Textbook

Checkpoint solutions

Part A - Measurements

• Surface convergence is kind of hard to see. The following two maps provide isopleths of surface convergence but the isopleth increment is sometimes too course to be see the pattern. The second plots the moisture convergence, not regular convergence, but that is sufficient for the project.
  • Temperature, convergence and wind at 1000 mb (convergence is indicated by black lines) (source: Unisys; from RUC analysis)
  • Moisture convergence, mixing ratio and radar at the surface (moisture convergence is indicated by the red lines) (source: Storm Prediction Center)
• 700-mb vertical velocity; see info for units of vertical velocity (source: Unisys; from RUC analysis)
• Observed precipitation (source: National Weather Service)

• Surface map with wind and pressure (source: Unisys)
• Wind and pressure at 18,000 ft (source: Unisys)
• streamlines and low and high pressure centers both north and south of the equator. (source: Bureau of Meteorology; Australia)
• The earth wind map is a good way to see the circulations both north and south of the equator.
• surface station models (source: South African Weather Bureau)
• Heights, temperatures and winds at 500 mb (source: Unisys)
• Heights, temperatures and winds at 300 mb (source: Unisys)

Surface Maps

For help in interpreting isopleths, look at the Build a Landscape demo for topographic maps.

• Isobars of Estimated Sea-Level Pressure (U.S. observations; updated hourly) with:
  • data values at surface sites (source: DataStreme) or
  • wind barbs at grid points (source: UCAR from the Rapid Update Cycle model analysis)
  • thickness (dotted line) and precipitation (color) (source: Unisys from NCEP's GFS Model)
• Archives of surface maps
  • Unisys
  • From the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center:
    • Daily Weather Maps (2003-present, including current map)
    • North America Surface Analysis (one-day archive; every three hours)
    • U.S. Analysis/Radar Composite
  • NOAA Central Library (U.S. Daily Weather Maps Project; maps from 1871-2002)
  • DataStreme (one-day archive; every twelve hours)
  • Intellicast
  • USA Today
• Isobars of Estimated Sea-Level Pressure (Southern Hemisphere observations; updated every twelve hours) with:
  • surface station models (source: South African Weather Bureau)
• Iostherms of Surface Temperature (U.S. Observations; updated hourly) with:
  • data values at surface sites (source: DataStreme) or
  • isotherms only (with color) (source: UCAR from the Rapid Update Cycle model analysis)

• National Weather Service
• 2010 Hurricane Season Satellite Loop
• 2013 Satellite Loop (whole year)
• METAR data
  • METAR data (surface observations; up to one-day archive)
  • longer archive
  • map
  • See WMO code manual (starting on page A-25) for information regarding the METAR codes.
• U.S. Standard Atmosphere
• Skew-T Log-P graphs
• Sea-level pressure map (source: DataStreme)
• Surface temperature map (source: DataStreme)
• streamlines and low and high pressure centers both north and south of the equator. (source: Bureau of Meteorology; Australia)
• Wind Map (illustrating the streamlines)
• Unisys Weather maps
• Operational Models Matrix (from UCAR's MetEd)
• Sea-level pressure (source: DataStreme)
• Surface temperature (source: DataStreme)
• Skew-T Log-P for Albany
• U.S. Standard Atmosphere
• MetEd (meteorology training from UCAR) has a module on Skew-T mastery, which shows many of the things mentioned in this course.

• The Weather Underground
• Saturation vapor pressure (in kPa)
• History of the Cloud Chamber
• Video of supercooled water freezing (note how much of it freezes)

Part B - Ideal Gas Law

• Physical Constants (from NIST)
• Web Elements and Periodic Table Live
• Atomic mass info:
  • From Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (gives atomic mass and binding energies of each isotope)
  • From National Institute of Standards and Technology (gives relative abundances, atomic weights and atomic masses)
• For more information, see introduction to JetStream, the online school for weather (National Weather Service)

  Part C - Temperature

  Advection
  • current and yesterday's pressures and temperatures at 6000 ft (source: Unisys)
  • current and yesterday's heights and temperatures at 850 mb (source: Unisys)
  • 00 Z and 12 Z surface maps (source: DataStreme)
  Compression/Expansion
  • Skew-T plots archive (source: U. Wyoming)
  • Blank Skew-T Log-P diagram (source: U. Cal/San Diego)
  Latent Heating/Cooling
  • Freezing water by boiling
  Radiation
  • Venus Fact Sheet (from NASA; also includes information about the Earth)
  • Solar Fact Sheet (from NASA)
  • Solar Irradiance (from NOAA)
  • Solar Spectral Irradiance (from Wikipedia/Global Warming Art)
  • Earth's Radiation Budget (from NASA)
  • Zero and Single-Layer Models of the Atmosphere (from NASA; similar to Figure 10.3 from the text)
  • Global Warming simulation
  • Black Body Simulator (provides distribution of frequencies for a given black body temperature, indicating the different colors that make up the spectrum along with the actual appearance of the object)
  • Greenhouse simulation
  • Pictures of the sun from various days in the year
  • Writings on climate and Alternate viewpoint of global warming (can you evaluate whether it is valid or not?)
  • History of the Global Warming "discovery" (by the American Institute of Physics)
  • Good overview of the science

