Course description
Students deepen their understanding of the atmospheric circulation and important modes of variability: the fundamental laws of atmospheric dynamics, qualitative and quantitative description of the general circulation of Earth’s atmosphere, waves and low and high pressure systems of the mid-latitudes as well as two import modes of variability (the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niño Southern Oscillation). After an introduction to the history of assessing the nature of the atmospheric circulation the students get first familiar with the physical laws to describe atmosphere dynamics. The students understand and are able to simplify the governing equations of motion of the atmosphere to describe phenomena of the atmospheric circulation. The students understand the zonally averaged circulation including the momentum and the energy budget. Another focus is set to the mid-latitudes and the underlying dynamics of the west wind drift: The students will learn about Rossby waves and baroclinicity which delivers a first step to understand cyclones (low-pressure system) and anti-cyclones (high pressure systems). Finally, they learn about the North Atlantic Oscillation, the leading mode of variability in the Atlantic-European area during winter and the most important mode of the Earth climate system El Niño Southern Oscillation in the tropical Pacific. The latter will also serve as an example of a coupled atmosphere-ocean system.
