Introduction.

How do meteorology and climatology differ? How does weather become climate? How have these distinctions recently been blurred? Whatís a "normal" and how is it used? Name the branches of climatology and describe the concern of each. Which of these is or are emphasized in this course?

The Sun and Radiation

How do solar and terrestrial radiation differ? By what other names are they called? What are the two descriptors of radiation most frequently used? How is solar radiation divided and what are the wavelengths that separate these divisions? How absorptive of solar radiation is earthís atmosphere? Which wavelengths are more strongly attenuated by earthís atmosphere, short or long, and what consequences does this have for climate?

Name the radiation laws that apply here (hint: think Wien, Stefan, Boltzman, Kirchoff, Murphy, etc.). What is blackbody radiation and which of the substances we deal with radiate essentially as blackbodies? Which do not?

How is solar energy transmitted to earth? Define radiation. What are the two other classical means of heat transfer? Which is more important for our earth-atmosphere system? What is the inverse square law? Give an example. What is the solar parameter for earth and what determines it? How would changes in its determinants affect the solar parameter? What would earthís solar parameter be if it revolved around the sun at twice its present distance? What would its mean planetary temperature be for the same situation? How would you go about determining the solar constant for another planet? Why, in calculating earthís mean planetary temperature did we need to divide by four?

What is meant by radiation equilibrium temperature and how does it differ from temperature as defined by the kinetic theory of gasses?

Earth-Sun Geometry

Can you visualize earth-sun geometry and define each of the earth orbital parameters? What effect would changes in each of these have for climate? What are aphelion and perihelion? What explains the seasons? What are the consequences for climate of earth having closest and farthest distances to the sun? Can you plot the latitudinal variation of day length and zenith angle for each of the solstices and an equinox? Write the expressions for irradiance at the top of the atmosphere and at earthís surface and explain each term. Name the determinants of the sunís zenith angle. Can you solve a problem that asks for cos Z when given its determinants? Can you find your latitude if given the date (solar declination)? What is K down and what are its components? How do earth surface albedos differ and what is the significance of these variations for climate? What association can be made between the brightness, or color, of an object and its albedo? Which earth surface substance has an albedo that varies with elevation angle?

What are the two parameters that specify where the sun is in the sky.? Write the expression for each. Work a problem using them. What is a solar path diagram? Explain to someone else how to find the position of the sun using a solar path diagram. Who might be interested in knowing where the sun is?

The Interface, Energy Balance and Net Radiation

Describe and account for the principal differences between the charts showing extraterrestial and surface irradiance. Which has the greater relevance for explaining earthís climate? With respect to both latitudinal and time changes, where are the most and least pronounced gradients and what are their climatic consequences?

What is the interface? Name the streams of radiation that are directed toward it. Name those that are directed away from it. Write the expression (formula) for terrestrial radiation. What does the addition, or summation, of these streams give us? What three fluxes are the sinks of net radiation, or what net radiation is used for? Which of these three is or are transmitted in both directions? Which of these three is or are unequal in their contribution to vertical energy exchange, and which direction predominates for each? Explain how earthís surface loses latent heat energy, and the atmosphere gains it, when evaporation and condensation occur. What weather phenomena are like to occur when latent heat is gained, rather than lost, by the surface? Under what conditions might there be a downward (toward the surface) transfer of sensible heat? Where are daily values of net radation likely to be highest and why? What properties of the soil determine (in part) how rapidly heat is conducted through it?

Compare the magnitudes of L up and L down; which is usually greater in absolute value? What effect does this usually have on Q* (net radiation)? Sketch the typical variation of Q*, H, E, and G on a summer day for a temperate, humid mid-latitude location. Next, assume no water; how does this daily variation differ. What is an "oasis effect" and where might it be found? Is G large or small, typically, in comparison with H and E? What is the Bowen ratio, and what does it tell us about the climate of a location? Give representative values for the Bowen ratio for the continents; which is driest, which most humid? Sketch the annual variation of H and E in a tropical humid climate and in a tropical dry climate. With respect to the annual variation of Q*, H, E, and G: how do West Palm Beach and San Antonio differ? Yuma and Flagstaff (and why is Q* so much greater at the latter)? How do higher and lower mid-latitude locations compare? For how much of the year is Q* negative in middle and high latitude locations? Why does G have such large variation (compared to the other locations youíve examined) in the Lake Mead example? What is the delta F in the Lake Mead example and why does it vary that way?

