Prof. Nili Harnik's Home page
Large-scale atmospheric dynamics group
Current Courses:
Earth Sciences lab (advanced BSc)
A hands-on lab course in which the students perform five experiments (in pairs), chosen from the list of labs below. Each lab will demonstrate a physical principle or phenomenon related to different topics in Earth sciences. For each lab the students are given an instructions file which includes background and the goals of each experiment. The detailed planning and execution of the experiments will be done by the students, with guidance from the instructors. Besides a hands-on feel for the specific scientific topic, the students learn to: plan and design a scientific experiment; keep a lab experimental log; perform data and error analysis and compare theory to experimental results; work with a partner; summarize the results and present them concisely and clearly. The course provides hands on experience with a variety of instruments, including Weather in a Tank (a rotating water tank), a spectrophotometer and resistance-based temperature sensors, as well as a variety of data acquisition and processing software.
Lab topics:
Global circulation of the atmosphere, balanced vortex, Rossby waves, climate (effective temperature), gravity current, convection, radial velocity detection of planets, detecting asteroids' characteristics, radiative transfer. We are currently constructing a lab on earthquakes.
Note: The labs were prepared, for course credit, by graduate students, during two years in which a Lab-Preparation course was offered. Some of the labs were designed from scratch for this course, some were inspired or based on existing experiments described online. Specifically, the Global Circulation, Rossby waves and Balanced vortex labs are based on MITs excellent Weather in a Tank course.
Climate in the age of global warming (advanced BSc)
The course will acquaint the students with the basic components and processes which shape the climate and its variations, both natural and anthropogenic. Classes will include student presentations of relevant background topics which need reminding, as well as a climatic event or phenomenon. Classes will also end with a short discussion of the relevance of the topic learnt to the climate crisis. We will combine discussions, blackboard derivations, presentations, and guided assignments in class and at home. Each class or two will introduce a different component of the climate system.
Emphasis will be given to developing an ability to identify the most important principles, and to implement them to understand various phenomena, and to identify and schematically draw the main fields which describe the climate system - temperature, humidity, rain, winds, pressure, and energy and momentum fluxes.
Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology (BSc)
The course will introduce the students to dynamic meteorology. They will learn the underlying physical laws giving rise to the main patterns of flow and weather systems in the atmosphere. The effects of rotation, sphericity and stratification on atmospheric motions, geostrophic and hydrostatic balance, thermal wind balance, wave motions and the underlying physical mechanisms giving rise to them, gravity waves and Rossby waves, geostrophic adjustment, weather systems. Classes will include student presentations of interesting atmospheric phenomena that involve atmospheric dynamics.
Reading-based seminar courses (Graduate)
My graduate level courses consist of three paper-reading seminar courses between which I rotate: Select topics in Climate; Select topics in Global Circulation and dynamics of the atmosphere; Open questions in Climate.
Each year I choose a different advanced or emerging topic in atmospheric dyamics or climate to focus on. The courses consist of home-reading scientific papers and book chapters on the chosen topic, and discussing them in class. Each week, the reading material is divided randomly between the students, so that everyone presents each week. Towards the end, the students work on a final project which utilizes or expands upon the material learnt. The aim of the course is to get a good sense of the chosen topic by the end of the term.
The amount of reading is quite intensive. I believe that the ability to delve into a new topic by reading many papers, skimming parts that are less relevant to your interest, and spending more time to understand others is an important research skill. For MSc students, this course is often the first time they do this.
Past topics include:
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Mid Latitude Cyclones - classification, structure, life cycles
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Parameterization of the hydrological cycle in climate models
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The circulation in polar regions
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AI applications in geophysics
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The drying of the Mediterranean, with a focus on the Levant region
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The IPCC report
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Hurricanes and other tropical phenomena – observations and possible effects of climate change
Preparation of Experiments in Atmospheric Sciences course (Graduate)
Experiments in Atmospheric Sciences (BSc)
Preparation of Geoscience lab course (Graduate)
Theory of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere (Graduate)
Middle atmosphere dynamics (Graduate)
Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences (BSc)
Advanced numerical methods in Geophysics (BSc)