GEOG1425

Weather is part of our everyday lives, sometimes memorably so, such as when we experience snow storms, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or heat waves. Our society also increasingly is concerned about environmental issues such as air quality, environmental health, and climate change, which have a fundamental atmospheric component. What do we know about how the atmosphere works? How might our own actions affect weather and climate? This class will help to answer those questions. In this course you'll learn about the science of the atmosphere. You will be introduced to fundamental principles governing weather and climate, such as energy transfer and atmospheric motion, and learn how they relate to weather phenomena you observe in the environment. You will collect and analyze weather data and weather maps, and make use of many of the same tools used by professional weather forecasters. Lab write-ups include narrative as well as statistical and graphical analyses, and will help you develop or refine your analytical and critical thinking skills.
You will also consider how weather and climate topics relate to debates around environmental issues, particularly those related to the atmosphere (such as climate change, the ozone hole, and air pollution). It is not necessary that we agree about what should be “done” about human impacts on the atmosphere; rather, our goal in this course is to understand the interactions and possible effects of human activity and to consider our roles as agents of environmental change.

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