General Information
Project topics should be decided at midterm. Students can select one of the suggested topics below or come up with a topic themselves in consultation with the instructor. The project can be either original or a review. Project presentations took place in the last week of class. Students had 12 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for questions.
Suggested Project Topics
- Super-rotation (theory and observations)
- The Hadley cells in past climates or on other planets
- More advanced theories of the Hadley cells
- Parameterization of gravity wave drag in weather and climate models
- Dynamics of monsoons
- PV-theta view of atmospheric dynamics, including the influence of diabatic heating
- Dynamics of the annular modes
- Dynamics of blocking
- Macroturbulence of Earth’s atmosphere
- Angular momentum balance (imbalance?) of Earth’s atmosphere
- Response of the jet stream / storm tracks to climate change
- Atmospheric dynamics on a high-obliquity planet
- Diabatic Rossby vortices (extratropical storms in which latent heating plays a major role)
- Gravity wave generation (and propagation) from wind farms
Project Grading
The written report and class presentation are each worth 20% of the grade for the course.
