AtmChem-5151

This is the new web home page for the graduate course CHEM-5151 / ATOC-5151: Atmospheric Chemistry, when taught by Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez. Prof. Jimenez has offered this course in Spring 2005 and Spring 2013.

• A shortcut to this page is http://tinyurl.com/AtmChem

General Information

• Syllabus for Spring 2013
• Course Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/Sched-5151
• Pre-course questionnaire for Spring 2013
• Office Hours:
  • Jose (Ekeley M329, 303-492-3557): Mondays 4:00-5:30 pm and Wednesdays 9:30-11 am
    • Please let Jose know in advance (at least 1.5 hrs before the start of the office hrs period) if you are coming. He may be elsewhere if not knowing that you are coming.
    • Future Exceptions: See announcements in Piazza
  • Jordan (Ekeley M132): Mondays 9:30-11 am and Wednesdays 12:15-1:45 pm (no advance notice needed for Jordan)
  • Doodle Poll for selecting office hours

Igor Software

• We will use the Igor software package as the common language for calculations and programs in the course. We strongly recommend donwloading a demo version of Igor and going through the Getting Started section of the manual and the Video tutorials before the class starts.
  • A License Key will be provided via email to the class list
• We will use these Igor Programming Conventions to facilitate communication and improve clarity of programs]

Textbooks

• Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry by Daniel Jacob, 1999. (see errata & Supp. Problems)
• Optional: Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere: Theory, Experiments, and Applications by Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and James Pitts
• Optional: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: from Air Pollution to Climate Change by John Seinfeld and Spyros Pandis

Homeworks

• Homeworks and instructions will be posted at http://tinyurl.com/hw-5151
  • Piazza system for Q&A
  • Solutions: HW1, HW2, HW3, HW4, HW5,HW6,HW7

Lectures, Reading, and Homeworks

These lectures are updated every year that the course is offered, so you should not print them ahead of time as they will likely change for the present year. Relevant printouts will be distributed at the start of every lecture.

Introduction

• Introduction to the Course
  • Suggested reading: Chapter 1 of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts
• Review of Chemistry + Chemical Kinetics
  • Required reading: sections of General Chemistry Wikibook or This alternative resource or equivalent resources, if you don't have background or are not sure if you remember those sections: Atomic Structure, Compounds & Bonding, Chemical Reactions, Aqueous Solutions, Phases of Matter, Chemical Equilibria, Chemical Kinetics, and Thermodynamics. (NOT "Chemistry of the Various Elements")
  • Required reading: Chapter 9 of Jacob
  • Required browsing: Table of molecular structures (for future reference in the course)
  • Required simulation: PHET Gases
  • Suggested reading: Kinetic Theory of Gases; More kinetic theory
  • Suggested Reading: Chapter 5A of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts
  • Resources: JPL Evaluation, IUPAC Evaluations, NIST Database, Leeds MCM, OVOC database

• Introduction to Igor Pro
  • Required reading: Getting Started in Igor
  • Suggested viewing: Video Tutorials
  • Required reading and use: Igor Programming Conventions

Fundamentals

• Measures of Atmospheric Composition
  • Required reading: Chapter 1 of Jacob

• Atmospheric Structure
  • Required reading: Chapter 2 & Section 4.3 of Jacob

• Atmospheric Chemistry Models
  • Required reading: Chapter 3 of Jacob
  • Suggested reading: Chapter 25 of Seinfeld & Pandis

• Spectroscopy and Photochemistry
  • Required Reading: Chapters 3B, 3C, and 4 of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts: Hi-Res scan & Lower-Res scan
  • Required Reading: Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.6 of Jacob
  • Resources: Max Planck UV-Vis database & TUV Model
  • Intro Simulation: PhET Blackbody

• Atmospheric Transport (Probably won't cover in 2013)
  • Required Reading: Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of Jacob
  • Resources: NASA aerosol simulation, Transport to Detling ground site (Credit: Dr. Scott Herndon, ARI),Animation of Transport of BC in SE Asia, SEAC4RS CO Movies, Back Trajectories for Mauna Loa
    • Visit to NOAA "Science on a Sphere"

Specific Areas

• Tropospheric Oxidation and Ozone Formation
  • Required Reading: Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 of Jacob
  • Resource for class: Atmos. gases database from NOAA
  • Suggested Reading: Chapters 6 & 7 of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts
  • Suggested Reading; A. Haagen-Smit, Chemistry and Physiology of Los Angeles Smog, 1952.

