Course

Objective:

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand earth's atmospheric composition including the past, present, and future composition of the atmosphere and compare properties of earth's atmospheric levels in terms of temperature, composition, and role.
• Analyze how earth's tilt and rotation affect the magnitude of solar radiation at a particular location as well as define seasons on earth.
• Outline the process of how atmospheric moisture and processes lead to cloud and precipitation formation and explain how stability, lapse rates, lift, and CCN's affect cloud and precipitation production.
• Explain earth's pressure circulation patterns and how differential heating creates pressure gradients.
• Analyze Skew-T diagrams to determine stability indices, key atmospheric levels, and potential weather events.
• Summarize air masses, fronts & midlatitude cyclones including how they form and affect weather patterns while also explaining the characteristics, formation, and causes of various storm types.
• Understand how weather forecasts are made including how products and models are used to create weather maps that are analyzed to make a forecast.
• Distinguish between the several factors that impact climate on earth and how these factors interact to create a region or locations climate.
• Explain earth's changing climate and how models are used to predict how earth's climate will change in the future.
• Explain key atmospheric variables and concepts and form a concrete understanding of these terms to use in future application of more complex topics.

General Topics: