Meteorology 400/800: Weather Chart Analysis and Discussion
F 0810-1100
604 Thornton Hall
Fall 2009
| Instructor: |
Dr. John Monteverdi, Professor of Meteorology |
| Office hours: |
MW 10-1100; T 1300-1400; or many hours by appointment |
| Office: |
613 Thornton Hall |
| Phone: |
338-7728 |
| E-mail: |
montever@sfsu.edu |
|
Last Updated
Fri, November 20, 2009 10:21 AM
Prerequisites:
- Metr 201 or equivalent* and consent of instructor; corequisite, Metr 460.
- To obtain graduate (800) credit for this course, a student must be enrolled in the MS in Applied Geosciences AND/OR have consent of the instructor.
*
Equivalent courses may NOT be non-majors meteorology survey courses or labs.
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Dr. Monteverdi's Furlough Dates are: Monday 8/31, Friday 9/4, Tuesday 9/8, Friday 10/23, Monday 10/26, Monday 11/2, Tuesday 11/3, Monday 12/7 and Tuesday12/8. The dates affecting Metr 400/800 are highlighted in red. On those days, Dr. Monteverdi will be unavailable via campus phone and email, and will not be on campus.
Contact the Governor, the Majority Leader or the Minority Leader for details or complaints on the Furlough Program. As of this time, I can find no public email addresses for them.
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Syllabus:
Includes course overview, goals, and assignment summary
Oakland 1E: Diagnosing Weather In Oakland
Student Membership in American Meteorological Society
Discussion Page
Lab Exercises
Exercise 1: Thermodynamic Diagrams: Plotting and Interpretation of a Simple Sounding (Marine Layer) (Resources)
Exercise 2: Thermodynamic Diagrams: Interpretation and Plotting of the Radiosonde Code (Midland Sounding)
Exercise 3-Part I: Basic Chart Analysis (Please review all pertinent information from Metr 200/201)
Exercise 3-Part II: Surface Observations (METARS) and Synoptic-scale Frontal Analysis (Please review all pertinent information from Metr 200/201)
Exercise 4: Temperature Advection
Exercise 5: West Coast Wave Cyclone
Exercise 6: Final Synthesis
Day of Class Presentations
November 20, 2009
November 6, 2009
October 30, 2009
October 16, 2009
October 9, 2009
September 25, 2009
Answer
Links
(Note: it is assumed that students have mastered the assignments in Meteorology 200/201)
WGSL Scripts
Metr 200/201 Assignments Page
Metr 200/201/400 Products Page
Class Day Resources:
Exercises 3 and 4
Friday 20 November 2009
Friday 13 November 2009
Weather Map Analysis
Frontal Analysis
Friday 6 November 2009
- Temperature Advection
- Finding Temperature Advection on Isobar/Thickness Charts
- METAR Information
Friday 16 October 2009
Friday 9 October 2009
2 October 2009
Layer Sinking/Lifting:
Subsidence Inversion
- Activity -- Plot the the sounding of a 100 mb deep layer, with a temperature of -74 at 200 mb at its top, and -58 at 300 mb at its bottom.
- Activity -- Assume that synoptic scale sinking occurs....such that the whole column sinks 300 mb. Take the temperature at the bottom and follow a dry adiabat to 600 mb, and take hte temperature at the top and follow a dry adabat to 500 mb--connect the new points with a straight line...that is your transformed sounding.
- Activity -- What is the difference in stability for the two cases? (Estimate by taking a parcel at the bottom of each sounding and lifting it 100 mb...how much colder is it in the second case.
- Activity -- Now further make this slab sink, another 300 mb and repeat steps 2 and 3.
- Discuss: Layer sinking; Layer lofting
- Example: KOAK 1,VVEL, KOAK 2
Layer Lifting Creating Unstable Lapse Rate (with differential moisture characteristics)
- Activity -- Plot the the sounding of a 100 mb deep layer, with a temperature of 10C at 900 mb at its top, and 10C at 1000 mb at its bottom.
Assume a moisture distribution that has saturated air at the bottom of the layer, and totally unsaturated air at the top.
- Activity -- Assume that synoptic scale lofting occurs....such that the whole column rises 600 mb. Take the temperature at the bottom and follow a wet adiabat to 400 mb and plot a point, and take the temperature at the top and follow a dry adabat to 300 mb--connect the new points with a straight line...that is your transformed sounding.
- Discuss.
