Courses - Spring 2023
AOSC
Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
AOSC123
Cross-listed with: GEOL123.
Credit only granted for: AOSC123, GEOG123, or GEOL123.
Study of the major components of Earth's climate system and climate change history. Discussion of 21st century climate change prediction, mitigation and adaptation efforts.
AOSC200
Weather and Climate
Prerequisite: MATH107, MATH110, or MATH115.
Recommended: Concurrent enrollment in AOSC201.
What are weather and climate? Most people think they know but if you ask people to explain the differences and similarities you're bound to get a range of answers. Weather affects not just our daily activities but other important aspects of society such as transportation, commerce, security and agriculture. Most people understand what weather is to some extent. Climate and climate change are concepts that evoke strong emotional responses from people but are less well understood. In this class, students examine fundamental issues such as the greenhouse effect, severe weather, and global weather patterns and how they relate to a changing climate. Instruction in the lectures will provide the basic knowledge needed to understand these issues. In the discussion sections, students will be divided into groups to address the implications of these topics through group projects.
A Marquee Science and Technology Course designed for Non-Science Majors: http://www.marqueecourses.umd.edu/* Click here for more Marquee course information.
AOSC201
Weather and Climate Laboratory
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Corequisite: AOSC200.
Laboratory exercises to supplement AOSC200, including weather observations, weather map analysis, forecasting practice and climate modeling.
Students must pay a $60.00 lab materials fee.
AOSC247
Scientific Programming: Python
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: MATH140.
Recommended: Familiarity with basic descriptive statistics.
Credit only granted for: AOSC458J or AOSC247.
Formerly: AOSC458J.
A comprehensive introduction to scientific computation and visualization techniques with Python applied to data intensive questions in the Natural Sciences. The class emphasizes real-world applications, providing students with essential hands-on experience using Python for data analysis and visualization, developing analytical skills for observational and modeling data, and performing virtual experiments to distinguish data contributing factors. Students will gain an understanding of the scientific data issues including: signal vs noise, trend vs periodicity, mean vs extreme changes, and accuracy vs uncertainty. Students will gain extensive experience using command line linux. Skills including local and remote file transfer and synchronization, file and directory permission, utilities for diagnosing performance issues, and data compression.
Students must pay a $60.00 lab materials fee.
AOSC399
Independent Study in Academic Peer Mentoring
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
AOSC401
Climate Dynamics and Earth System Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AOSC400 or AOSC200; and MATH141; and (PHYS161 or PHYS171). Or permission of instructor.
Introduction of the earth and global climate systems and their major components: atmosphere, land, ocean, biosphere and cryosphere. Key processes governing the function of the earth's climate: Global energy balance and water cycle, climate dynamics (general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean) and climate physics (aerosol, cloud and rain), as well as climate variability and climate changes. Phenomena resulting from this coupled system including El Nino-Southern Oscillation, monsoons, and the hydrological cycle will be discussed, with a focus on how the Earth System responds to global warming.
AOSC421
Oceanography of the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
This course introduces the oceanography of the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic bight, with a focus on physical oceanographic processes, the impact of ocean circulation on the coastal and estuarine environment, and the future of our coast in a changing climate. This will include major topics in coastal oceanography such as the shelf circulation, waves and tides, estuarine circulation, and sea-level rise. In addition to lecture, students will read recent selections from the scientific literature, develop a report on an oceanographic issue relevant to Maryland coastal waters, and take part in a research cruise on the Chesapeake Bay.
AOSC424
Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Ocean
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (PHYS171, PHYS161, MATH141); or permission of instructor.
Many of the properties of the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are most easily observed from satellite remote sensing. This course will provide students with a hands-on introduction to a variety of passive and active sensing techniques and sensors observing our changing environment. Topics include: orbital dynamics and electromagnetic properties of the atmosphere and surface; atmospheric emission characteristics and scattering; chemical composition and spectroscopy; temperature retrievals; detection and retrieval of aerosol, cloud and rain; ocean surface properties; sea surface temperature and color; active sensing of wind stress, sea level, and internal waves; time-dependent gravity; properties of vegetation and ice.
AOSC432
Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Ocean
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AOSC431.
Corequisite: MATH246.
Credit only granted for: AOSC432 or AOSC632.
Formerly: METO432.
Equations of motion and their approximation, scale analysis for the atmosphere and the ocean. Conservation properties. Fluid motion in the atmosphere and oceans. Geostrophic/balanced and ageostrphic/unbalanced motion. Circulation, vorticity, and potential vorticity. Introduction to the boundary layer.
AOSC433
Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: CHEM131, CHEM135, or CHEM146. And MATH241; or permission of CMNS-Atmospheric & Oceanic Science department; or permission of CMNS-Chemistry & Biochemistry department.
Cross-listed with CHEM433.
Credit only granted for: AOSC433, AOSC633, CHEM433, or CHEM633.
Formerly: AOSC434.
