Project 4: Circulation | Projects | Weather and Climate Laboratory | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

In this final project, we draw together some of the ideas explored in Projects 1, 2, and 3 and apply them to study, using atmospheric data and a rotating annulus, aspects of the general circulation of the atmosphere.

Project Description (PDF)

Notes on relevant theory:

Lecture Notes from course 12.003 (Physics of Atmospheres and Oceans) - Chapter 5: The Meridional Structure of the Atmosphere — temperature, pressure, moisture and winds ( This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader. PDF - 4.1 MB)

Lecture Notes from course 12.003 (Physics of Atmospheres and Oceans) - Chapter 8: The General Circulation of the atmosphere — Hadley and middle latitudes circulation-heat and momentum budget ( This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader. PDF - 1.5 MB)

For an introduction to General Circulation can be found at the Weather in a Tank Web site

Tank Experiments

A description of the Low Rotation Experiment can be found at the Weather in a Tank Web site
A description of the High Rotation Experiment can be found at the Weather in a Tank Web site

Atmospheric Data

Hadley cell

Climatology from NCEP Reanalysis: Weather in a Tank – Atmosphere Hadley
Instructions for plotting of NCEP reanalysis zonally averaged fields

Eddy heat transport

Eddy heat transport from NCEP Reanalyis: Weather in a Tank – Atmosphere Eddies
Instructions for plotting transient heat fluxes