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Course syllabus on the general circulation of the atmosphere at master level (Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris)
A. Circulation as seen from zonal averages
- From the radiation budget to the atmospheric motion
- Observed radiation budget
- Observed meridional fluxes of energy and momentum
- Observations of Hadley and Ferrel cell.
2. Tropics and Hadley circulation
- Introduction / principles
- Held et Hou (1980)'s model
- Extensions of Held et Hou (1980)'s model
3. Mid-latitudes and Ferrel cell
- Principles. Diagnostic elliptic equation
- Role of transient and stationary waves. Eddy heat and momentum fluxes.
- Eliassen-Palm fluxes.
- Transformed Eulerian circulation
B. Tridimensional aspects of the circulation
1. Stationary planetary Rossby waves
- Observations
- Spatial scales / group velocity
- Charney and Eliassen (1949)'s model: barotropic Rossby waves forced by topography
- Ray tracing theory and refractive index.
- Barotropic response to localized orographic forcing.
2. Transient synoptic Rossby waves
- Obervations of wave packets and storm tracks
- Hovmoller diagrams
3. Atmospheric energy budget
- Equations of the available potential energy and kinetic energy
- Lorenz (1955) energy cycle
4. Low-frequency atmospheric variability
- Observations of teleconnections (NAO, PNA) and weather regimes (blockings)
- Charney and DeVore (1979)'s conceptual model
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