Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Bachelor's degree
In Princeton (USA)
Description
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Type
Bachelor's degree
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Location
Princeton (USA)
The Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) offers graduate study under the sponsorship of the Department of Geosciences. The Princeton AOS graduate program emphasizes theoretical studies and numerical model studies of the global climate system, and applicants are expected to have a strong background in natural sciences and mathematics.
The AOS program benefits from the research capabilities of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Many GFDL scientists are active in the AOS program as lecturers, and major supercomputer resources within GFDL are accessible to students for their research. The Department of Geosciences, with its activities in physical and chemical oceanography, paleoclimatology and atmospheric sciences, collaborates with GFDL in providing a comprehensive program of courses and seminars.
The flexible graduate program offers students opportunities for research and courses in a wide range of disciplines, including geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric physics, atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemistry of the land and ocean, atmospheric modeling, ocean modeling, climate dynamics, global climate change and paleo-climate. Through the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) Program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Princeton Environmental Institute, students can explore climate- and air pollution-related policy.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Start date
Reviews
Subjects
- GCSE Physics
- Climate
- On-Air
- Systems
- Global
- Climate Change
- Oceanography
- Fluid Dynamics
- Composition
- Satellite
Course programme
AOS 522 Inverse Methods: Theory and Applications (also
GEO 522
AOS 523 Water in the Atmosphere Despite the paramount importance of atmospheric water vapour for climate, our understanding of the processes that regulate its distribution and changes within a changing climate remains incomplete. This course analyses observations and discusses theoretical approaches, both basic concepts and novel ideas, to the problem. Course is for graduate students with a background in atmospheric and/or oceanic sciences, and students are encouraged to provide contributions from their own research experiences that are related to the course topic.
AOS 527 Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (also
GEO 527
AOS 537 Atmospheric Chemistry (also
GEO 537
AOS 547 Atmospheric Thermodynamics and Convection The thermodynamics of water-air systems. The course gives an overview of atmospheric energy sources and sinks. Planetary boundary layers, closure theories for atmospheric turbulence, cumulus convection, interactions between cumulus convection and large-scale atmospheric flows, cloud-convection-radiation interactions and their role in the climate system, and parameterization of boundary layers and convection in atmospheric general circulation models are also studied.
AOS 571 Introduction to Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Physical principles fundamental to the theoretical, observational, and experimental study of the atmosphere and oceans; the equations of motion for rotating fluids; hydrostatic and Boussinesq approximations; circulation theorem; and conservation of potential vorticity; scale analysis, geostrophic wind, thermal wind, quasigeostrophic system; and geophysical boundary layers.
AOS 572 Atmospheric and Oceanic Wave Dynamics Observational evidence of atmospheric and oceanic waves; laboratory simulation. Surface and internal gravity waves; dispersion characteristics; kinetic energy spectrum; critical layer; forced resonance; and instabilities. Planetary waves: scale analysis; physical description of planetary wave propagation; reflections; normal modes in a closed basin. Large-scale baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, Eady and Charney models for baroclinic instability, and energy transfer.
AOS 573 Physical Oceanography Response of the ocean to transient and steady winds and buoyancy forcing. A hierarchy of models from simple analytical to realistic numerical models is used to study the role of the waves, convection, instabilities, and other physical processes in the circulation of the oceans.
AOS 575 Numerical Prediction of the Atmosphere and Ocean Barotropic and multilevel dynamic models; coordinate systems and boundary conditions; finite difference equations and their energetics; spectral methods; water vapor and its condensation processes; orography, cumulus convection, subgrid-scale transfer, and boundary layer processes; meteorological and oceanographic data assimilation; dynamic initialization; verification and predictability; and probabilistic forecasts.
AOS 576 Current Topics in Dynamic Meteorology (also
APC 576
AOS 577 Climate of the Earth: Present, Past and Future (also
GEO 577
AOS 578 Chemical Oceanography (also
GEO 578
AOS 580 Graduate Seminar in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Each week, students read one research paper and discuss with faculty. The instructor provides additional information such as the historical context, motivation of research, and impact on the field. The papers selected differ from year to year, with a semester's papers organized around either: a collection of "great papers" that are seminal in the field of AOS; a collection of recent high impact papers; and papers discussing a specific topic. The detailed analysis of the research papers also helps students familiarize with the process of distilling essential results for publication.
CEE 593 Aerosol Chemistry and Physics (also
AOS 593
GEO 503 Responsible Conduct of Research in Geosciences (Half-Term) (also
AOS 503
MAE 563 Instabilities in Fluids: Linear and Non-Linear Analysis of Waves and Patterns in the Environment (also
AOS 563
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences