The Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science offers graduate study leading to the Master of Professional Studies, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Coursework in atmospheric and oceanic sciences is also offered at the upper division and graduate level as a service to other campus graduate programs. The educational program is broadly based and involves many applications of the mathematical, physical and applied sciences that characterize modern atmospheric sciences and physical oceanography, including climate and earth system science, and multidisciplinary studies of the interrelationship among the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, and the biota. The Department's advanced degree programs are designed to prepare students for participation in contemporary research in the atmospheric and oceanic science. Research specializations include: atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric chemistry, physical oceanography, air pollution, atmospheric radiative transfer, remote sensing of the atmosphere, ocean, and land, climate variability and change, data assimilation, numerical weather prediction, severe storms, surface-atmosphere, ocean-atmosphere and biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and earth system modeling. The curriculum includes a set of Core courses to provide a fundamental background in atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, physical meteorology and atmospheric chemistry, earth system science and climate, as well as advanced specialized courses. Supervised research using state-of-the-art facilities then prepares the students for future contributions in their chosen field.
Climate analysis has recently focused on differentiating natural variability from anthropogenic climate change. This has spurred detection of the global warming fingerprints in surface temperature and hydroclimate as well as diagnosis of the structure and mechanisms of seasonal and interannual climate variability. Notable examples of the latter include the intriguing seasonal-cycles in the eastern tropical Pacific and Atlantic basins with coldest SSTs in the Northern summer/fall, and the well-known large-scale patterns of recurrent interannual variability El Nino Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, North Pacific Oscillation, and Pacific Decadal variability. Climate model assessment is a recurring theme: Simulations produced by the state-of-the-art climate system models are scrutinized to assess the realism of the circulation and hydroclimate variability patterns. Representation of the atmospheric water-cycle and extreme hydrologic events (droughts and floods) in both regional and global reanalysis data sets and model simulations is a special focus.
