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PATMO for Students
This course is designed as a student-facing introduction to PATMO.
Its goal is not to turn the reader into a developer of the model, but to help them understand what the model is,
how it is used, and how to follow a basic research workflow with one concrete scientific case.
The full sequence is planned as seven lectures. The main scientific thread is the
modern sulfur cycle, while small teaching examples such as the Chapman cycle
are used when a simpler mechanism helps students learn one specific skill before returning to the main case.
Core Idea
PATMO is a one-dimensional atmospheric photochemistry model that students can use as a platform
for controlled computational experiments.
In this course, the modern sulfur cycle is not treated as the whole subject. It is the running case study
through which students learn how the model is organized, run, and interpreted.
What Students Will Learn
Understand The Model
Students will learn what kind of model PATMO is, what questions it is suited for,
and why a one-dimensional photochemistry model is useful in teaching and research.
Read The Workflow
The course moves from recognizing the structure of a case directory to understanding inputs, runtime behavior, outputs, and simple comparisons between experiments.
Use One Stable Case
The modern sulfur cycle gives the course a realistic but manageable case that includes
chemistry, vertical profiles, radiation-related settings, and interpretable model outputs.
Reach A Practical Level
By the end, students should be able to run a prepared case, locate the main output files, make a simple change, and compare a baseline run with a control experiment.
Lecture Roadmap
Lecture 1
What PATMO Is
The opening lecture explains what PATMO is, what it can and cannot do,
and why the course uses the modern sulfur cycle.
Lecture 2
Chapman Cycle and Rate Constants
A direct Chapman cycle example that teaches the four equations first, then shows how to find rate data in the JPL and NIST databases.
Available nowLecture 3
The Input File System of PATMO
A guided walk through the major input files and how they define a case in a readable, operational way.
Coming soonLecture 4
Writing the Modern Sulfur Cycle into PATMO
The first deep connection between the scientific case and the model inputs that encode it.
Coming soonLecture 5
Runtime Workflow and Outputs
What happens when the model runs, where the outputs go, and how to read the resulting files.
Coming soonLecture 6
Hands-On Case Run
A practical run of the prepared modern sulfur cycle case so students can connect setup and output.
Lecture 7
First Sensitivity Experiment
A simple research-style exercise: modify one factor, rerun the case, and compare the result to a baseline.
Coming soonHow To Use This Course
Reading Strategy
The lectures are designed to be read in order. Each new lecture assumes the student already understands the orientation from the previous one, so the learning path stays cumulative rather than fragmented.
The first lecture is intentionally about orientation. It does not ask students to run the model yet. It prepares them to understand why the later commands, files, and outputs matter.
Scope
This course does not try to cover all of atmospheric chemistry, all of sulfur chemistry, or the full internals of the source code. It stays focused on the shortest path from recognition to operation to a simple controlled experiment.
That limited scope is deliberate: the course is meant to be understandable, teachable, and reusable.