How do the latitudinal balances of earthís surface, its atmosphere, and the earth-atmosphere system vary (sketch them)? With reference to mean latitudinal values of Q*, H, E, and T: what is T and why does this avenue of heat transport not occur over land; which of the avenues of heat transport do not show low latitude maxima/high latitude minima; how are negative values in the T column interpreted; why is there a secondary minimum of E in low latitudes; what are the implications for atmospheric circulation of successive differences among the latitude spans? By what means is the required transport of heat accomplished? What is the relative important of each of these and how do these contributions vary with latitude? Where is mean annual the transfer of sensible and latent heat a maximum over the oceans

Regarding the earthís annual global mean energy budget: Shortwave: what percent of incoming is reflected, absorbed, transmitted; what is the surface albedo? Longwave: where do the major exchanges take place; how important is convection in maintaining the energy balance and by what ratio does one of these means (latent or sensible) exceed the other; what is the total radiated by the atmosphere and how does it compare with the (solar) incoming; how can the atmosphere (or any part of the system) radiate more than it gets from the sun; give a definition of the greenhouse effect; explain differential transparency; how do clouds affect both the GE and the global energy balance; is the effect of high clouds different from that of low clouds; what gasses are the principal contributors to the GE; how has the atmospheric content of these gasses changed over the last 150 years; what does this portend for the future?

Water in the Earth-Atmosphere System

Why is H2O such a significant climatic element?  Name the six phase changes and indicate for each whether it is an energy gaining or energy losing process.  Give representative values for the latent heats.  How do these vary with temperature?  H2O must change from solid to liquid at 0C, and only at that temperature; is this true also for the reverse process?  At what temperature(s) does H2O change from liquid to vapor?  Is there a temperature above which H2O must be vapor?

The ocean contains what percentage of all water?  Of the fresh water, where is most of it, and where is almost all of the remainder?  By which processes do the largest vertical exchanges of H2O take place, and where does this occur?  What happens to almost all of the water evaporated over the oceans?  About what percent of the precipitation falling on land is derived from evaporation from the land?  Which is greater, the advection of H2O from land to water or vice-versa?  What is transpiration?  Differentiate between percolation and infiltration.  With respect to latitudinal profiles: over land, which is greater at all latitudes, precipitation or evaporation; how do these two quantities compare with their counterparts over the oceans;  in what latitude spans is there a water surplus;  a water deficit?  Describe the variation of absolute and relative humidity with latitude.  Why the difference?  Which continent has the greatest amounts of precipitation, runoff, and evaporation?  Which the least (excluding Antarctica)?

What, exactly, is evaporation from a water surface?  What determines this flux?  How are values of saturation vapor pressure obtained?  Why do we specify flat surface of pure water?  Name the three vapor pressures (actual and saturated) that describe this situation.  Define saturation deficit and relative humidity.  Write the basic expression for the evaporative flux.  What are the other ways of determining this flux and what do they require?  Answer the questions in the first two paragraphs of the transparency entitled "Temporal variations in evaporation at College Station."  Under what conditions of humidity is it possible to get 100 plus temperatures here?

What is potential evaporation and how does it vary among the various climates?  How is PE in a month related to mean monthly temperature?  What are the three climatic variables that form the basis for a water budget?  What are the other six variables which are determined from them?  What are the assumptions of this water budget?  Sketch a graph that shows how PE and precipitation affect the annual course of water surplus or deficiency, and soil water use or recharge, for a humid mid-latitude climate.

How is evaporation measured instrumentally?  Define atmometer, lysimeter, and wick atmometer and explain how they work. How do mean annual pan evaporation, and mean annual lake evaporation differ at a location?  How can this relationship be generalized?  What is precipitable water?  Why is the precipitation in an area not necessarily proportional to it?

Specify the events in the "Path to Precipitation."  What does it take to make a cloud?  To get that cloud to precipitate?  Explain how the difference in saturation vapor pressures over ice and water helps the precipitation process.  With what large-scale circulation mechanisms does the atmosphere accomplish upward vertical motion?  How does the importance of these mechanisms vary among climates?

Global Atmospheric Circulation

Why do we need to know how the atmosphere circulates?  What makes the wind blow?  Why do we say that wind is a vector quantity?  Whatís the convention regarding wind direction?  What is the "job of the atmosphere"?  What four atmospheric properties are conserved as the result of atmospheric circulation?  Differentiate: streamline, isobar and trajectory.  Where might streamlines be preferable to isobars in representing wind speed and direction?  How do horizontal and vertical wind speeds compare?  How are the climatological properties of wind illustrated?  Name the scales of motion and give representative durations and dimensions for each.  What forces are involved in the geostrophic, sub-geostrophic, and gradient approximations to the wind?

.  How does isobaric spacing vary with latitude for the same wind speed?  Explain how one can determine what we called a first approximation to surface circulation.  The second approximation adds what additional factor?  How close does the second approximation come to actual mean annual surface circulation and what explains the differences?  What and where are the so-called "Centers of Action," and how does their intensity and location vary with the seasons?  Regarding the maps of instantaneous circulation features in January and July: which of the Centers of Action were apparent; for the cold fronts specify the mean latitude, intensity and alignment for each month; characterize the intensity of atmospheric circulation for each month.

