Glossary
UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
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Course Descriptions |
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Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
To see the detailed Instructor Class Description, click on the underlined instructor name following the course description.
ATM S 101 Weather (5) NW
The earth's atmosphere, with emphasis on weather observations and forecasting. Daily weather map discussions. Highs, lows, fronts, clouds, storms, jet streams, air pollution, and other features of the atmosphere. Physical processes involved in weather phenomena. Intended for nonmajors. Offered: AWSpS.
Instructor Course Description:
David S Battisti
Christopher S. Bretherton
Darren Wilton
Dale R Durran
Jerome Patoux
ATM S 111 Global Warming: Understanding the Issues (5) NW Ackerman, Anderson, Bitz, Fu, Jaegle, Thornton
Includes a broad overview of the science of global warming. Discusses the causes, evidence, future projections, societal and environmental impacts, and potential solutions. Introduces the debate on global warming with a focus on scientific issues. Offered: AWSp.
Instructor Course Description:
James Franklin Booth
ATM S 211 Climate and Climate Change (5) NW
The nature of the global climate system. Factors influencing climate including interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, solid earth, and biosphere. Stability and sensitivity of climate system. Global warming, ozone depletion, and other human influences. Intended for nonmajors. Offered: AWSp.
Instructor Course Description:
Cecilia Bitz
Thomas P. Ackerman
ATM S 212 Air Pollution: From Urban Smog to the Ozone Hole (5) NW Alexander, Jaegle', Thornton
Introduction to air pollution on local, regional, and global scales, with focus on the sources, transformation, and dispersion of pollutants responsible for urban smog, acid rain, climate change, and the ozone hole. Health and environmental effects of air pollutants, technological solutions, and international policy regulations. Offered: varies.
Instructor Course Description:
Lyatt Jaegle
ATM S 301 Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences (5) NW
Composition and structure of the atmosphere. Clouds and weather phenomena. Thermodynamic processes. Solar and terrestrial radiation. Air motions. Daily weather discussions and forecasts. For majors and nonmajors. Prerequisite: 2.0 in each of MATH 124; MATH 125; MATH 126; PHYS 121; PHYS 122; and PHYS 123. Offered: A.
ATM S 321 The Science of Climate (3) NW
Evolution and present state of earth's climate. Emphasis on physical processes determining the climate of the earth's atmosphere and surface: radiative transfer, energy balance, hydrologic cycle, and atmospheric and oceanic energy transport. Factors controlling climate change. Prerequisite: minimum of grade of 2.0 each of MATH 124; MATH 125; MATH 126; PHYS 121; PHYS 122; PHYS 123. Offered: Sp.
Instructor Course Description:
Dennis L Hartmann
ATM S 340 Introduction to Thermodynamics and Cloud Processes (3) NW
Examines thermodynamics and hydrostatics. Studies cloud and precipitation processes with emphasis on the microphysics. Prerequisite: ATM S 301. Offered: W.
Instructor Course Description:
Becky Alexander Suess
ATM S 341 Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (3) NW
Comprehensive introduction to atmospheric radiation, including solar and infrared radiation, the earth's radiation budget, and remote sensing. Prerequisite: ATM S 301. Offered: Sp.
ATM S 358 Fundamentals of Atmospheric Chemistry (3) NW
Review of basic principles of physical chemistry; evolution and chemical composition of earth's atmosphere; half-life, residence and renewal time; sources, transformation, transport and sinks of gases in the troposphere; atmospheric aerosols; chemical cycles; air pollution; stratospheric chemistry. Recommended: CHEM 142; MATH 126; PHYS 123. Offered: Sp.
Instructor Course Description:
Joel A. Thornton
ATM S 370 Atmospheric Structure and Analysis (5) NW
Structure and evolution of extratropical cyclones, fronts and convective systems. Surface and upper air analysis techniques. Radar and satellite data. Real-world applications of basic dynamical principles. Introduction to operational products and forecasting. Prerequisite: ATM S 301. Offered: W.
ATM S 390 Honors Tutorial in Atmospheric Sciences (*, max. 6)
Review and discussion of selected problems in atmospheric sciences. Introduction to research methods. Presentation of a research paper. Offered: AWSpS.
ATM S 431 Boundary-Layer Meteorology (3) NW
Introduction to boundary-layer meteorology. Surface energy budgets, structure and evolution of boundary layers, and basic ideas of turbulence theory. Prerequisite: either ATM S 340 or PHYS 224. Offered: A.
ATM S 441 Atmospheric Motions I (3) NW
Basic equations governing atmospheric motions and their elementary applications; circulation and vorticity; dynamics of midlatitude disturbances. Prerequisite: either AMATH 353 or MATH 309; MATH 324. Offered: A.
