Atmospheric and ocean circulations

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

In this course, we will look at many important aspects of the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, from length scales of meters to thousands of km and time scales ranging from seconds to years. We will assume familiarity with concepts covered in course 12.003 (Physics of the Fluid Earth). In the early stages of the present course, we will make somewhat greater use of math than did 12.003, but the math we will use is no more than that encountered in elementary electromagnetic field theory, for example. The focus of the course is on the physics of the phenomena which we will discuss.

The assessment will be in three parts (with weight toward final grade):

Assignments are handed out approximately every two weeks and on material covered in the previous 2 weeks.

There is no set text -- notes will be handed out at each class and references for background or further reading will be pointed out wherever I think they will be useful.

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