The effects of human activity on atmospheric composition, focused on global warming, the carbon cycle, air pollution, and the ozone layer. Fundamentals of atmosphereic chemistry (spectroscopy, kinetics, isotopic analysis, and biogeochemical cycles) are related to the modern understanding of climate change, air quality, and ozone depletion, based on resources such as satellite missions, field campaigns, and scientific assessments published by international agencies. We also examine how society's energy needs could be met, in the future, in a manner with less impact on atmospheric composition than the present heavy reliance on combusion of fossil fuels.
AOSC434
Air Pollution
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: CHEM131 and MATH241; or permission of instructor.
Basic concepts in physics and chemistry of the atmosphere as applied to air pollution and environmental justice. Production, transformation, spatial scales, transport, and removal of air pollutants. The problems of photochemical smog, the greenhouse effect & climate change, stratospheric ozone, visibility. Numerical simulation of air pollution. Health and environmental effects of air pollution in the developed and developing world; why some communities suffer disproportionately
AOSC447
Machine Learning in Earth Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Prerequisite: Must have completed MATH140.
A comprehensive introductory course designed to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for applying machine learning techniques to solve real-world problems in Earth science. It emphasizes practical solution implementation, providing students with essential hands-on experience using the most popular open-source analytics tools based on Python, a general-purpose programming language. The course works through all steps in machine learning, from problem specification, data analytics to analytical solution, and applies advanced statistical and analytical algorithms to uncover hidden data relationships and transform them into predictive understanding or decision support. The topics covered include: Python programming, SciPy and Scikit-learn utility, data engineering, visualization, classifiers, regression models, canonical correlation analysis, structural equation models, decision trees, random forests, boosting machines, support vector machines, clustering, dimensionality reduction, principal component analysis, and neural networks.
AOSC494
Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Seminar
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Minimum grade of C- in AOSC431 and AOSC432.
Restriction: Permission of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Department.
Exposure to a wide range of contemporary topics in atmospheric, oceanic, and climate sciences, to foster research interests and promote critical thinking through the weekly AOSC departmental seminar series.
AOSC499
Special Problems in Atmospheric Science
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AOSC611
Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Oceans II
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Waves and instabilities in the atmosphere and the ocean. Gravity, Rossby, coastal and equatorial waves. Flow over topography. Dynamic instabilities including barotropic, baroclinic, inertial, and instabilities of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system. Stationary waves and multiple equilibria.
AOSC617
Atmospheric and Oceanic Climate
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: AOSC610; or permission of instructor.
The general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, historical perspective, observations, and conceptual models; wind-driven and thermohaline circulation of the oceans. Seasonal cycle and monsoon circulations; interannual to interdecadal climate variability; climate change.
AOSC621
Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere II
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: MATH462; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Spectroscopy; basic concepts in radiative transfer and atmospheric chemistry; photolysis rates for atmospheric molecules.
AOSC633
Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: CHEM131, CHEM135, or CHEM146.
Cross-listed with: CHEM633.
Credit only granted for: AOSC433, AOSC633, CHEM433, or CHEM633.
The effects of human activity on atmospheric composition, focused on global warming, the carbon cycle, air pollution, and the ozone layer. Fundamentals of atmosphereic chemistry (spectroscopy, kinetics, isotopic analysis, and biogeochemical cycles) are related to the modern understanding of climate change, air quality, and ozone depletion, based on resources such as satellite missions, field campaigns, and scientific assessments published by international agencies. We also examine how society's energy needs could be met, in the future, in a manner with less impact on atmospheric composition than the present heavy reliance on combusion of fossil fuels.
AOSC647
Machine Learning in Earth Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Prerequisite: MATH140.
Jointly offered with: AOSC447.
Credit only granted for: AOSC447 or AOSC647.
A comprehensive introductory course designed to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for applying machine learning techniques to solve real-world problems in Earth science. It emphasizes practical solution implementation, providing students with essential hands-on experience using the most popular open-source analytics tools based on Python, a general-purpose programming language. The course works through all steps in machine learning, from problem specification, data analytics to analytical solution, and applies advanced statistical and analytical algorithms to uncover hidden data relationships and transform them into predictive understanding or decision support. The topics covered include: Python programming, SciPy and Scikit-learn utility, data engineering, visualization, classifiers, regression models, canonical correlation analysis, structural equation models, decision trees, random forests, boosting machines, support vector machines, clustering, dimensionality reduction, principal component analysis, and neural networks.
AOSC663
Water and Climate Systems
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, S-F
Prerequisite: AOSC610; and undergraduate level hydrology and/or hydrogeology, familiarity with differential calculus and equations. Please consult with instructor for details.
Focuses on exploring options for adaptation and building resilience to the possible impacts of climate change through an interwoven understanding of the physical, biological, social, cultural, economic and institutional constraints of water resources issues and consideration of climate-related risks in the management and decision-making process.
AOSC798
Directed Graduate Research
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
AOSC898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
Reg
AOSC899
Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
6
Grad Meth:
S-F
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