E-Learning Course: Atmospheric Science

A e-learning course titled, ‘Introduction to Atmospheric Science’ developed by C Balaji, IIT Madras, for National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), India. This course contains video lectures on the following topics:

1. Introduction
2. Atmosphere-A brief survey (Pressure, Temperature and Chemical composition)
3. Atmosphere-A brief survey contd … (Vertical structure of the atmosphere)
4. Vertical structure of atmosphere contd … and The Earth system – Oceans
5. The Earth system – Oceans Contd … and Marine biosphere
6. The Earth system – Hydrological cycle
7. The Earth system – Hydrological cycle contd … and Carbon cycle
8. The Earth system – Carbon cycle contd…, and Carbon in the oceans Earth’s crust
9. The Earth system – Carbon in the oceans Earth’s crust
10. Atmospheric Thermodynamics- Introduction
11. The hydrostatic equation
12. Hypsometric equation and pressure at sea level
13. Basic Thermodynamics
14. Concept of air parcel and dry adiabatic lapse rate
15. Potential temperature
16. Skew-T ln-P chart
17. Problems using Skew-T ln-P chart
18. Problems using Skew-T ln-P chart.
19. Problems using Skew-T ln-P chart..
20. Lifting Condensation Level (LCL)
21. Lifting condensation level Contd…
22. Saturated Adiabatic and Psuedo-adiabatic processes
23. Equivalent potential temperature and wet bulb potential temperature
24. Normand’s rule – Chinook winds
25. Problems on Chinook wind and static stability
26. Static stability-Brunt-Visala frequency
27. Conditional and convective instability
28. Static stability – Problems using radiosonde data and skew T ln P chart
29. The second law of thermodynamics – Clausius Clapeyron relation
30. Clausius Clapeyron relation contd..
31. Atmospheric radiation – Radiation laws
32. Planck’s distribution and Inverse square law
33. Physics of scattering, emission and absorption
34. Physics of scattering, emission and absorption contd…
35. Radiative Transfer Equation – Derivation
36. Radiative Transfer Equation contd …
37. Radiative heating profiles of the atmosphere
38. Climate Dynamics – Introduction
39. Climate sensitivity and feedback
40. Climate change
41. Atmospheric dynamics

A transcript on the lectures is also provided.

Students will be introduced to the various aspects of atmospheric sciences and learn about some of the key phenomena, theories and equations used to study it.  

About the tool

Tool Name	Introduction to Atmospheric Science
Discipline	Earth Sciences, Physics
Topic(s) in Discipline	Atmospheric Sciences, Earth system, Atmosphere, Thermodynamics, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Clausius Clapeyron, Planck’s law, Radiative Transfer, Radiation
Climate Topic	Climate and the Atmosphere
Type of tool	E – Learning Course
Grade Level	Undergraduate, Graduate
Location	Global
Language	English
Translation
Developed by	C Balaji, IIT Madras
Hosted at	NPTEL
Link	https://nptel.ac.in/courses/119/106/119106008/
Access	Online
Computer Skills	Basic