Content

Introduction in modeling the climate system and the role of the atmosphere
Processes, resolution and parametrizations
Weather forecasting versus climate models
Climate models
Numerical weather prediction
Nowcasting
Atmospheric dynamics
Extratropical cyclones
Horizontal equation of motion
Geostrophic and thermal wind
Basic equations for the conservations of mass, heat, momentum, water, gasses and aerosols
The primitive equations: a simplification of the basic equations
Numerical discretisation: Finite difference method, truncation errors and consistency, convergence and stability criteria
Cloud and precipitation processes
Nucleation of wate vapor condensation
Microstructures of warm clouds
Cloud liquid water content and entrainment
Growth of cloud droplets in warm clouds
Parametrisation of clouds and precipitation
Inferred, simple and complex cloud schemes
Convertive parametrisations
Parametrisation of clouds and precipitation in the ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System) model
Evaluating clouds and precipitation from atmospheric models
Verification: traditional skill scores, “fuzzy”verification scores, object-oriented verification scores
Evaluating climatologies
Long-term evaluation
Regime dependent evaluation
Case studies

Course material

-         Wallace, John M. and Peter V. Hobbs, 2006. Atmospheric Science, Volume 92, Second Edition: An Introductory Survey, Academic Press; 2 edition, 506pp, ISBN: 978-0127329512.
-         Meteorology Education and Training (MetEd): http://www.meted.ucar.edu/
-         COSMO parametrization of clouds and precipitation: COSMO homepage: http://www.cosmo-model.org/
-         Scientific papers
-         Powerpoint presentations
-         Toledo website

Format: more information

In about 36 hours it is discussed how atmospheric models work and what are the physical processes that are taken into account in atmospheric models. Both dynamical and physical concepts of atmospheric models are covered by the course. For the dynamical part, the theory of atmospheric dynamics is discussed it is explained how primitive equations are discretised and programmed. For the physical part of the atmospheric model, we focus on the processes of cloud and precipitation formation. The learning activities consist of interpretation of information given by the lecturer, in which active participation of the student is required by questions and tasks. Each students will also present a (part of) a scientific paper including a critical reflection on the paper. After that, a discussion on scientific papers will take place with the entire group of students. It is expected that all students read the paper before the lecture and prepare questions and reflections on the paper. Take home assignments are given in which the students apply the physical and empirical laws in order to 1. – predict the evolution of the atmospheric system in a certain situation and 2. – simplify the equations to make them suitable to solve specific problems. It is expected that the students perform these take home assignments and that they read the course material related to the session before the next session. Time is reserved to answer questions on the take home assignments and on the course material.

Content

Introduction in modeling the climate system and the role of the atmosphere
Processes, resolution and parametrizations
Weather forecasting versus climate models
Climate models
Numerical weather prediction
Nowcasting
Atmospheric dynamics
Extratropical cyclones
Horizontal equation of motion
Geostrophic and thermal wind
Basic equations for the conservations of mass, heat, momentum, water, gasses and aerosols
The primitive equations: a simplification of the basic equations
Numerical discretisation: Finite difference method, truncation errors and consistency, convergence and stability criteria
Cloud and precipitation processes
Nucleation of wate vapor condensation
Microstructures of warm clouds
Cloud liquid water content and entrainment
Growth of cloud droplets in warm clouds
Parametrisation of clouds and precipitation
Inferred, simple and complex cloud schemes
Convertive parametrisations
Parametrisation of clouds and precipitation in the ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System) model
Evaluating clouds and precipitation from atmospheric models
Verification: traditional skill scores, “fuzzy”verification scores, object-oriented verification scores
Evaluating climatologies
Long-term evaluation
Regime dependent evaluation
Case studies

Course material

(See G0B79a Atmospheric Modelling)

Format: more information

Three projects are performed by the students using matlab, high-performance computing, linux, netcdf and cdo:

Project 1: Introduction (4 contact hours): Introduction to HPC (linux environment, commands); Working with GCM output (netcdf and visualisation in matlab / idrisi; cdo)

Project2: Numerics (4 contact hours + 5 hours working independently). Develop a simple computer model in MATLAB which simulates the advection of a wave using different numerical techniques.

Project3: COSMO modeling (8 contact hours + 9 hours working independently: Setup of COSMO model run, model configuration and start of the runs. Analyse COSMO model run, comparison between sensitivity and control run, interpretation. Evaluation of COSMO run using measurements.