Engaging the non-meteorology

student

Engaging the non-meteorology

student

Arlene Laing

COMET/MMM

Let’s start with a quiz!

Oh No!

Don’t worry, it’s not graded

What is Weather?What is Weather?

• The condition of the atmosphere at a particular time and place

"If you don't like the weather, wait a minute.” Mark Twain

What am I? What am I?

I am the daughter of Earth and Water

And the nursing of the Sky

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;

I change, but I cannot die

For after the rain when with never a stain

The pavilion of Heaven is bare,

And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams

Build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenopath,

And out of the caverns of rain,

Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again

“The Cloud”

Percy Shelly

* Water vapor gets together in a cloud. When it is big enough to be called a drop, it does.

According to childrenAccording to children

Elementary Meteorology QuizElementary Meteorology Quiz

Water draining from a bathtub or sink rotates

a) clockwise in the northern and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

b) counter-clockwise in the northern and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

c) cyclonically in both hemispheres.

d) in a direction unrelated to the hemisphere.

USED WITH PERMISSION OF DR. ALISTAIR FRASERhttp://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Quizzes/Met1Quiz/Met-quiz.cgi

Elementary Meteorology QuizElementary Meteorology Quiz

The air flowing around the low pressure center of a large storm rotates

a) cyclonically in both hemispheres. b) anti-cyclonically in both hemispheres. c) cyclonically in the northern hemispheres and

anti-cyclonically in the southern hemisphere. d) anti-cyclonically in the northern hemisphere

and cyclonically in the southern hemisphere.

A LOW PRESSURE STORM SYSTEM IS A CYCLONE. FLOW IN A LOW PRESSURE IS BY DEFINITION CYCLONIC.A LOW PRESSURE STORM SYSTEM IS A CYCLONE. FLOW IN A LOW PRESSURE IS BY DEFINITION CYCLONIC.

What I have usedWhat I have used• Online course material (own site, WebCT, Blackboard)

• Real-time images, animations, graphs

• Conceptual models – CD-ROMS supplied with text, COMET, UIUC, WISC,

Alistair Fraser, CALMET, Texas A&M, …

• Lab exercises– custom-made, text supplement, online sources

• Videos – Discovery, TLC, Weather Channel, National Geographic,

DailyShow, Library collection

• Student web pages– graduate course)

Where I have used MultimediaWhere I have used Multimedia

• Small class lecture (< 25 students)

• Large class lecture (> 150 students)

• Lab exercises (in & outside of class)

• Extra credit (students contribute websites)

• Connecting from the field

• Interpreting Satellite Images• Hurricane tracking & intensity• Atmospheric Stability & Clouds• Precipitation Types• Finding Fronts• Thunderstorms & Tornadoes• General Circulation• Surface fluxes (air–sea temp, winds• Forecast contestUNIDATA TOOLS (McGUI, IDV), Web Browser, Gnumeric

• Power Point• Video• CD-ROMs• Web Modules

• Diary Webpage• Video Clips/Photos

Sample Topics & Tools UsedSample Topics & Tools Used

What we had before the lab

What we had before the lab

What we had before the lab

What we had before the lab

WORK WITH THE STORM YOU HAVE

WORK WITH THE STORM YOU HAVE

Review: http://www.comet.ucar.edu/nsflab/web/explore/o1ir.htm

Review: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/hurrican/movncane/

Gabrielle: Rooftop Weather on the Web

Gabrielle: Rooftop Weather on the Web

Review: http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/home.rxml

Resources for the Course

Resources for the Course

Module started in class. Students encouraged to review

Iowa’s Virtual TornadoBig hit with students & visitors

Power point (Outline before. More slides few days after class)

Text info & Websites

Make new questions

• For Africa, describe the changes in climate (temperature and precipitation) north from Cape Town to Cairo.

• Compare the climates of Kisagani and Mogadishu• Describe the variation in climates of Timbouctou, Ouogadougou, and Mamou

Using the Unidata IDVUsing the Unidata IDV• Unidata IDV used to relate changing pressure and precipitation

over the U.S.  Mean sea level pressure and total precipitation were used.  A ten-frame animation showed the Rossby wave progression and related changes in pressure and precipitation.

• Students then used the data probe to measure mean sea level pressure and precipitation at a given latitude/longitude. After collecting these data, students plotted a simple time series graph of mean sea level pressure, identified the mean sea level pressure at the time of highest precipitation, and identified the trends over time of the two data sets. 

Presentations, Discussions (In class and Online), Videos, Student web pages, Final Conference Style Presentation & Term Paper

Graduate seminar courseGraduate seminar course

Student WebpageStudent Webpage

Connecting from the fieldConnecting from the field

• Dropsonde team on NASA DC-8, CAMEX-4, 2001

• CAMEX Diary (images, video clips, graphs)

• Students - CAMEX scientists emails

• Writing exercise during lull in convection. Students played scientists. Used images from CAMEX-3 to give daily scientific briefing for their team.

Dramatic impact on hurricane science

DC-8

ER-2ER-2

1st eye profile from stratosphere

Where in the storm did the dropsonde fall?

Where in the storm did the dropsonde fall?• the eyethe eye

• the eyewall then drifted the eyewall then drifted into an outer rainbandinto an outer rainband• the eye then drifted into the eye then drifted into the eyewallthe eyewall• the eyewall onlythe eyewall only

Other Exercises: In class and labOther Exercises: In class and lab

• Tracks and ObservationsSatellite, surface, and upper air data to track Erin and Gabrielle

• Will there be a Gabrielle? Examined sea surface temperatures, 850-300mb wind shear, 300mb heights and wind vectors, and Hurricane Heat Potential derived by NOAA AOML.

• IntensificationUsing COMET Remote Sensing laboratory exercise, students learnt to identify mesoscale convective development, eyewall structure, and relate those features to tropical cyclone intensification. Used technique to compare intensity changes in Hurricanes Erin and Felix

More than HurricanesMore than Hurricanes

Western seabreeze thunderstorm line advances eastward

Eastern sea breeze (quasi-stationary)

Western Seabreeze Eastern SeabreezeSeabreezes convergeWeak Tornado forms where sea

breezes converge

Wakimoto and Wilson 1989

Some favorite resourcesSome favorite resources• WW2010, Atmospheric Science, UIUC• WXWISE, SSEC, U of Wisconsin• DLESE• Virtual Tornado - Iowa State (Doug Yarger, Bill Gallus)

• Radiation & Adiabatic Simulation – PALS, Doug Yarger

• Sea Breeze – John Nielsen Gammon, Texas A&M, COMET

• Coriolis, Forces – CD-ROM, Understanding Weather and Climate by Aguado & Burt, UIUC

• Blue Skies (Perry Samson, Ahrens)

• Remote Sensing – WXWise, COMET

• Data archives – FSU, Weather Unisys, Plymouth State, Recent past - Texas A&M, RAL/NCAR