Climatology

Fundamental principles of climatology. Earth‟s radiation balance; latitudinal and seasonal variation of insolation, temperature, pressure, wind belts, humidity, cloud formation and precipitation, water balance. Air masses, monsoon, Jet streams, tropical cyclones, and ENSO. Classification of climates – Koppen‟s and Thornthwaite‟s scheme of classification. Climate change.

Physical Meteorology

Thermal structure of the atmosphere and its composition. Radiation: basic Laws – Rayleigh and Mie scattering, multiple scattering, radiation from the sun, solar constant, effect of clouds, surface and planetary albedo. Emission and absorption of terrestrial radiation, radiation windows, radiative transfer, Greenhouse effect, net radiation budget; Thermodynamics of dry and moist air: specific gas constant, Adiabatic and isoentropic processes, entropy and enthalpy, Moisture variables, virtual temperature; Clausius – Clapeyron equation, adiabatic process of moist air; thermodynamic diagrams: Hydrostatic equilibrium: Hydrostatic equation, variation of pressure with height, geopotential, standard atmosphere, altimetry. Vertical stability of the atmosphere: Dry and moist air parcel and slice methods. Tropical convection. Atmospheric optics – visibility – optical phenomenon – rainbows, haloes, corona, glarg, mirage.

Atmospheric Electricity

Fair weather electric field in the atmosphere and potential gradients, ionization in the atmosphere. Electrical fields in thunderstorms, theories of thunderstorm electrification – Structure of lightening flash-mechanism of earth-atmospheric change balance-role of thunderstroms.

Cloud Physics

Cloud classification, condensation nuclei, growth of cloud drops and ice-crystals, precipitation mechanisms: Bergeron, Findeisen process, coalescence process – Precipitation of warm and mixed clouds, artificial precipitation, hail suppression, fog and cloud – dissipation, radar observation of clouds and precipitation, radar equation, rain drop spectra, radar echoes of hail storm and tornadoes, radar observation of hurricanes, measurements of rainfall by radar.

Dynamic Meteorology

Basic equations and fundamental forces: Pressure, gravity, centripetal and Coriolis forces, continuity equation in Cartesian and isobaric coordinates. Momentum equation Cartesian and spherical coordinates; scale analysis, inertial flow, geostrophic and gradient winds, thermal wind. Divergence and vertical motion Rossby, Richardson, Reynolds and Froude numbers. Circulation, vorticity and divergence; Bjerknese circulation theorem and applications, vorticity and divergence equations, scale analysis, potential vorticity, stream function and velocity potential. Atmospheric turbulence: Mixing length theory, planetary boundary layer equations, surface layer, Ekman layer, eddy transport of heat, moisture and momentum, Richardson criterion; Linear Perturbation Theory: Internal and external gravity waves, inertia waves, gravity waves, Rossby waves, wave motion in the tropics, barotropic and baroclinic instabilities. Atmospheric Energetics: Kinetic, potential and internal energies – conversion of potential and internal energies into kinetic energy, available potential energy.