Notes & Slides:
Lecture Notes:
(Note links will become active, i.e., with something behind
them, as we go along)
WEEK 1.
Notes:
Week
1: 1.0-1.1 Categories of planetary atmospheres, Hydrostatics,
Composition and Equation of state
Week
1-2: 1.1.2 Column abundance: Mars ozone and water,
1.1.3 Convection, Stability, PBL, Condensables and clouds
Slides:
L1
Atmospheric structure
L2 Convection and condensables
WEEK 2.
1.1.4
Water on other planets: Mars, Venus, and Jupiter(s))
1.1.4
Titan's methane cycle Sanchez
et al (2004) -- a tutorial on clouds in planetary
atmospheres, from clouds on Earth to 'silicate rock vapor' clouds
on Hot Jupiters
L3:
Condensables Continued
WEEKS 3-5
Slides:
L4:
Energy sources and orbits,
L5:Rad_Transfer_coordinates,
quantities,
L6:
Extinction, scattering, Vis-UV,
L7:
Rad transfer: IR
Notes:
1.2
Planetary
Energy Sources. Stellar radiation. Orbits. Climate feedbacks and
sensitivity. Radiative time constants.
1.3
Radiation theory; Visible and UV transfer;
Mars
case study in UV
1.3.3
Radiation theory and application: Infrared radiative transfer
; (for the math-challenged: recap on
Integrating
Factors)
Basic concepts for radiative-convective equilibrium:
Skin
temperature and some
radiative-convective
thought experiments
1.3.5
Radiative-Convective equilibrium; A glimpse at the runaway
greenhouse
A
simple derivation of the runaway greenhouse limit
The following is a reading assignment. Please read Sec. 2.5 in the
following, which concerns molecular absorption/emission (useful
for Homework 3):
Section
2.5 from David C. Catling and James F. Kasting (2017) Atmospheric
Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds, Cambridge
University Press.
To complement the reading, we will do some problems in class
concerning the material in the reading.
WEEK 6:
1.4
Planetary Atmospheric Chemistry Principles. An overview of
Earth's stratosphere+troposphere and Venus
1.4
Appendix: "Term Symbols" and Atomic States: Quantum Chemistry
1.4.5
Atmospheric Chemistry on Mars
WEEK 7,8:
1.4.6,
1.4.7 Atmospheric Chemistry: Titan, Giant Planets
1.8
Atmospheric Escape, Part 1 - The range of processes
1.8
Atmospheric Escape, Part II: Limiting flux. Escape on Earth,
Mars, Venus, Titan
2.0
Atmospheric Origins and Evolution. 2.1 Planet formation 2.2
Early Earth 2.3 Earth's atmospheric evolution
2.4
Atmospheric Evolution on Mars, 2.5 Evolution On Venus and the
Runaway Greenhouse
Some reading on early Mars' atmospheric evolution:
Catling
(2014) Mars Atmosphere: History and Surface Interactions;
Carr (2012) The
Fluvial History of Mars.
Some light reading on early Earth's atmospheric evolution: Catling
(2013)
From
slime to the sublime, Chapter 4 of
Astrobiology:
A Very Short Introduction, Oxford Univ. Press.
Some reading on planetary atmosphere dynamics:
Showman
et al. (2010) Atmospheric circulation of exoplanets
General reading on Planetary Atmospheres:
Catling
(2015) Planetary Atmospheres review/tutorial.
3.0-3.3
Dynamics: Eqns, Geostrophic balance, Rossby No., Cyclostrophic
balance
3.4-3.5:
More Dynamics: Jets, Hadley circulation
3.5
(Continued) conceptual
tools of fluid dynamics; instabilities; unexplained puzzles of
planetary circulations