Drawing isolines
In this activity you’ll put into practice some of the knowledge you have learnt so far. You’ll be drawing various isolines on the maps we’ve provided, which will further help …
Course: Come Rain or Shine: Understanding the Weather
Guide to weather symbols
The above is a typical simplified weather symbol from a chart of weather observations. Let’s look at some other symbols which you may come across when looking at weather reports. …
Global atmospheric and oceanic circulation
As we mentioned in Week 1 of the course, mid-latitude depressions are one way in which the Earth moves heat from the warm Tropics to the colder Poles. Together with …
The effect of people
Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentrations in the atmosphere, increased by over 40% from 278 ppm (parts per million) in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015. Figure 1: The diagram above shows …
Changes over time
Let’s look at the Sun first, and specifically the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. There are three ways in which the Earth’s orbit changes over time, known as …
The atmosphere
The diagram in Figure 1 provides an illustration of the Earth’s Radiation budget. It shows the various ways energy or radiation can move through the climate system . Incoming solar …
The leaky bucket
How are the flow of energy we get from the Sun and the flow of energy the Earth loses to space, related to each other? A useful analogy is a …
The Sun and the Earth’s Climate
What determines the climate of the Earth? Ultimately, the Sun, our nearest star. Solar energy is absorbed by the Earth’s surface, warming it and driving the weather patterns and therefore …
Introduction to anticyclones
So far, we have been looking at low pressure systems; cyclones. But what about high pressure systems; anticyclones? From a weather perspective anticyclones can be quite boring. Where the air …
Sylvia’s solution
How did you get on? In this video, Sylvia demonstrates the solution to the air mass exercise in the previous Step. You may have noticed the ‘geostrophic wind scale’ in …
Weather forecast game
We’d like you to have a go at trying to predict the weather in Reading, in our game hosted on the Royal Meteorological Society website. We’ve included a link to …
Understanding Weather Fronts and Balloon Launches
Weather fronts are boundaries between two different air masses, and tend to be the location of a lot of cloud and rain. When we look at weather maps there is …
Balloon launch
Watch Pete launch a weather balloon and explain how the radiosonde it carries can be used to measure the temperature, humidity and pressure profile of the whole atmosphere.
Measuring the temperature at home
Measuring the speed and direction of the wind is one of many practical ways you can investigate the weather in your surroundings. In this video, Sylvia demonstrates how to use …
Measuring the weather at home
In this video, Janet Barlow, Professor of Environmental Physics in the Department of Meteorology demonstrates how you can measure the speed and direction of the wind using a bubble machine. …