- Docente: Nadia Pinardi
- Credits: 7
- SSD: GEO/12
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Ravenna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Environmental Sciences (cod. 8011)
Learning outcomes
The course is meant to give the basic knowledge of
hydrodynamics and thermodynamics for the ocean and the atmosphere
both at the mathematical-physical level and the phenomenological one. The
course starts by illustrating the climatological structure of the
ocean and the atmosphere, vertical and horizontal, winds and
currents, and discussing the radiative balance of the Earth and it
ends with fundamental equation for atmospheric and oceanic motion
and their useful approximations.
Course contents
Part I
Introduction to the vertical structure of the atmosphere and oceans
Solar radiation, radiative balance and greenhouse effect
Climatological structure of the atmospheric and oceanic circulation
El Nino and La Nina phenomenon
The Monsoon and the teleconnections, including the North Atlantic
Oscillation
Part II
The basic concepts of fluid dynamics applied to the Earth
system
The advective derivative
The equation of motion and internal/external forces
Gravity, pressure and shear stresses
Transformation of the equations in the Earth rotating system
Coriolis acceleration
The continuity equations
The Navier-Stokes equations for the atmosphere and
oceans
Passive and active tracers equations
Reynolds turbulence theory
Thermodynamics for ocean and atmosphere
Sea Water equation of state
Atmospheric equation of state
Scale analysis of the equations of motion
Boussinesq, incompressible and hydrostatic approximations
Geostrophic currents
Gravitational stability and stratification conditions
Readings/Bibliography
Oort and Peixoto, Physics of Climate
Marshall and Plumb, Atmopshere, Ocean and Climate Dynamics
Lecture notes
Teaching methods
6 CFU with frontal lectures and 1 CFU of classroom exercises at the blackboard.
Assessment methods
Two are the tests:
1) an essay on recent scientific issues related to the atmosphere
and ocean dynamics;
2) a written test similar to the exercises and solutions given as
part of the Lecture Notes
The final grade will be the arithmetic average of the results of the two tests
Teaching tools
several e-learning movies from the professional community
Links to further information
Office hours
See the website of Nadia Pinardi