Theoretical Meteorology in the Tropics

Short-term Expert Training Course on Weather Forecasting I

JICA-Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology Improving of Meteorological Observation, Weather Forecasting & Dissemination Project

21 November - 1 December 2016 at Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology

(Updated: 15 August 2017)
Full volume of the textbook may be downloaded from here.

Contents [text]
1. Introduction: Earth's tropical atmosphere and ocean (PM Nov. 21) [slides] [text]
2. Conservation laws and basic equations (AM Nov. 22) [slides] [text]
3. Atmospheric vertical structure: Radiative-convective equilibrium (PM Nov. 22) [slides] [text]
- 3.1. Radiative equilibrium
- 3.2. Radiative-convective equilibrium
- 3.3. Moisture effect
- 3.4. Log-pressure coordinate
4. Mean zonal and meridional circulations (Nov. 23-24) [slides] [text]
- 4.1. Trade wind (Equatorial easterly)
- 4.2. Potential vorticity conservation and inertial instability
- 4.3. Hadley circulation
- 4.4. Monsoon circulation
- 4.5. Brewer-Dobson circulation
5. Equatorial waves (Nov. 28-29) [slides] [text]
- 5.1. Classification of waves in geophysical fluids
- 5.2. Zonal-vertical (Walker) circulation
- 5.3. Atmosphere-ocean interaction and El Niño-southern oscillation (ENSO) Indian-Ocean dipole mode (IOD)
- 5.4. Wave-mean flow interaction and quasi-biennial oscillation(QBO) and semi-annual oscillation (SAO)
6. Convection: Why can't we predict rainfall? (Nov. 30-Dec. 1) [slides] [text]
- 6.1. Sea-land breeze circulation (Horizontal convection)
- 6.2. Conditional instability and clouds (Vertical convection)
- 6.3. Conditional instability of second kind (CISK) and tropical cycones
- 6.4. Multiple-scale cloud clusters and intraseasonal variations (ISVs): Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO)
Acknowledgments [text]
References [text]
Review / Discussions 1 (AM Nov. 25)
Review / Discussions 2 (PM Dec. 1)
Open seminar: Tropical coastlines controlling global climate (AM Dec. 2) [abstract]
Further readings / References
Some relatively new, excellent textbooks:
- Holton (1972, 1979, 1992, 2004) - An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology (4th ed.) (International Geophysics Series 16, 23, 48, 88) [3rd Ed., electronic web]
- Wallace & Hobbs (1977, 2006) - Atmospheric Science: An Introductory Survey (2nd ed) (International Geophysics Series 92)
- Gill (1982) - Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics (International Geophysics Series 30)
- Hastenrath (1985, 1991) - Climate Dynamics of Tropics (Updated Edition) (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Library 8)
- Houze (1993, 2014) - Cloud Dynamics (2nd Ed.. electronic) (International Geophysics Series 53, 104) [1st Ed., scanned] [web]
- Wang (ed) (2006) - The Asian Monsoon
- Marshall & Plumb (2008) - Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics: An Introductory Text [Elsevier website with original images]
- Stull (2015) - Practical Meteorology: An Algebra-based Survey of Atmospheric Science [University of British Columbia website]
Meteorology / Climatology of Sri Lanka
Yamanaka's electronic library (Hundreds books in English/Japanese, with a few in German/Indonesian)
Photos (by Dr. Ishihara)

Theoretical Meteorology in the Tropics

Short-term Expert Training Course on Weather Forecasting I

JICA-Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology Improving of Meteorological Observation, Weather Forecasting & Dissemination Project

21 November - 1 December 2016 at Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology

(Updated: 15 August 2017) Full volume of the textbook may be downloaded from here.

(Updated: 15 August 2017)
Full volume of the textbook may be downloaded from here.