• Atmospheric Effects of Oil and Gas Production (invited lecturer: Dr. Jessica Gilman from NOAA) (Slides won't be posted for now as they contain unpublished material)
  • Required Reading: Gilman et al. ES&T
  • Suggested Reading: DOE Shale Gas Primer
  • Suggested Reading: Petron et al., Hydrocarbon emissions characterization in the Colorado Front Range: A pilot study, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 2012.

• Aerosols
  • Required Reading: Chapter 8 of Jacob
  • Suggested Reading: Chapter 8 of Seinfeld & Pandis
  • Resource: Aerosol Calculator from Willeke and Baron
  • Resource: Video of NASA GEOS-5 high-resolution aerosol simulation
  • Resource: Info on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

• Atmospheric Composition & Climate
  • Required Reading: Chapter 7 of Jacob
  • Suggested Reading: Chapters 23 & 24 of Seinfeld & Pandis
  • Suggested Reading: IPCC 2007 WG1 Report

• Biogeochemical Cycles and the Carbon Cycle
  • Required Reading: Chapter 6 of Jacob
  • Suggested Reading: Chapter 22 of Seinfeld & Pandis
  • Resource: Time history of atmospheric CO2

• Atmospheric Instrumentation
  • Instrument demonstration in Lab
  • Real Time Atmospheric Chemistry Field Instrumentation, Anal. Chem., 2010.

• Stratospheric Chemistry (won't cover in 2013 due to lack of time & student preference)
  • Required Reading: Chapter 10 of Jacob
  • Suggested Reading: Chapters 12 & 13 of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts

• Acid Deposition (won't cover explicitly in 2013, some of it covered in aerosol lecture)
  • Required Reading: Chapter 13 of Jacob
  • Suggested Reading: Chapter 8 of Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts

• Upper Atmosphere: Ionosphere and Thermosphere (not covered in Spring 2013)
  • The Chemistry of Metallic Elements in the Ionosphere and Mesosphere, Chem. Rev. 1973.
  • Chemistry of the Thermosphere and Ionosphere, J. Atmos. Terr. Physics, 1973.
  • Ion Chemistry of the Ionosphere at E- and F-Region Altitudes: A Review, Surveys in Geophysics, 2012.

• Planetary Atmospheres (not covered in Spring 2013)
  • Planetary Atmospheres in Wikipedia
  • The Chemistry of Planetary Atmospheres, J. Chem. Ed., 1976.

Resources

• Mixed-Layer model for approximate boundary layer calculations
• How an O3 Detector Works (intro video)

Reference Materials

Atmospheric Chemistry Courses at Other Universities

• by Prof. Colette Heald @ Colorado State Univ.
• by Prof. Sergey Nidkorodov, UC Irvine
• by Prof. Maggie Tolbert @ CU-Boulder (Spring 2012)
• by Prof. Daniel Jacob @ Harvard
• by Prof. Wayne @ Oxford
• by Prof. Russ Dickerson, Univ. of Maryland
• by Prof. Peter Briblecombe @ Univ. East Anglia, UK

Other References

• WHO guidelines on Air Pollution
• List of scientists active in Atmospheric Chemistry and/or Aerosols
• The Ozone Hole Tour from Cambridge Univ.
• AtmoChem.com website

Best Grades in Past Offerings

• Spring 2013: Josh Aikins (ATOC)
• Spring 2005: Ingrid Ulbrich (CHEM)