The School of the Physical Universe · physics, chemistry, earth & sky
Meteorology & Climate
Why the weather does what it does — from an afternoon thunderstorm to the slow, century-scale drift of climate.
Air pressure, fronts, and the water cycle — the machinery behind the forecast, at a first-pass level.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — The Air Above
The atmosphere in layers · Air pressure and what it means · Why wind blows · How the Sun heats the Earth unevenly
Unit II — Water in the Sky
Evaporation and humidity · How clouds form · The cloud families · Rain, snow, sleet, and hail
Unit III — Weather Systems
Air masses and fronts · Highs and lows · Reading a simple weather map · Why forecasts sometimes miss
From surface charts to model output — how a forecast is assembled, and how to make your own defensible one.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~18 hours
Unit I — Observation
Surface observations and METARs · Upper-air soundings · Radar and satellite imagery · What the sky itself tells you
Unit II — The Charts
Isobars and pressure systems · Fronts on the map · The 500-millibar chart and why forecasters look up · Thickness and temperature
Unit III — Models and Judgment
How numerical models work · Ensembles and uncertainty · Known model biases · Writing a forecast and verifying it afterward
The ingredients of dangerous weather — instability, shear, and warm water — and the warning systems built on them.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~16 hours
Unit I — Thunderstorms
Instability and what CAPE measures · Storm types: single cell to supercell · Lightning · Hail and downbursts
Unit II — Tornadoes
Where rotation comes from · Supercells and the hook echo · The Enhanced Fujita scale · Watches versus warnings
Unit III — Hurricanes
How tropical cyclones form · Structure: the eye and the eyewall · Storm surge, the deadliest part · Forecasting the track and reading the cone
Earth's climate as one machine — radiation in, radiation out, and the oceans, ice, and carbon in between.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~26 hours
Unit I — The Energy Budget
Solar input and albedo · The greenhouse effect, explained properly · Simple energy-balance models · Why latitude sets climate
Unit II — The Moving Parts
Ocean circulation and heat transport · The carbon cycle · Ice sheets and sea level · El Niño and the natural oscillations
Unit III — Reading Past Climates
Ice cores · Tree rings and sediments · The ice-age cycles · Milankovitch forcing
What is measured, what is attributed, and what the models project — the state of the science, stated plainly.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — The Evidence
The instrumental temperature record · Carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa and in the ice · Fingerprints of a warming world · Attribution: how the cause is established
Unit II — Mechanisms and Feedbacks
Radiative forcing · Water vapor and cloud feedbacks · Ocean heat and sea-level rise · Tipping elements
Unit III — Projections and Responses
Scenarios and climate models · Regional impacts · Mitigation: the energy arithmetic · Adaptation and what it costs