Undergraduate - UnitATM2030 - Clouds, weather and forecasting

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Science
Organisational Unit	School of Mathematical Sciences
Offered	Clayton First semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Danijel Belusic

Synopsis

This unit examines cloud processes, the dynamics and prediction of severe storms (including tornadoes and tropical cyclones), the structure and evolution of extra-tropical cyclones and their associated fronts, and the techniques used in forecasting the day-to-day weather.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

Understand the basic physical theories of atmospheric processes, including the dynamics of motion and atmospheric thermodynamics;

Relate the theories with the development and structure of real-life weather systems, including severe storms, tornadoes and tropical cyclones, and use the resulting techniques for forecasting day-to-day weather;

Understand the formation of clouds;

Distinguish and classify different cloud types;

Develop, apply, integrate and generate knowledge to analyse and solve problems in atmospheric physics;

Collect, organise, analyse and interpret quantitative information meaningfully using mathematical and statistical tools.

Assessment

Examination (3 hours): 60%
Field trip, laboratory work, assignments and tests: 40%
Students are required to satisfactorily complete the laboratory work and pass the final examination.