Sketch a global cross-section showing vertical and meridional circulation features from Equator to pole.  Differentiate among barotropic, equivalent barotropic, and baroclinic atmospheres.  Which is found where?  How does the hypsometric relation explain large-scale circulation features? What implications does the mean horizontal variation of temperature have for circulation?  Describe the principal features of climatologically averaged zonal, meridional, and vertical winds.  Where are the polar and subtropical jet streams?  Describe and account for their seasonal variations in location and intensity.  What is ENSO?  The Walker circulation?  Contrast El nino and La nina, and donít forget to check the walls!

Specify the ways the oceans influence the climate of earth in general, and the separate climates of land areas.  What factors determine the direction surface waters circulate?  What is a gyre, and what is the direction of the circulation of the gyres in each hemisphere?  Name the principal ocean surface currents and specify how each affects its littoral.  What geographic conditions promote the penetration far inland of the effects of ocean currents?  Where is this penetration limited?  Contrast El nino, La nina, and usual conditions with respect to ocean surface temperatures, including thermocline depth, atmospheric circulation features (including subsidence/convergence and the strength of the trades), water levels, extent of upwelling, and strength of the equatorial counter-current.  What is a teleconnection?  Define positive and negative feedback and give examples of each.

Patterns

What is an air mass?  What two atmospheric properties are used to distinguish air masses?  What are the letters indicating each of these properties and what does each indicate?  What are the third letters added to air masses designators and what do they indicate?  Where are the source regions for North American air masses?  Specify characteristic directions these air masses move.  How do air masses change with height?

Describe the global pattern of mean temperature reduced to sea level for January and July.  What is continentality and how can it be quantified?  Specify where on these maps the particular influences of insolation, continentality, topography (blocking/channeling), and ocean surface temperatures can be seen.  What are the other important aspects of temperature (besides mean monthly values)?  Describe the salient features of each of the global maps of these aspects.  Name and define each of the applied aspects of temperature we discussed.

What are the two important aspects of precipitation on a global scale?  Name the controls of mean annual precipitation and specify particular locations where these controls are evident.  What aspects of precipitation, other than mean monthly or annual amount, are important?  Give examples of how this knowledge can be applied.

Climate Classification and World Climates

The science of classification is known as?  What characteristics of the phenomena biology deals with are important for biological taxonomy?  What characteristics of climate are important to us as climatologists?  What are the two general ways in which climate phenomena can be classified?  Which of these is the Koeppen system?  What was the point of Trewarthaís introduction to his text, The Worldís Problem Climates?  Give brief descriptions of each of the five main Koeppen climate types.  What distinguishes B from non-B climates?  What distinguishes the non-B climates?  What do the secondary and tertiary letters for each major type represent?  Can you derive the appropriate Koeppen symbols from a set of data?  Have you practiced this?  The classification system developed by what person has been regarded by some as better than that of Koeppen?  What are the characteristics of that system?

Specify the climate characteristics, including the Koeppen symbols, for the major cities of the world.  For those that apply, can you find analogs in the United State and Canada?  Do you have a mental picture of the location of the boundaries separating major climate types in North America?

Local Climates

What point was your instructor making when he insisted that there is no such thing as micro- or mesoscale climates?  How has the period of time we associate with the word climate changed over the last decade or so?  What are the two aspects of geomorphology that influence local climates?  Explain how topography influences (1) radiation receipts, (2) temperature, (3) precipitation, and (4) wind.  Give geographic examples of each of these.  Explain how and why a "hot spot" climbs up, over, and down a furrow.  Why does cold air drainage occur?  How does it help to explain frost pockets and patchy fog?  What factors of physical geography account for the extreme temperatures encountered at the Barrens near Penn State?  Explain how slope and orientation and height affect precipitation.  Give place examples of these effects.  Distinguish among the following winds: fall, gravity, katabatic.  What do chinook, foehn, and zonda have in common and where does each occur?  Distinguish among winds that are purely locally driven and those initially forced by synoptic conditions and modified by local conditions.  Explain how and why Milwaukee and Grand Haven (Mich.) differ in climate characteristics such as winter and summer temperatures and precipitation.  In what way do most text books inadequately portray land-sea breezes?

How do cities make their own climate?  What are the principal differences between the climates of cities and their rural surrounds?  How does population affect these differences?  What is a heat island?  Compare and contrast wind speed profiles among urban, rural, and sea surfaces and account for the differences.  What does day of the week have to do with precipitation in cities?  What are the reasons for this?  Explain the paradox of less moisture down and more above.  What U.S. city was studied intensively to better understand urban-rural differences?  Why this city?  Summarize urban-rural differences for radiation, temperature, wind speed, relative and absolute humidity, cloudiness and precipitation.