Atmospheric Science Learning Projects (ATMS)

Minor Requirements

In order to gain a minor you must gain a total of 10 points from the coursework, or a combination of coursework, research, and/or course design.

Major Requirements

In order to gain a major you must gain a total of 20 points from the coursework, or a combination of coursework, research, and/or course design.

Elementary-Level

ATMS 1: Severe Weather Spotter Training

The reason for spotters, the nature of severe weather, rising air, thunderstorms, severe wind, severe precipitation, tornadoes, spotter skills, spotter operations, and base operations.

ATMS 2: Severe Weather Base Operations (Pre: ATMS 1)

This project is open to design.

Intermediate-Level

ATMS 10: Atmospheric Thermodynamics (Pre: BEC)

Conservation of energy, gases, consequences of the first law of thermodynamics, the second law of thermodynamics, moist air, clouds, thermodynamic diagrams, thermodynamic processes in the atmosphere, atmospheric statics, and stability.

ATMS 11: Atmospheric Dynamics (Pre: ATMS 10)

Fundamental equations, applications of the fundamental equations, circulation and vorticity, the planetary boundary layer, quasigeostrophic analysis, atmospheric waves, baroclinic instability, mesoscale circulations, general circulation, and tropical dynamics.

ATMS 12: Synoptic Meteorology (Pre: ATMS 11)

Quasi-geostrophic forcing, barotropic dynamics, baroclinic dynamics, evolution of cyclones, growth rate of baroclinic waves, airflow thorugh mid-latitude synoptic-scale disturbances, kinematics of fronts, ageostrophic motion and frontal dynamics, upper-tropospheric fronts and jet streaks, and mid-tropospheric fronts and elevated mixed layers.

ATMS 13: Atmospheric Chemistry (Pre: ATMS 10)

Evolution of the Earth's atmosphere, chemical composition of the atmosphere, half-life, residence time, and renewal time of chemicals in the atmosphere, interactions of radiation with atmospheric gases, dynamics of chemicals in the troposphere, atmospheric aerosols, cloud and precipitation chemistry, tropospheric chemical cycles, air pollution, and stratospheric chemistry.

ATMS 14: Atmospheric Physics (Pre: ATMS 10)

The thermodynamics of heterogeneous systems, atmospheric radiation. aerosols and clouds, large-scale atmospheric motion, atmospheric waves, the general circulation, hydrodynamic instability, the middle atmosphere, atmospheric electrodynamics, and atmospheric optics.

ATMS 15: Weather Analysis and Forecasting (Pre: ATMS 12)

Characteristics of meteorological observations, patterns of atmospheric circulation, atmospheric kinematics, analysis of vertical soundings, fronts, air masses and weather, cyclones and anticyclones, the upper troposphere and jet streams, forecasting methods, and numerical forecast models.

ATMS 16: Mesoscale Meteorology (Pre: ATMS 12)

Boundary layer processes, SKEW-T diagrams, flow interaction with topography, convection, thermally-forced circulations, mesoscale phenomena, cold air damming, mountain waves and downslope events, severe storms, and systems of severe storms.

ATMS 17: Microscale Meteorology (Pre: ATMS 13 and ATMS 16)

Turbulence, surface layer, convective boundary layers, neutral boundary layers, nocturnal boundary layers, cloud-topped boundary layers, urban meteorology, air pollution, photochemical effects, and air quality modeling.

ATMS 18: Tropical Weather Systems (Pre: ATMS 16)

The tropics, the role of the tropics in general circulation, tropical waves, seasonal variations, monsoons, Madden-Julian oscillation, El Nino and La Nina, the quasi-biannual oscillation, tropical cyclone development, tropical cyclone dynamics, and tropical cyclone impact.

ATMS 19: Climatology (Pre: ATMS 13, ATMS 14, and ATMS 17)

Air masses and synoptic climatology, the oceans in climatology, extreme atmospheric events and climatology, regional climates, tropical climates, mid-latitude climates, polar climates, past climates, predicting the future, and climate change.

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