  Part D - Equilibrium and Newton's second law

  • 1000-500 mb Thickness (source: Unisys)
  • Heights,es and winds at 500 mb (source: Unisys)
  • Molecular Dynamics Applet

  Upper-level Constant-Height Maps (U.S.; updated every twelve hours)

  • Isotherms at 18,000 ft (about 5.5 km) with:
    • sounding station models (source: Unisys)
  • Isotherms at 30,000 ft (about 9 km) with:
    • sounding station models (source: Unisys)

  Upper-level Constant-Pressure Maps (U.S.; updated every twelve hours)

  • Convergence at 1000 mb (gray shading) with:
    • temperature (color shading) and wind vectors (at grid points) (source: Unisys from NCEP's RUC Model)
  • Vertical Velocity at 700 mb (color shading) with:
    • heights (dark black lines) and wind vectors (at grid points) (source: Unisys from NCEP's RUC Model)
  • Data at 500 mb with:
    • sounding station models only and with contours, temperature and humidity (source: UCAR)
    • isoheights, isotherms and sounding station models (source: DataStreme)
    • isoheights, isotherms and sounding station models (source: Unisys)
    • isoheights and absolute vorticity (shading) (source: UCAR from NCEP's ETA model)
    • isoheights and wind barbs (source: Unisys from NCEP's RUC model)
  • Isoheights at 300 mb with:
    • isotachs (dashed lines) and sounding station models (source: DataStreme)
    • sounding station models only and with contours, temperature and humidity (source: UCAR)
    • wind barbs (on grid) and isotachs (shaded) (source: UCAR from the ETA model)
  • Isoheights of 1000-500 mb Thickness with:
    • isoheight shading (source: Unisys)

  Relevant Data

  • Individual Surface Weather Observations
    • The Weather Channel
    • The Weather Underground
    • Archive of Hourly Pennsylvania Surface Observations (Mount Pocono) from the PA State Climatologist.
    • NOWcoast (also provides overlays of radar, satellite, etc.)
    • The Weather Underground maintains a history of surface data (simply input the site and the date)
  • Vertical Structure
    • U.S. Standard Atmosphere
    • Skew-T Log-P for Albany
  • Satellite Data
    • Solar Irradiance (from NOAA)
    • Solar Spectral Irradiance (from NASA)
    • Satellite maps (from UCAR)
    • Full disk with satellite winds (from NOAA; shows evidence of Hadley cell)
    • Full disk IR (from NOAA; shows evidence of ITCZ)
    • Ozone Data (from NASA; Goddard Space Flight Center)
    • Complete list from NASA (Marshall Space Flight Center)
    • Complete list from NASA (GOES)
    • Rare South Atlantic Hurricane; compare with a North Atlantic Hurricane (Mitch); both from NOAA (NESDIS)
    • Video of Particulate motion
    • Videos of hurricane seasons: 2005, 2008 and 2012
  • Good data sources
    • DataStreme (surface, radar, satellite, upper-air, forecasts, etc.)
    • Eye Wall/Penn State (model forecasts)
    • E-Wall/Penn State (F. Gadomski)
    • UCAR Real-Time Weather Data (satellite, surface, radar, upper-air, model forecasts, etc.)
    • Unisys Weather (satellite, surface, radar, upper-air, model forecasts, etc.)
    • The Weather Underground
  • Other Information
    • Material from MIT's Physics of Atmospheres and Oceans course vapor_curve.xls">Saturation vapor pressure (in kPa)
    • Saturation vapor pressure (in kPa)
    • Venus Fact Sheet (from NASA)
    • Solar Fact Sheet (from NASA)
    • The WebElements periodic table (others are also available but this one is pretty nice)
    • The Earth Science World ImageBank has lots of images of weather and other earth science phenomena
    • Archive of METAR data (for the month; Florida State Univ)
    • Surface Data Archive (Plymouth State University)
    • The Crush the Can demo with a railroad tank car
    • The Annual World Energy Consumption
    • Atmospheric Optics
    • A video loop of Hurricane Katrina not only shows the development of the storm but also the diurnal heating over Florida.
    • Time-Lapse Pictures of Atmospheric Phenomena
    • Topozone (topographic maps; 1000 ft difference between Cherry Valley and top of Minsi Ridge)
    • Simulation showing difference between sidereal and synodic months
    • Analemma over New Jersey (movie showing the location of the sun at the same time every day over the course of a year; NASA)
    • Science of straws (Veritasium)

Other Interesting Sites

• Interactive Isotherm Drawing practice (from METEO101 at Penn State)
• Isotherm Drawing practice (from WxWise, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Topographic Maps (ArcGIS)
• Skew-T Log-P plots
• Simulation of Rainbow refraction
• METAR reports
• Cross-section of the atmosphere (ourAmazingPlanet)
• What's warming the world?"
• Explaining "Probability of Precipitation"

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  Last updated: May, 2015.
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