Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting
Master the complex fluid dynamics and thermodynamic processes that drive global weather patterns, from mesoscale convective systems to planetary-scale oscillations.
Like Duolingo, but for Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
83 levels across 8 sections, about 166 minutes end to end, roughly 33 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Synoptic Scale Dynamics, Mesoscale Dynamics and Severe Storms, Boundary Layer and Microphysics, Tropical Meteorology, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), Climate Dynamics and Global Oscillations, Advanced Remote Sensing, and Specialized Forecasting Challenges.
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Key ideas in Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting
- Warm air advection (WAA) acts as a source for upward vertical motion (negative omega)
- Increasing cyclonic vorticity advection with height forces synoptic-scale ascent
- The Omega equation balances the Laplacian of thermal advection and the vertical derivative of vorticity advection
- Positive vorticity advection (PVA) leads to height falls (trough deepening)
- Cold air advection (CAA) leads to height falls by shrinking the thickness of the layer
- The Chi equation relates the local rate of height change to the horizontal distribution of temperature and momentum
- Identifying the physical drivers of vertical motion using the QG Omega equation
- Predicting geopotential height changes based on advection patterns
- Vertical motion is forced by the change in vorticity advection with height
- Stronger PVA aloft than at the surface creates a 'stretching' effect that induces ascent
- Warm air advection increases the thickness (distance) between pressure surfaces
- Increased thickness raises the heights of upper-level pressure surfaces, creating a ridge
- The resulting ageostrophic flow creates upper-level divergence, evacuating mass and lowering surface pressure
- QG theory assumes small Rossby numbers (Ro << 1) and fails when centrifugal forces are significant
- The theory ignores the ageostrophic secondary circulations essential to frontal scales
- The process by which thickness advection drives surface pressure changes
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens to vertical motion when cyclonic vorticity advection increases with height?
Get it right to open this lesson and 82 more in the app.
Where Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting takes you
- 1
Synoptic Scale Dynamics
- Quasi-Geostrophic Theory
- Ageostrophic Circulations and Jet Streaks
- Potential Vorticity Thinking
- 2
Mesoscale Dynamics and Severe Storms
- Convective Initiation and Capping
- Supercell Dynamics and Helicity
- Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS)
- Tornadogenesis and Near-Ground Dynamics
- 3
Boundary Layer and Microphysics
- Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) Parameterization
- Cloud Microphysics and Nucleation
- Mixed-Phase Precipitation Feedbacks
- 4
Tropical Meteorology
- Tropical Cyclone Intensification
- Equatorial Waves and the MJO
- 5
Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP)
- Data Assimilation Techniques
- Grid-Scale vs. Sub-Grid Physics
- Ensemble Forecasting and Uncertainty
- 6
Climate Dynamics and Global Oscillations
- Stratosphere-Troposphere Coupling
- ENSO and Global Teleconnections
- 7
Advanced Remote Sensing
- Dual-Polarization Radar Signatures
- Hyperspectral Sounding and Water Vapor
- 8
Specialized Forecasting Challenges
- Orographic Effects and Complex Terrain
- Fire Weather and Pyrocumulonimbus
8 sections · 21 units · 83 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Atmospheric Dynamics and Forecasting is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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