MET 3003, General Meteorology (Ref # 19359)
Florida International University
Spring 2005

Instructor: Dr. Hugh Willoughby, MARC 368, 305-348-7096, hugh.willoughby@fiu.edu. Email is a good way to reach me.

Time and location: Monday & Wednesday, 9:30-10:45 AM, PC –341

Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1:30-2:30 PM, MARC 368, or by appointment.

Prerequisites: MAC 2311 (Calculus I) and PHY 2048 (General Physics) or permission of the instructor.

Text: Essentials of Meteorology, by C. Donald Ahrens, 4^th Edition, 2005, IBSN 0-534-42264-0. Supplementary class notes.

Course description: A quantitative introduction to the Earth’s atmosphere. Topics include: tropical and midlatitude weather, clouds and convection, solar and infrared radiation, general circulation and climate, and an overview of meteorological dynamics.

Course Goals and Objectives: This course is the first in a series designed to constitute a major in Atmospheric Science within FIU Department of Earth Sciences. As such it provides an introduction to the profession of meteorology and a description of the atmosphere for undergraduate students majoring in physical sciences or engineering. We will answer questions like these:

• What do meteorologists do and how do other professions relate to meteorology?
• What are the history, composition, and broad-scale structure of the atmosphere?
• What are the roles of heat and moisture in the atmosphere?
• Why does the wind blow, and how do pressure systems move?
• What determines the structure and behavior weather systems?
• How do clouds rain, snow, and hail form?
• How and why does the climate change? 

Course organization and philosophy: I hope and expect that you are self-selected for motivation and interest in the atmosphere. This will be a reasonably demanding course, but the class is small enough for substantial interaction and individual attention. Make a genuine effort, and you will do well.

Although Ahrens is a newly-revised text written by the author of the most widely-used books for courses like this one, it is more elementary than the level at which the course will be taught. I’ll provide supplemental notes on more quantitative topics. This book is easy to understand. Please read the assignments before they are covered in class, and bring the book each time we meet because we will refer to some of the figures. I welcome thoughtful questions. Ahrens has a companion website “Meterology Now,”

http://www.earthscience.brookscole.com/ahrens/ess4e/

with pre and post-tests for all chapters and animations of some figures. This material can be a valuable add-on to what we do in class. I will draw a few test questions from the study materials on this site. Registration instructions for “Meteorology Now” and the more general information site, “Infotrac,” maintained by the publisher are included with the book. Don’t lose them.

I see meteorology as a descriptive natural science that often speaks the language of physics and mathematics. You need to learn some basic mathematical ideas here, but we will be selective and focus on essential concepts. Thus, attending the lectures, doing the reading, participating in discussion, and taking careful notes will be keys to success in MET 3003.

Homework	20%
Exam #1	20%
Exam #2	20%
Final	40%
Total	100%

We will have occasional homework, particularly while we’re studying Chapters 4, 5 and 6. A focused effort and understanding of the material should be enough to complete the homework successfully. I encourage you to work together, but don’t copy. There will also be two exams and a final. Format of the exams will be short answer, short (1-2 paragraph) essay, draw and label a sketch, and problems that you will have seen in the homework. Homework and exams will contribute to grades as indicated in the table above on the left, and I plan to use a standard 90-80… scale, as shown to the right, for assigning letter grades.

Grading Scale
100-90	A
90-80	B
80-70	C
70-60	D
Below 60	F

A word about intellectual dishonesty, which I define as claiming someone else’s work or ideas as your own. I won’t tolerate it, and it is a certain way to have a bad outcome in MET 3993. Everyone is trustworthy unless proven otherwise.

Daily Weather: We will use the Internet connection in our classroom and local observations to discuss interesting weather during the first few minutes of each class. Three great web sites are:

http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/

The Miami Weather ServiceRadar:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/newpage/radar.html

And the NCEP web-based surface weather analysis:

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfc2.shtml

On your way to class each day, please notice the clouds, temperature, humidity, and wind. This time of year the fronts pushing south from the snowy north can be spectacular, and by spring we’ll be able to watch some good sea-breeze convection over Florida. I will arrange a class tour of the National Hurricane Center and Weather Forecast Office, probably in March.

Topics and Reading Assignments

Class Notes:

MET 3003 Final Exam, 9:30-12:15 AM, 25 April 2005, in PC 341