ATMS 360
ATMOSPHERIC INSTRUMENTATION

Daily Notes
Assignments
Printable Syllabus

Projects and Code
Arduino
Teensy
Example Code
Presentations


* Welcome to Spring 2025: Good luck and accomplish much this semester!!! TIME GMT *

Time and Place:    Monday Wednesday Friday 9 am - 9:50 am, Room LP 113

Related information that may be useful and we may refer to it later:

Online textbook for atmospheric instrumentation.

Reference books that you might find handy for this course or for projects.
Introductory Electronics Textbooks:

1.  Getting Started in Electronics by F. Mims. How to order. Around $20. *****
2.  Science and communication circuits and projects by F. Mims. How to order. $12.95
Optional Texts:
  Material from these texts will be posted on the above website.
3.  Meteorological Measurement Systems by Brock and Richardson, Oxford Univ Press. How to order. $140 new.
4.  Hands On Meteorology, Stories, Theories, and Simple Experiments. By Zbigniew Sorbjan. Project Atmosphere. Published by the American Meteorological Society.
5.  Introduction to Meteorological Instrumentation and Measurement, by DeFelice.
6.  Doppler Radar and Weather Observations: 2nd Ed.  by Richard J. Doviak and Dusan S. Zrnic.

Presentations

Project Ideas

Online Resources
Very nice meteorology course.
Very nice cloud atlas.
Online climate course.
On line learning, radiation transfer, climate, weather, and fog. (COMET program)
On line learning, basic concepts in environmental sciences. (US EPA).

Reno weather forecast tools.

Guidelines for Batchelor's degree in Atmospheric Science.

Instruments and Specifications (see instrumentation terms to help understand the specification sheets.)

COURSE TOPICS

Instrumentation Tools
Circuit board layout with for designing circuits, making board layouts, and ordering them. Sunphotometer example.
Opamps
. Circuit ideas for opamps.
Machine shop, with free software for designing parts, and ordering them.
NI Labview data acquistion software: Description, Labview Online Course.
How to learn labview. Sound card FFT analyzer vi.
Installer for sound card spectrum analyzer as a stand alone application.
Labjack data acquisition hardware and software.
ImageJ free javascript software for digital image analysis.
FFT fast fourier transform using a spreadsheet program. More on it too.
Inductor calculator.
Spice circuit simulator.

Technology Transfer
Photoacoustic Instrument Patent
Prototype Instrument
Commercially Available Instrument

Atmospheric Physics and Radiation Transfer:
Basic Circuit Laboratory leading to Sun Photometry
Optical Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere: Sunlight and seasons.
Sunphotometer lecture notes , LED based sunphotometer measurement, more on sunphotometers.
Infrared Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere: Instantly double the CO2 concentration.
Rainfall rate measurement device: Distrometer.

Basics of aerosol optics on filter media. See also the more advanced treatment.
Instruments for In Situ Atmospheric Optics Measurements
Elemental, Organic, Brown, and Black Carbon Presentation
Solar Energy and Technology. Site 1. Site 2. Site 3. Site 4.

Air Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry:
Barbara Zielinska, Desert Research Institute, covers this topic
Barbara's presentation on Environmental Organic Chemistry .
She is the director of the DRI Organic Analysis Laboratory (OAL).
Barbara has actively worked with National Air Quality Standards.
She will discuss, and then demonstrate in her laboratory, measurements of air toxics.
As a primer, read this introduction to organic chemistry.
Organic chemistry happens when functional groups get together or split.
You can practice organic chemistry here.

EPA Criteria Pollutants

Aerosol Mass Spectrometers for Real Time Aerosol Speciation

Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometery for ppt detection of VOCs.

Meteorology and Boundary Layer Air Pollution Measurements:
Sonic Anemometer, micrometeorology and turbulence
TSI DustTrak aerosol mass concentration. Website. Specification sheet. Software. Manual. Theory of operation.
Atmospheric Sounding Data.
Calculated Soundings from the RUC or MAPS
Basic Equations of Meteorology (from this site).
The Jet Stream.

Remote Sensing:
NASA A Train, Site 2, Site 3
Madhu's presentation on the A-Train

ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS, MODEL, SITES WHERE YOU CAN GET DATA
Radiosonde Measurements of Wind, Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity
Local and regional observations from the Western Regioinal Climate Center, Reno
Daily plots of solar and thermal radiation from the surface around the world, and overview.
Atmospheric Sounding Data .
Daily atmospheric radiation and cloud measurements from the DOE ARM sites. Monthly plots are available too.
Solar radiation basics, and network measurements from the Univ. of Oregon.
UV-B and Column Ozone Measurements, including those at DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory.
NASA's AERONET Site for sun photometry.
Aerosol optics measurements at NOAA CMDL sites.
Solar position and intensity calculator.
Light scattering by spherical particles calculator.
Infrared radiation in the atmosphere calculator.
Atmospheric radiation transfer code on line.

