Meteorology

• Course for the Laurea Magistralis in Environmental and Biomedical Physics at Turin University

• CFU: 6 ; hours: 48

• The understanding of the lectures would be easier with the following courses: Atmospheric Physics (I and II), Introduction to meteorology

• Start: beginning of January. Date and times: Monday and Tuesday, 11-13; Thursday, 9-11.

• A copy of the slides presented during the lectures is available by double-clicking on the lecture names. The slides are written partially in Italian and partially in English. The lecture number does not refer to the day of lecture.

• I am grateful to Dr. Andrea Buzzi (ISAC-CNR, Bologna), to Dr. Tosi, to AT 350/351, Meteorology 1111, the COMET program for allowing me to partially use their didactic material for preparing my lectures.

Lecture	Argument ATTENTION: new files are on campusnet website the links here are referring to OLD files (sorry: I am putting the files slowly - please be patient!!!)
1	Introduction and historic background of the meteorology
2	How to interpret the weather maps
3	Radiation and optics
4	Mechanisms of precipitation and cloud formation
5	Clouds
6	Summary of equations
7	Vorticity equation
8	Frontogenesis
9	Quasi-geostrophic approximation
10	Tendency equation
11	Omega equation
12	General atmospheric circulation (1/2)
13	General atmospheric circulation (2/2)
14	Elements of climatology
15	Local storms and extreme events
16	Local winds
17	Case studies (1/2)
18	Case studies (2/2)
19	Numerical models

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The lectures will be integrated by some seminars (invited speakers: Dr. Nicola Loglisci, ARPA Regional Weather Service, Piedmont Region: The meteorological activity in a weather center; Dr. Luca Mercalli, Italian Meteorological Society, Turin: The actual and past climate of Piedmont region). Seminars will be in the third period (April-June 2005).

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REFERENCES suggested and followed in the course

• This book is suggested as introductory for many meteorological processes, as style is colloquial and descriptive, but not formal. Figures and pictures are of good quality.
  Joseph M. Moran e Michael D. Morgan, Meteorology, The Atmosphere and the Science of Weather, Mc Millan College Publishing Company, 1994, ISBN 0-02-383341-6 
• This book is suggested as second step, as it is possible to deepen many arguments from a physical point of view. Figures and pictures are in black and white and not good quality.
  Robert McIlveen, Fundamentals of Weather and Climate, Chapman & Hall, 1995, ISBN 0-412-41160-1
• This book is a milestone for the study of the atmosphere dynamics.
  James R. Holton, An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Academic Press, 1992, ISBN 0-12-354355-X
• If somebody is interested in knowing if the climate is really changing, or if it is possible to correctly forecast the weather, or even what is a numerical model, how it works, what result it is possible to expect. The following book can give an answer physically based. I suggest to read this book to graduating students and also to normal people, as the mathematical and physical background needed to understand this book is not too big.
  A. Pasini, I cambiamenti climatici: Meteorologia e clima simulato, Bruno Mondadori, 2003, 272 pp, Euro 14,00, ISBN 88-424-9146-2
• An interesting (and, in some sense, unusual) book suggested to deepen our knowledge about some meteorological backgrounds connected to episodes occurring in the usual life is the following. The title derives from the well known phenomenon of the cloud which appears for few seconds in a fresh bottle of wine or beer when opened.
  Craig F. Bohren, Clouds in a Glass of Beer, John Wiley & Sons, 1987, ISBN 0-471-62482-9
• This book is one of the few book written in Italian. More than 200 years of observations are analysed and the main results are summarised, including statistical analyses of the main variables. It is an indispensable book for who want to study the climate of the Torino province.
  Gennaro Di Napoli e Luca Mercalli, Moncalieri – 130 anni di meteorologia 1865-1994, Società Meteorologica Subalpina (ora Italiana), 1996, ISBN 88-900099-0-X
• Other references