Friday 25 September 2009
Friday 18 September 2009
Discussion Items:
Friday 11 September 2009
Friday 28 August 2009
Characteristics of Marine Layer Continued
Radiation vs Marine Inversions
Current Global Sea Surface Temperature Maps: Global SST and Anomalies
Chart Example
Note: Information Below Has Not Yet Been Organized for Fall 2009
Monday 24 September 2007
500 mb Chart
Read pp. 35-44; 57--59; 61-67; Appendix B
IDV bundle from Millersville
Monday 17 September 2007
Discussion Items: Oakland vs Minneapolis Summer Soundings: Look Alikes? and Satellite (9/17/07)
Layer Sinking/Lifting: (9/17/07)
- Activity -- Plot the the sounding of a 100 mb deep layer, with a temperature of -78 at 200 mb at its top, and -58 at 300 mb at its bottom.
- Activity -- Assume that synoptic scale sinking occurs....such that the whole column sinks 300 mb. Take the temperature at the bottom and follow a dry adiabat to 600 mb, and take hte temperature at the top and follow a dry adabat to 500 mb--connect the new points with a straight line...that is your transformed sounding.
- Activity -- What is the difference in stability for the two cases? (Estimate by taking a parcel at the bottom of each sounding and lifting it 100 mb...how much colder is it in the second case.
- Activity -- Now further make this slab sink, another 300 mb and repeat steps 2 and 3.
Sounding 1, Sounding 2
KOAK 1,VVEL, KOAK 2
Case Study
Simplified Vorticity Equation
Quasigeostrophic Equation: Height (pressure) Tendency and Omega Diagnosis
Source for Charts and Analysis
Exercise 3
Lab 4
Subsynoptic Analyses Examples: Outflow Boundary
Exercises 4 and 5
Reading: Chaston pp. 48-64; Djuric Chapter 6 and 9
Misanalyzed 500 mb Chart
What does this mean: "...the dynamics with the incoming system are weak..." --- Quasigeostrophic Equation: Height (pressure) Tendency and Omega Diagnosis
201 Temperature Advection Handout and Example
24 October. Each student will obtain each chart in the Synoptic Overview portion of the handout below for 12 UTC 24 October. On 24 October, I will tell you how each chart is to be prepred (drawn on/colors etc.) The reading in Chaston and Vasquez will help.
Warm Core vs Not Warm Core (Thermal Low vs Dynamic Low)
Basic Diagnostic Overview
Thermal and Dynamic Pressure Systems from Metr 201
Comments on Lab 1
Handout from 201: Div/Conv Upper Waves
10/3/05: "Anomalous" Cloud Lines: VIS 1 KM and 4 KM
"...The most likely cause of the cloud lines stems from the exhaust of ocean going vessels. Large numbers of Aitken nuclei form in this exhaust. These are carried upward by the buoyancy of the hot gases and “ships air wake” to form droplets at slight supersaturation. The phenomenon does not appear related to special characteristics of the vessel's power plant but to a critical condition of the atmosphere. As far as is known, this condition may be described as having 1) a convectively unstable layer from the surface to a low-level stable layer, 2) saturation or slight supersaturation near the top of the convective layer, and 3) a convective layer, presumably deficient in cloud forming nuclei..."
Katrina Radar 1 and 2 and Pressure Wind Trace and US Navy Tropical Cyclone page and Buoy Info
Exercises 4 and 5
December 10, 2007: nam_thick, nam_vort, QG-omega Diagnosis Table, Satellite
nam_vort and nam_thick
Diagnosing Divergence
Quasigeostrophic Equations: Prognostic (Height Tendency) and Diagnostic (Omega)
Exercises 3 Part I and Part II
48 hr: 300 mb height, 300 mb conv, 300 mb vort advection, 500 mb vertical velocity
48 h Nam thick, fronts, advection areas, frontal analysis, overlay
264 h GFS Fcst: Surface Isobars, 500 mb, Advection Analysis, Fronts in Relation to Advection Analysis, Fronts
Surface Isobars and Thickness; Surface Fronts from Thickness Field; 300 mb, Surface Thickness, Surface Thickness Areas, Surface Thickness Areas and Fronts
Inclass Exercise 3
Jet Stream
Federal Meteorological Handbook Number 1
Decoding METARS
Current METARS
Maps: Surface History, Surface Plot, Surface Plot with Present Weather Symbols Colored, 850 mb, 700 mb, 300 mb
Maps: 850 mb (with fronts), 500 mb, and 300 mb
