Computing Exercises/Assignments

If you select access to AFS when you "authenticate," you'll have access to your permanent UA file storage.

Labs for 2016

• Third scored lab (two options):
  • Option A: Lagrangian simulation of the Project Prairie Grass (PPG) concentration profile using the generalized Langevin equation, for three PPG runs covering from very stable, through neutral, to very unstable stratification
  • Option B (corrected 24 Mar.): Eulerian computation of the mean wind field around a porous windbreak, based on an inhomogeneous, linearized advection-diffusion equation.

    Instructor's solution for the windbreak problem (transect along z/H=0.4).

• Second scored lab, solving a steady-state heat equation in 2D. Instructor's solutions for lab 2:
  1. Matlab solution with 5 x 5 gridpoints, i.e. Δ=0.25
  2. Matlab solution with 21 x 21 gridpoints, i.e. Δ=0.05
  3. Fortran 90 solution with 21 x 21 gridpoints, i.e. Δ=0.05; slices at y=0 and y=1/8
  4. Matlab solution with 51 x 51 gridpoints, i.e. Δ=0.02
  For gridlengths Δ=(0.25,0.05), the numerical solution should give temperature peaks (at the origin) of respectively T(0,0) ≈(0.375,0.636)^o. The analytic solution gives T(0,0)=0.6357^o. As the number of terms included in the analytical solution increases to infinity, ever shorter waves (higher wavenumbers) contribute and the analytic solution captures the "peakiness" of the delta function. In the numeric solution, the equivalent progression towards the true solution is made by refining the resolution (reducing the gridlength Δ), so that the heat source, ideally a delta function (if seen in cross section through y=0), is represented by an increasingly narrow (but higher) triangle (always preserving unit area).

• First scored lab, an Eulerian treatment of surface layer dispersion.

• Lab 2 (unscored): a Random Displacement Model of dispersion in the atmospheric surface layer.

• Lab 1 (unscored): simulating dispersion in homogeneous turbulence by the Random Displacement Model

Computing exercises/assignments collected from previous years

• Lagrangian simulation of Project Prairie Grass surface layer dispersion trials (3rd scored lab, 2014)
• Solving the steady-state, 2D heat equation (2nd scored lab, 2014)
• Solving the advection-diffusion equation for a gas source in the atmospheric surface layer (1st scored lab, 2014)
• Numerical solution of the 1D heat equation (unscored lab, 2014)
• Drunkard's Walk and associated flowchart (unscored lab 2014)
• Best fitting the power law wind profile to wind observations
• Solve the linear advection eqn in one dimension
• Solving the non-linear advection equation
• Solving the time-dependent heat equation in one space dimension & comparison with analytical solution
• Solving the steady state heat equation in 2D
• Compute the Convectively Available Potential Energy (CAPE) from the Edmonton radiosonde (sounding) at 12Z Friday 31 July 1987 (day of the Edmonton tornado)
• Solving the advection-diffusion equation for a real world tracer gas dispersion experiment, and comparing with observations
• Spectral solution of the non-linear advection equation
• "Drunkard's walk" simulation of particle dispersion from a source in idealized turbulent flow (Random displacement model) & comparison with analytical solution
• "Drunkard's walk" simulation of particle dispersion in the atmospheric surface layer & comparison with observations
• Lagrangian stochastic simulation of gas dispersion in the atmospheric surface layer & comparison with observations
• Baroclinic weather forecast (may be selected by individuals or pairs)

Last Modified: 11 Apr., 2016