Atmospheric Models and Modeling
Description of commonly used numerical models for various scales

Climate:
Oxygen isotope measurements for paleoclimatology
Paleo black carbon concentrations presentation
NASA's Warming World Site

General Information :

SUN PHOTOMETERY
Presentation and overview.
Paper on LED as a sunphotometer, and one that obtains total precipitable water vapor.
Sunphotometer lecture notes.
What does the LED based sunphotometer measurement mean?
The Sun , movie 1
Solar energy.
Brief introduction.
More details, and our approach.
Commercially available sun photometer that tracks the sun.
NASA's AERONET Site.
Simple home made digital spectrometer.
Table of Rayleigh Sscattering coefficients as a function of wavelength for the atmosphere at Reno's pressure.
Spreadsheet for calculating Rayleigh Coefficients.
Spreadsheet of the solar spectrum at the top of the Earth's atmosphere.
Spreadsheet with extraterrestrial solar spectrum and spectrum at the surface.
Solar calculator for solar zenith angle, Site 1, Site 2, or from this spreadsheet.
Atmospheric radiation transfer code on line.

SNOW ALBEDO
Snow albedo measurements and model, including effects of soot.
Snow albedo, Antarctica, including effects of soot.
Simple Model Snow Albedo, Snow Grain Optics, Albedo .
Melt the ice caps with a fine layer of soot: Demo for the effects of absorption on multiple scattering.

AEROSOL
Basics of aerosol optics on filter media. See also the more advanced treatment.
Photoacoustic measurements of aerosol light absorption.
Real live aerosol optics measurements at NOAA CMDL sites.
Wood smoke optics measured with our photoacoustic instruments.

CLOUD MICROPHYSICS AND RADIATIVE PROPERTIES
Summary of common instruments used for cloud microphysics measurements.
Treasure chest of publications on clouds, remote sensing, and radiative transfer.
Cirrus cloud scattering models and remote sensing.

REMOTE SENSING
Oxygen a band remote sensing of cloud properties.
Sun photometeric measurements of atmospheric water vapor using 940 nm radiation.
NASA's AERONET Site.
Moon's temperature with simple apparatus.
Nasa's Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE).
The MFRSR for optical depth and radiation measurements, and how it is used.
Lidar site at the University of Wisconsin. Check out the theses, for example this one.

GENERAL DISCUSSION OF RADIATION MEASUREMENTS AND HOW THEY ARE DONE.
Daily plots of solar and thermal radiation from the surface around the world, and overview.
Solar radiation basics, and network measurements from the Univ. of Oregon.

IR
Blackbody radiation overview, and a nice discussion of IR emission from the body.
How you measure longwave irradiance, and a comparison of methods.
Calculate MODTRAN3 Atmospheric IR Radiation.
Nice discussion of methane's rising importance in IR transfer.
Global Climate, and Methane's rising concentration (from this site). See also the rise of carbon dioxide.
More on Methane
IR Spectra looking up in the tropics with large water vapor column amount.
IR MEASUREMENTS, MODEL, FROM RENO, ASSOCIATED WITH THE CLASS
Some of the class participants enjoying a fine day, and taking measurements.
Downwelling Radiance Measurement, clear, dry sky, and blackbody.
Measured Brightness Temperatures for two very different years, and their soundings. (Skew T's for 15Apr99 and 21Feb01).
Theoretical Molecular Absorption Spectra for Water Vapor, Carbon Dioxide, Ozone, and Methane.
Class of 2004 measurements, 24 Mar 2004.

UV & VISIBLE
UV A, B definitions. (image from this site. Curve labeled D is spectrum including only Ozone absorption; B and C include aerosol.)
Absorption spectra of gases in the UV, at specified concentrations.
Dobson Units Definition . (image from this site. Another image from another site that also explains the ozone hole.)
Real Live UV-B and Column Ozone Measurements, including those at DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory.
Check out the extinction coefficient of Nitrogen Dioxide gas as a function of wavelength.
Rayleigh scattering coefficient for the atmosphere, and how it is determined, from the UV to the near IR.