphere, learn the theoretical basis for cloud microphysical processes. Students will understand why different types of clouds form and understand their relationship to the large scale atmospheric state

Class Times/Locations: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:50am, Atmospheric Sciences/Geophysics (ATG 610)

Recommended preparation: ATM S 501 or by permission of instructor. A good grounding in basic meteorology is important.

Textbook: Rogers and Yau, A Short Course in Cloud Physics, Third Edition (International Series in Natural Philosophy). Copies available in the UW Bookstore, and on Amazon.

Class assignments and grading: Quantitative and qualitative exercises
30% midterm; 30% final; 40% homework