Instructor Course Description:
Cecilia Bitz
Dale R Durran
ATM S 442 Atmospheric Motions II (5) NW
Wave dynamics, numerical prediction, development of midlatitude synoptic systems, and general circulation. Includes laboratory exercises. Prerequisite: ATM S 441. Offered: W.
Instructor Course Description:
David S Battisti
ATM S 451 Instruments and Observations (5) NW
Principles of operating instruments for measuring important atmospheric parameters (e.g., temperature, humidity, aerosol concentration). Concepts of sensitivity, accuracy, representativeness, time response. Manipulation of output data including signal processing and statistical analysis. Experimental design and implementation of the design in actual field experiments is included. Prerequisite: ATM S 370; ATM S 442; STAT 390. Offered: Sp.
Instructor Course Description:
Robert Wood
ATM S 452 Weather Forecasting and Advanced Synoptic Meteorology (5) NW
Basic forecasting techniques. Application of numerical modeling and statistical approaches. Structure, evolution, and forecasting of convective systems. Radar applications. Diurnal and topographically-forced circulations. Aviation meteorology. Laboratories include extensive practice in forecasting and surface map analysis. Prerequisite: ATM S 370; ATM S 442; STAT 390. Offered: Sp.
ATM S 458 Global Atmospheric Chemistry (4) NW
Global atmosphere as a chemical system. Physical factors and chemical processes. Natural variability and anthropogenic change. Cycling of trace substances. Global issues such as climate change, acidic deposition, influences on biosphere. Prerequisite: either ATM S 358 or CHEM 456. Offered: jointly with CHEM 458; A.
Instructor Course Description:
Joel A. Thornton
ATM S 460 Water in the Environment (3) NW Baker, Raymond, Waddington, Warren
Discusses the unique physical and chemical properties of the water molecule in relation to the atmospheric greenhouse effect, precipitation formation, oceanic circulations, infiltration of water through soils, geyser eruptions, and glacier and sea ice thickness. Prerequisite: either MATH 124, MATH 126, MATH 129, or MATH 136; PHYS 123. Offered: jointly with ESS 424/PHYS 460. Offered: A.
ATM S 480 Air-Quality Modeling (3) NW
Evaluation of air-quality models relating air pollution emissions to environmental concentrations. Topics include meteorological dispersion models and various "receptor" models based on chemical "fingerprinting" of sources. Emphasizes current problems. Offered: jointly with CEE 480; W.
ATM S 490 Current Weather Analysis (1, max. 6) NW
Reviews and analyzes current weather situations and forecasts. Promotes active discussion between the leader and attendees, and provides exposure to practical aspects of forecasting, the structure of synoptic and local weather phenomena, and applications of basic meteorological concepts. Offered: AWSp.
ATM S 492 Readings in Meteorology or Climatology (*)
Credit/no credit only. Offered: AWSpS.
ATM S 501 Fundamentals of Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere (5)
Fundamentals of hydrostatics, thermodynamics, radiation, cloud physics, and atmospheric chemistry. Offered: A.
Instructor Course Description:
John M Wallace
ATM S 502 Introduction to Synoptic Meteorology (3)
Overview of weather systems; atmospheric observations and data assimilation. Elementary manual and computer-aided synoptic analysis techniques. Interpretation of satellite and ground-based observations. Kinematics. Fronts and frontogenesis; life cycles of extratropical cyclones; related mesoscale phenomena. Numerical weather prediction; interpretation of forecast products. Offered: Sp.
ATM S 503 Atmospheric Motions I (3)
Basic equations governing atmospheric motions and their elementary applications; circulation and vorticity; dynamics of midlatitude disturbances. Offered: A.
Instructor Course Description:
Cecilia Bitz
ATM S 504 Atmospheric Motions II (5)
Wave dynamics, numerical prediction, development of midlatitude synoptic systems, and general circulation. Prerequisite: either ATM S 441 or ATM S 503. Offered: W.
Instructor Course Description:
David S Battisti
ATM S 505 Introduction to Fluid Dynamics (4)
Eulerian equations for mass, motion; Navier-Stokes equation for viscous fluids, Cartesian tensors, stress, strain relations; Kelvin's theorem, vortex dynamics; potential flows, flows with high, low Reynolds numbers; boundary layers, introduction to singular perturbation techniques; water waves; linear instability theory. Prerequisite: AMATH 403 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with AMATH 505/OCEAN 511; A.
