What is atmospheric science

Courses focus on meteorological fields including air quality, environment, climate change, weather monitoring and instrumentation, and consulting. The program has deemphasized traditional weather forecasting to reflect changing industry demands.

Atmospheric Science has integrated modern pedagogical practices into its curriculum such as flipped classrooms, just-in-time-teaching JiTT and two-phase exams. Undergraduates in this specialization make use of many modern facilities. The Earth Sciences Building includes a weather-instrument platform for research and teaching, modern labs for oceanographic research, wet labs, and two PC classrooms.

There are extensive hands-on labs and equipment to introduce students to biometeorology, micrometeorology, urban meteorology, weather instruments including LIDAR , and atmospheric chemistry. Data from second climate station at Totem field is used regularly. The Atmospheric Science faculty also owns cluster computers for numerical weather and climate simulations.

A BSc in Atmospheric Sciences qualifies students for work in air quality meteorology or environmental consulting, as well as for further study in graduate programs. Many graduates are employed as weather forecasters for government weather services, with an increasing number finding employment with weather-forecast companies that tailor forecast for agriculture, aviation, and air quality.

English is the language of instruction at UBC. In order to model weather systems, atmospheric physicists employ elements of scattering theory, wave propagation models, cloud physics, statistical mechanics and spatial statistics which are highly mathematical and related to physics.

It has close links to meteorology and climatology and also covers the design and construction of instruments for studying the atmosphere and the interpretation of the data they provide, including remote sensing instruments. In the UK, atmospheric studies are underpinned by the Meteorological Office. Divisions of the U. The U. National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center also carries out studies of the high atmosphere.

In contrast to meteorology, which studies short term weather systems lasting up to a few weeks, climatology studies the frequency and trends of those systems. It studies the periodicity of weather events over years to millennia, as well as changes in long-term average weather patterns, in relation to atmospheric conditions.

Climatologists, those who practice climatology, study both the nature of climates — local, regional or global — and the natural or human-induced factors that cause climates to change. Climatology considers the past and can help predict future climate change. Phenomena of climatological interest include the atmospheric boundary layer, circulation patterns, heat transfer radiative, convective and latent , interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans and land surface particularly vegetation, land use and topography , and the chemical and physical composition of the atmosphere.

Related disciplines include astrophysics, atmospheric physics, chemistry, ecology, physical geography, geology, geophysics, glaciology, hydrology, oceanography, and volcanology.

All of the Solar System planets have atmospheres as their large masses mean gravity is strong enough to keep gaseous particles close to the surface. The larger gas giants are massive enough to keep large amounts of the light gases hydrogen and helium close by, while the smaller planets lose these gases into space.

Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics involves the study of air motions that lead to thunderstorms, frontal systems, hurricanes and tornadoes. Atmospheric Physics applies principles of physics to study atmospheric processes such as cloud formation, light scattering and energy transfer. Atmospheric Chemistry applies principles of chemistry to study atmospheric processes such as air pollution, ozone depletion, and aerosol formation.

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