Dr. Sharon Zhong > Teaching

Courses I teach

  • GEO 203: Introduction to Meteorology
  • Fundamentals of meteorology. Energy balance, adiabatic processes, horizontal motion, cyclogenesis, and severe weather.

  • GEO 406: Dynamic Meteorology
  • Principles of fluid dynamics and their application to the atmosphere.

  • GEO 886: Research Design
  • Research and writing in geography. Identification of geographic problems and their relative importance. Structuring and stating hypotheses. Data acquisition and tests for validity.

  • GEO 890: Advanced Geography Reading, Section Topic: Weather and Climate Modeling
  • Atmospheric numerical modeling is a primary tool for a wide range of studies and disciplines, such as weather forecasting, hydrological modeling, air pollution forecasting, atmospheric dispersion and emergency response planning, climate prediction, and climate change impact assessments. In this course, students will learn theoretical and practical aspects of atmospheric numerical modeling as applied to weather and climate predictions. Major topics include: governing equations for atmospheric motions, types of models and simplifications, initial and boundary conditions, physical processes and parameterizations, data assimilation, ensemble forecasting, and post processing and evaluation. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to run a state-of-the-art weather and climate prediction model in a lab-based part of this course. They will apply the model to a research topic of their choice and produce a research report. The course encourages students to understand how atmospheric numerical models can be applied to other disciplines such as hydrology, ecology, and air quality and make connections between different academic disciplines. The class also challenges students to interact with other students as scientific collaborates and explore the current scientific literature without intimidation.