Instructor Course Description:
Dale R Durran
Parker Mac Cready
ATM S 508 Geochemical Cycles (4)
Descriptive, quantitative aspects of earth as biogeochemical system. Study of equilibria, transport processes, chemical kinetics, biological processes; their application to carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, other elemental cycles. Stability of biogeochemical systems; nature of human perturbations of their dynamics. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with OCEAN 523/CHEM 523; Sp.
ATM S 509 Geophysical Fluid Dynamics I (4)
Dynamics of rotating stratified fluid flow in the atmosphere/ocean and laboratory analogues. Equations of state, compressibility, Boussinesq approximation. Geostrophic balance, Rossby number. Poincare, Kelvin, Rossby waves, geostrophic adjustment. Ekman layers. Continuously stratified dynamics: Inertia-gravity waves, potential vorticity, quasigeostrophy. Prerequisite: ATM S/AMATH 505/OCEAN 511. Offered: jointly with OCEAN 512; W.
ATM S 510 Physics of Ice (3)
Structure of the water molecule. Crystallographic structures of ice. Electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties of ice. Growth of ice from vapor and liquid phases. Offered: jointly with ESS 531; alternate years; W.
ATM S 511 Formation of Snow and Ice Masses (3)
Snow and ice climatology. Formation of the ice crystals in clouds. Snow metamorphism. Transfer of radiative, sensible, and latent heat at snow and ice surfaces. Remote sensing of snow and ice. Growth and melt of sea ice. Climatic records from ice. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 532; alternate years; A.
ATM S 512 Dynamics of Snow and Ice Masses (3)
Rheology of snow and ice. Sliding and processes at glacier beds. Thermal regime and motion of seasonal snow, glaciers, and ice sheets. Avalanches and glacier surges. Deformation and drift of sea ice. Response of natural ice masses to change in climate. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 533; alternate years; Sp.
ATM S 513 Structural Glaciology (3)
Physical and chemical processes in snow, stratigraphy, and metamorphism. Interpretation of ice sheet stratigraphy in terms of paleoenvironment. Dynamic metamorphism of ice from flow. Structures formed at freezing interfaces. Structure of river, lake, and sea ice. Relationship between structures and bulk physical properties. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 534; alternate years; W.
ATM S 514 Ice and Climate (3)
Examines the role of ice and snow in climate. Polar climate dynamics. Polar-global interactions. Modeling snow cover, sea ice, and ice-sheet balance, and flow in the climate system. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 535; alternate years.
Instructor Course Description:
Cecilia Bitz
ATM S 520 Atmospheric Sciences Colloquium (1, max. 24)
Seminars on current research in advanced topics related to atmospheric sciences, conducted by faculty and visiting professors/scientists. Includes presentation of doctoral dissertations by department graduate students. For Atmospheric Sciences graduate students only. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: permission of department. Offered: AWSp.
ATM S 521 Seminar in Atmospheric Dynamics (*)
Directed at current research in the subject. For advanced students. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: AWSp.
Instructor Course Description:
Dennis L Hartmann
ATM S 523 Seminar in Clouds and Precipitation (*)
Directed at current research in the subject. For advanced students. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: AW.
ATM S 524 Seminar in Climate Dynamics and Energy Transfer (*)
Directed at current research in the subject. For advanced students. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: A.
ATM S 525 Seminar Topics in Atmospheric Chemistry (1-3, max. 6)
Seminar for atmospheric scientists, chemists, and engineers in problems associated with the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Topics range from the natural system to urban pollution and global atmospheric change. Faculty lectures and student participation. Prerequisite: CEE 301 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with CEE 553; W.
ATM S 532 Atmospheric Radiation: Introductory (3)
Fundamentals of radiative transfer; absorption and scattering by atmospheric gases; elementary applications to constraints on the thermal structure, photochemistry, and remote sensing. Prerequisite: PHYS 225 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 571; Sp.
ATM S 533 Atmospheric Radiation: Advanced (3)
Optical properties and particle absorption and scattering; solutions of radiative transfer equation in multiple scattering atmospheres; applications to atmospheric and surface energy balance and remote sensing. Prerequisite: ATM S 532/ESS 571 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 572; A.
ATM S 534 Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Climate System (3)
Satellite systems for sensing the atmosphere and climate system. Recovery of atmospheric and surface information from satellite radiance measurements. Applications to research. Prerequisite: ATM S 532 or ATM S 533. Offered: jointly with ESS 521; alternate years.
ATM S 535 Cloud Microphysics and Dynamics (3)
Basic concepts of cloud microphysics, water continuity in clouds, cloud dynamics, and cloud models. Prerequisite: ATM S 501 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with ESS 573; Sp.
ATM S 536 Mesoscale Storm Structure and Dynamics (3)
Techniques of observing storm structure and dynamics by radar and aircraft, observed structures of precipitating cloud systems, comparison of observed structures with cloud models. Prerequisite: either ATM S 535 or ESS 573. Offered: alternate years; Sp.
ATM S 542 Synoptic and Mesoscale Dynamics (3)
Quasi-geostrophic theory, baroclinic instability, symmetric instability, tropical disturbances, frontogenesis, orographic disturbances, convective storms. Prerequisite: ATM S 509/OCEAN 512 and AMATH 402 or equivalents. Offered: Sp.
ATM S 545 General Circulation of Atmosphere (3)
Requirements of the global angular momentum, heat, mass, and energy budgets upon atmospheric motions as deduced from observations. Study of the physical processes through which these budgets are satisfied. Prerequisite: ATM S 509/OCEAN 512 or permission of instructor. Offered: A.
ATM S 547 Boundary Layer Meteorology (3)
Turbulence, turbulent fluxes, averaging. Convection and shear instability. Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, surface roughness. Wind profiles. Organized large eddies. Energy fluxes at ocean and land surfaces, diurnal cycle. Convective and stably stratified boundary layers. Cloud-topped boundary layers. Remote sensing. Boundary layer modeling and parameterization. Prerequisite: ATM S 505, AMATH 505, or OCEAN 511. Offered: alternate years; Sp.
ATM S 551 Atmospheric Structure and Analysis I: Synoptic Scale Systems (4)
Extratropical cyclones and cyclogenesis. Jet streams. Upper waves in the westerlies. Diagnosis of vertical motions. Fronts and frontogenesis. Prerequisite: ATM S 502 and ATM S 509/OCEAN 512. Offered: alternate years; A.
ATM S 552 Objective Analysis (3)
Review of objective analysis techniques commonly applied to atmospheric problems; examples from the meteorological literature and class projects. Superposed epoch analysis, cross-spectrum analysis, filtering, eigenvector analysis, and optimum interpolation techniques. Offered: W.
Instructor Course Description:
Dennis L Hartmann
ATM S 554 Paleoclimate Proxies (3) Alexander, Sachs
Provides a critical evaluation of the most commonly applied paleoclimate proxies from the ocean, land, and ice sheets. Offered: jointly with ESS 554/OCEAN 554; alternate years.
ATM S 555 Planetary Atmospheres (3)
Problems of origin, evolution, and structure of planetary atmospheres, emphasizing elements common to all; roles of radiation, chemistry, and dynamical processes; new results on the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and other solar system objects in the context of comparative planetology. Offered: jointly with ASTR 555/ESS 581; alternate years.
ATM S 556 Planetary-Scale Dynamics (3)
Zonally symmetric circulations, planetary waves, equatorial waves, dynamics of the middle atmosphere, trace constituent transport, nonlinear aspects of atmospheric flows. Prerequisite: ATM S 542 or permission of instructor. Offered: alternate years; Sp.
ATM S 558 Atmospheric Chemistry (3)
Photochemistry of urban, rural, and marine tropospheric air, and of the natural and perturbed ozone in the middle atmosphere. Unity of the chemistries in these apparently different regimes. Prerequisite: ATM S 458 or ATM S 501 or CHEM 457 or permission of instructor. Offered: Sp.
Instructor Course Description:
Lyatt Jaegle
ATM S 559 Climate Modeling (3) Bitz, Thompson
Principles of Earth system modeling. Emphasis on atmosphere, ocean sea ice, and land-surface components. Climate forcing. Appropriate use of models. Topics of current interest including carbon cycle, atmosphere chemistry, and biogeochemistry. Prerequisite: either ATM S/OCEAN/ESS 587, ATM S 504 or ATM S 505. Offered: jointly with ESS 559/OCEAN 558; Sp; alternate years.
Instructor Course Description:
Cecilia Bitz
ATM S 560 Atmosphere/Ocean Interactions (3)
Observations and theory of phenomena of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system. El Nino/Southern Oscillation; decadal tropical variability; atmospheric teleconnections; midlatitude atmosphere-ocean variability. Overview of essential ocean and atmospheric dynamics, where appropriate. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: ATM S 509/OCEAN 512. Offered: jointly with OCEAN 560; alternate years; Sp.
ATM S 564 Atmospheric Aerosol and Multiphase Atmospheric Chemistry (3)
Physics and chemistry of particles and droplets in the atmosphere. Statistics of size distributions, mechanics, optics, and physical chemistry of atmospheric aerosols. Brownian motion, sedimentation, impaction, condensation, and hydroscopic growth. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: alternate years; W.
