Timing/Location: Mon/Weds from 11:50 to 1:15 in E&MS D236

Course Goals: To provide a set of simple techniques to carry out quantitative modeling of problems frequently encountered in planetary sciences. The course will consist of a mixture of analytical and numerical descriptions and is for the most part designed to be platform-independent. More details are in the syllabus.

Texts:  I like Numerical Recipes (Press et al.) for their descriptions of many numerical techniques (I use the Fortran version)

(Approximate) Course Outline

 Week 1 (9 Jan): Heat conduction (diffusion). Notes.

  • Problem Set (due Tues 17th Jan)
  • The standard cookbook of analytical solutions is in Carslaw and Jaeger, Conduction of Heat in Solids, Oxford Science Publications, 1959.

Weeks 2-3 (18 Jan): Fourier transformNotes.

  • Problem Set (due Mon 30th Jan)
  • Fortran code for fourier operations can be downloaded here (tar file).
  • Gubbins, Time series analysis and inverse theory for geophysicists, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004, is a good introduction.

Weeks 4-5 (30 Jan): Spherical harmonicsNotesMore notes.

Weeks 6-7 (13 Feb): Markov Chain Monte CarloNotes.

Week 8 (27 Feb): Tides and shapeNotes.

  • Problem Set (due Mon 13th March)
  • Two-layer elastic analytical solution by Harrison (1963): paperfortran implementation
  • Murray and Dermott, Solar System Dynamics, CUP, 1999, chapters 4 and 5.