GEF4500 – Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics
Course description
Course content
This course introduces the dynamical concepts important for synoptic (weather) scale motions in both the atmosphere and ocean. It is an obligatory first semester course in the masters program in meteorology and oceanography, and builds on basic concepts introduced in GEF2500, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (reviewed at the beginning of the course).
Learning outcome
The student will obtain a fundamental knowledge of:
- the quasi-geostrophic equations of motion, a simplified system applicable at synoptic scales
- the dynamical basis for the Jet Stream and the Gulf Stream, two important geophysical flows
- Rossby waves, which underly variability at large scales
- barotropic and baroclinic instability
Admission
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Prerequisites
Recommended previous knowledge
GEF2200 – Atmospheric physics (continued), GEF2220 – Weather systems (discontinued), GEF2500 – Geophysical Fluid Mechanics (discontinued) (MEK1300 – Introduction to Fluid Mechanics (discontinued)), FYS3140 – Mathematical Methods in Physics.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with GF224
- 10 credits overlap with GEF9500 – Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics (discontinued)
Teaching
2 lectures/week, 1 group session, 5-6 problem sets. The problem sets are obligatory and must be completed prior to the final exam.
Attendance at the first lecture is compulsory. Students who fail to meet, are considered to have withdrawn from the course unless they have previously given notice to the Studies administration, email address: studieinfo@geo.uio.no
Examination
Midterm exam (written or oral, depending on the number of students) for 33% of the final grade, final exam (written) for 67% of the final grade.
Language of examination
In this course any written exam questions or assignment questions may be available in English only.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.
Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass the original examination.
Withdrawal from an examination
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.
Evaluation
The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.
This course was periodic evaluated in autumn 2013 (pdf, in Norwegian).