ATM S 571 Advanced Physical Climatology (3)
Physical processes that determine the climate of Earth and its past and future changes. Greenhouse effect. Climate modeling. Radiative and dynamical feedback processes. Orbital parameter theory. Critical analysis of climate change predictions. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: A.
Instructor Course Description:
Dennis L Hartmann
ATM S 575 Large Scale Dynamics of the Tropical Atmosphere (3)
Observations and underlying dynamics of large-scale tropical circulations. Factors that determine regions of large-scale persistent precipitation in the tropics, thermal forcing of atmospheric circulations by these regions, and temporal variability of the forcing and response. Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: ATM S 509/OCEAN 512, ATM S 542. Offered: alternate years; W.
ATM S 581 Numerical Analysis of Time Dependent Problems (5)
Numerical methods for time-dependent differential equations, including explicit and implicit methods for hyperbolic and parabolic equations. Stability, accuracy, and convergence theory. Spectral and pseudospectral methods. Prerequisite: AMATH 581 or AMATH 584. Offered: jointly with AMATH 586/MATH 581; Sp.
ATM S 582 Advanced Numerical Modeling of Geophysical Flows (3)
Topics of current interest including: efficient time differencing, semi-implicit and multiple time-step techniques. Semi-lagrangian schemes. Treatment of poorly resolved gradients. Flux-corrected transport. Positive definite advection schemes. Aliasing error and nonlinear instability. Wave permeable boundary conditions. Prerequisite: ATM S 581 and AMATH 586 or MATH 586. Offered: alternate years.
Instructor Course Description:
Dale R Durran
ATM S 585 Climate Impacts on the Pacific Northwest (4) Mantua, Snover
Knowledge of past/future patterns of climate to improve Pacific Northwest resource management. Topics include the predictability of natural/human-caused climate changes; past societal reactions to climate impacts on water, fish, forest, and coastal resources; how climate and public policies interact to affect ecosystems and society. Offered: jointly with ESS/ENVIR/SMA 585; Sp.
ATM S 586 Current Research in Climate Change (2, max. 20)
Weekly lectures focusing on a particular aspect of climate (topic to change each year) from invited speakers (both UW and outside), plus one or two keynote speakers, followed by class discussion. Offered: jointly with ESS 586/OCEAN 586.
Instructor Course Description:
James W Murray
ATM S 587 Climate Dynamics (3) Hartman, Thompson
Examines Earth's climate system; distribution of temperature, precipitation, wind ice, salinity, and ocean currents; fundamental processes determining Earth's climate; energy and constituent transport mechanisms; climate sensitivity; natural climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales; global climate models; predicting future climate. Offered: jointly with ESS 587/OCEAN 587; A
ATM S 588 The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate (3) Quay
Oceanic and terrestrial biogeochemical processes controlling atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Records of past changes in the earth's carbon cycle from geological, oceanographic and terrestrial archives. Anthropogenic perturbations to cycles. Develop simple box models, discuss results of complex models. Offered: jointly with OCEAN 588/ESS 588; W.
ATM S 589 Paleoclimatology: Data, Modeling and Theory (3) Battisti, Emerson, Steig
Evidence for past changes in land and se surface temperature, in precipitation and atmospheric dynamics, and in ocean circulation: both long and interannual timescales. Paleoclimate modeling and theory. Time series analysis and climate noise. Rapid climate change. Statistical reconstruction of interannual variability. Offered: jointly with ESS 589/OCEAN 589; Sp.
Instructor Course Description:
David S Battisti
ATM S 591 Special Topics (1-4, max. 9)
Lecture series on topics of major importance in the atmospheric sciences. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Instructor Course Description:
Gregory J Hakim
ATM S 593 Climate Science Seminar (1) Mote
Focuses on how to communicate climate science to many different audiences through careful construction of figures and through written and oral communication. Credit/no credit only. Offered: jointly with ESS 593/OCEAN 593; W.
ATM S 596 Climate Science Capstone Project (1-5, max. 5) Mote
Climate capstone directed by a mentor, may be a group effort, and may encompass curriculum development, internships, workshop organization, etc., capturing interdisciplinary aspects of climate science and effective communication of climate science. Offered: jointly with ESS 596/OCEAN 596; AWSpS.
ATM S 600 Independent Study or Research (*)
Credit/no credit only. Offered: AWSpS.
ATM S 700 Master's Thesis (*)
Offered: AWSpS.
ATM S 800 Doctoral Dissertation (*)
Offered: AWSpS.
