AT605 Syllabus1. Introduction The nature of the subject A brief overview Fasten your seatbelts 2. What makes it go? The Earthʼs radiation budget: An “upper boundary condition” on the general circula-tion Surface boundary conditions Energy and moisture budgets of the surface and atmosphere Summary 3. An overview of the observations Introduction The global distribution of atmospheric mass 36Zonal wind Meridional wind Geopotential height Vertical velocity and the mean meridional circulation. Angular momentum Temperature A view in potential temperature coordinates The global distribution of water vapor Precipitation Surface fluxes due to turbulence A quick introduction to the effects of large-scale eddies on the zonally averaged cir-culation A view from theta coordinates Lots of questions 4. Conservation of momentum and energy Introduction Conservation of momentum on a rotating sphere Conservation of kinetic energy and potential energy Conservation of thermodynamic energyConservation of total energy Static energies Entropy Approximations The mechanical energy equation in other vertical coordinate systems The effects of turbulence Summary 5. The mean meridional circulation The observed meridional transports of energy and moisture A simple theory of the Hadley circulation Extension to other planetary atmospheres Particle trajectories on the sphere: A partial explanation of “bandedness” Summary 6. An overview of the effects of radiation and convection Convective energy transports Radiative-convective equilibrium The observed vertical structure of the atmosphere, and the mechanisms of vertical energy transport More on moist convection Summary 7. The Energy Cycle Available potential energy The gross static stability Examples: The available potential energies of three simple systems The APE associated with static instability The APE associated with meridional temperature gradients The APE associated with surface pressure variations Variance budgets Generation of available potential energy, and its conversion into kinetic energy The governing equations for the eddy kinetic energy, zonal kinetic energy, and total kinetic energy Observations of the energy cycle The role of heating Summary8. Planetary-scale waves and other eddies Introduction Free and forced small-amplitude oscillations of a thin spherical atmosphere Perturbation equations Free oscillations of the first and second kinds Observations of stationary and transient eddies in middle latitudes Theory of orographically forced stationary waves Tropical waves The response of the tropical atmosphere to stationary heat sources and sinks Monsoons The Walker Circulation The Madden-Julian Oscillation Summary 9. Wave-Mean Flow InteractionsInteractions and non-interactions of gravity waves with the mean flow Vertical propagation of planetary waves Vertical and meridional fluxes due to planetary waves Sudden warmings Eliassen-Palm Theorem-Reprise The Eliassen-Palm theorem in isentropic coordinates Potential vorticity fluxes The quasi-biennial oscillation Blocking Summary 10. The general circulation as turbulence Energy and enstrophy cascades Nonlinearity and scale interactions Two-dimensional turbulence Quasi-two-dimensional turbulence Dimensional analysis of the kinetic energy spectrum Observations of the kinetic energy spectrum The general circulation as a blender What does the blender blend? Dissipating enstrophy but not kinetic energy The Gent-McWilliams theory of tracer transports along isentropic surfaces The limits of deterministic weather prediction Quantifying the limits of predictabilityThe dynamical approach The empirical approach The dynamical-empirical approach Climate prediction The Worldʼs Simplest GCM Pushing the attractors around Summary 11. Interactions of the atmosphere with other components of the climate system Introduction Interactions with the ocean circulation El Niño and the Southern OscillationInteractions with the land