Physics of Planetary Atmospheres / 10 point PhD course

This course will focus on terrestrial planets and exoplanets covering the experimental facts about planet atmospheres, physical mechanisms defining the energy balance and climate modeling methods/examples. In particular, we will cover observational techniques, radiative transfer, some basic atmospheric chemistry and a tutorial on modeling planetary atmospheres.

The course consists of 7 lectures 3 tutorials and 2 sessions for student presentations. There will be no final exam. To complete the course you would need to attend most of the lectures, do the home work, project work and class presentations. One class presentation will be based on a research paper suggested by teachers. The project work will follow a tutorial on modeling planet climate that will connect all the parts of the course.

Teachers are Nikolai Piskunov, Ulrike Heiter and Michael Way from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. We may also get help from the Institute of Space Physics.

The course book is "Exoplanetary atmospheres: theoretical concepts and foundations" by Kevin Heng, Princeton University Press, 2017. It is available as E-book from the University Library but only one user at a time can have access to it. So figure it out.

The first lecture is Monday October 8th at 10:15. All the lectures will take place in Oseenska rummet (Å73121).

Lecture 1 (2018-10-08, 10:15-12:00): Detection and Observations of Exoplanetary Atmospheres

Lecture 2 (2018-10-11, 10:15-12:00): Introduction to Radiative Transfer. Part 1.

Lecture 3 (2018-10-15, 13:15-15:00): Introduction to Radiative Transfer. Part 2.

Lecture 4 (2018-10-18, 10:15-12:00): Temperature-Pressure Profile.

Lecture 5 (2018-10-23, 10:15-12:00): Opacitites.

Lecture 6 (2018-10-26, 10:15-12:00): Atmospheric Chemistry.

Students paper presentations I (2018-10-30, 13:15-15:00)

Students paper presentations II (2018-11-02, 10:15-12:00)

In order to be able to follow the tutorial below some computer preparation is needed. The tools will run on under Mac OS X or Linux but not on Windows. The installation will require 5-6GB of disk space for the model and associated files. There are two web pages that students need to follow carefully to make sure tools are running BEFORE the class begins:

1. Getting the necessary compilers installed and running

2. How to get the model installed and running once the compilers above are installed

ROCKE-3D Tutorial 1 (2018-11-05, 10:15-12:00).

ROCKE-3D Tutorial 2 (2018-11-08, 10:15-12:00).

ROCKE-3D Tutorial 3 (2018-11-13, 10:15-12:00).

Final student presentations (2018-11-16, 10:15-12:00).