Atmospheric science is the study of the physics, chemistry, and dynamics of the atmosphere and its interrelationship with the hydrosphere and the biosphere. Students gain advanced knowledge of air quality, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, micrometeorology, biometeorology, climate dynamics, mesoscale meteorology, large-scale dynamics, and numerical weather prediction. Students graduate with the qualitative and quantitative skills necessary for professional research and teaching in the chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere and its interrelationship with the hydrosphere and the biosphere. The Graduate Group in Atmospheric Science offers both M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs. A student may place emphasis on graduate work in one or more of the following fields: air quality meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, cloud physical processes, biometeorology, micrometeorology, numerical weather prediction, remote sensing, climate dynamics, large-scale dynamics, meso-scale and boundary-layer meteorology, computational geosciences, extreme weather, and climate change impacts. The diverse and extensive backgrounds of the faculty allow opportunities for interdisciplinary training and research.
The Extreme Weather group at Davis focuses on extreme weather events, including tropical and extratropical cyclones, heat waves, droughts, atmospheric blocks and other features which have the potential for large socioeconomic damage. The IPCC special report on extreme weather reports with confidence that the next century will see substantial warming, with a corresponding increase in regional temperature extremes and drought conditions, increases in the frequency of heavy precipitation events in wet areas, and increases in tropical cyclone wind speeds. Forcing from anthropogenic sources, including carbon dioxide emissions, have already been responsible for a roughly 1 degree increase in global temperatures since the pre-industrial era. However, the question of the influence of human activity on the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events of the past decade has remained largely unanswered. Students in extreme weather are working to better understand extreme weather and how extremes will be changing over the next century.
