Understanding Weather and Climate

Ed Aguado is Professor of Geography( in the Department of Geography(of San Diego State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and his M.A. and B.A. from the UCLA. His research interests are in the precipitation and hydrology of western U.S. mountains. He regularly teaches introductory and advanced meteorology, climatology, and physical geography, and often serves as a consultant and expert witness on climatology and weather. Jim Burt is Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography of the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He received his Ph.D. from the UCLA. His research interests are in physical geography, climatology, quantitative methods, and geovisualization. Burt recently served as the co-principal investigator for SoLIM (Soil Land Inference Model) for soil mapping, using recent developments in GIS, artificial intelligence, and information representation theory, and he is currently involved in new NSF funded research using GIS. He regularly teaches advanced geography and atmospheric science courses.

I. ENERGY AND MASS
1. Composition and Structure of the Atmosphere
2. Solar Radiation and the Seasons
3. Energy Balance and Temperature
4. Atmospheric Pressure and Wind

II. WATER IN THE ATMOSPHERE
5. Atmospheric Moisture
6. Cloud Development and Forms
7. Precipitation Processes

III. DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENT OF AIR
8. Atmospheric Circulation and Pressure Distributions
9. Air Masses and Fronts

IV. DISTURBANCES
10. Mid-Latitude Cyclones
11. Lightning, Thunder, and Tornadoes
12. Tropical Storms and Hurricanes

V. HUMAN ACTIVITIES AND SPECIAL TOPICS
13. Weather Forecasting and Analysis
14. Human Effects: Air Pollution and Heat Islands

VI. CURRENT, PAST AND FUTURE CLIMATES
15. Earth's Climates
16. Climate Changes: Past and Future

VII. SPECIAL TOPICS AND APPENDICES
17. Atmospheric Optics

Appendix A: Unit of Measurement and Conversions
Appendix B: The Standard Atmosphere
Appendix C: Weather Map Symbols
Appendix D: Weather Extremes