Objectives of Programme's Learning Outcomes

• Help lead and complete a major development project, individually or in teams, related to chemistry.
• Mobilise, articulate and promote the knowledge and skills acquired.
• Communicate clearly in the scientific domain.
• Communicate, both orally and in writing, their findings, original proposals, knowledge and underlying principles, in a clear, structured and justified manner.
• Develop and integrate a high degree of autonomy.
• Aquire new knowledge independently.
• Pursue further training and develop new skills independently.
• Apply high quality scientific methodology.
• Demonstrate thoroughness, independence, creativity, intellectual honesty, and ethical values.

Learning Outcomes of UE

At the end of this course, students will be able to establish and apply the fundamental equations of dynamic and thermodynamic to the physics of the atmosphere, in order to understand the different aspects of the main meteorological phenomena. They will also have discovered the field of operational weather forecasting, both from the point of view of the tools used and the applied methodology.
 

UE Content: description and pedagogical relevance

*Introduction: Vertical structure of the atmosphere and specific scales of weather phenomena;

*Atmospheric thermodynamic:
-thermodynamic of dry, wet and saturated air - representation of thermodynamic processes in the atmosphere (emagram 761) - condensation & precipitations processes - air mass indicators - atmospheric stability/instability;
+ link with/illustration by weather phenomena (clouds development and types, fog, precipitations types, convection and thunderstorms, Foehn phenomenon, and so on);

*Atmospheric dynamic:
-equation of motion (general form and expression in the meteorological reference system), hydrostatic balance, Laplace equation, pressure coordinate system - geostrophic/ageostrophic wind, gradient wind, impact of friction, thermal wind;
+ link with/illustration by weather phenomena (wind, wind deviations, sea breeze, jet-stream, and so on);
-equation of continuity;
-vorticity and equation of vorticity evolution (+ quasi-geostrophic approximation);
-vertical motions: omega equation + interpretation;
+ link with/illustration by weather phenomena (tornado, "thermal" and "dynamic" low/high pressure systems, cyclogenesis, frontogenesis & front types, ridges and throughs, and so on);

* Operational meteorology (visit of the Royal Meteorological Institute):
-observation tools (variables measurement and analysis, satellite pictures, RADAR, and so on) ;
-forecast methodology (at very short, short and medium range): extrapolation at very short term - numerical weather forecast models (deterministic and probabilistic forecast) - communication of weather forecast & warnings.
 

Prior Experience

Basic notion of mechanic (equation of motion) in non inertial reference systems;
-Basic notion of ideal gas thermodynamic.