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There is a very good reason that you are taking this class and I am teaching it – all of us are fascinated by the weather, awed by the atmosphere’s power, and passionate about learning more about it. Quite honestly, I can’t imagine a more rewarding career than the one that you are embarking upon or the one that I have. Nothing could be more rewarding than saving lives by making the atmosphere more predictable or by making the perfect prediction. Nothing.
But, do you know what? The best forecasters are the ones who can not only read weather maps, but who also know physically what the atmosphere is doing. The best forecasters know how to translate the physics into mathematics so that hand-waving can be turned into usable numbers. This course will start to make all of these connections between observations and physical cause-and-effect and help us find numerical solutions to questions.
For those of you who are in related disciplines, this course will give you a solid basic understanding of the atmosphere that you can apply in your studies and career, whether it be civil engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, chemistry, hydrology, or many other fields.
We have now reviewed some important concepts like significant figures and dimensions and units. You will continue to gain confidence in using the differential and integral calculus that you already know. As you go through the course, I want you to look back at the pictures of the atmosphere and imagine which equations are governing the processes that are causing your observations.
Reminder - Complete all of the Lesson 1 tasks!
You have reached the end of Lesson 1! Make sure that you have completed all of the tasks in Canvas.