Courses - Fall 2026
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.
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 laboratory materials fee.
AOSC365
Climate Change - Cutting through the Noise
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AOSC123.
This course is designed for the non-scientist to increase their scientific literacy on climate and climate change. We will discuss what "weather" is, why our planet has it, why we need it, and how we have learned to monitor, understand, and predict it. We will discuss the link between climate and weather, how weather prediction informs climate monitoring, what we know about the climate of the Earth, past and present, how we know it, and how that helps inform our perspective on future climate. We will then discuss how weather and climate information is used for decision-making by individuals, businesses, the military, local, state and national government, and what that implies for the scientists who work on these problems.
AOSC375
Introduction to the Blue Ocean
Prerequisite: MATH120 or higher.
Recommended: MATH121, MATH141, PHYS161, or PHYS171.
Cross-listed with: GEOL375.
Credit only granted for: AOSC375 or GEOL375.
The global ocean is a major component of the Earth System that shapes life on earth, including our weather and climate. We explore the observation-based interdisciplinary science of oceanography, identifying its strong connections to related sciences like meteorology, and geography. We apply this developing understanding to environmental issues such as marine pollution, fish and fisheries, as well as to climate variability and to the changes to the marine environment that are resulting from steadily rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gasses. Focusses include the biogeochemical and physical changes we can observe in the nearby Chesapeake Bay and the coastal waters of Eastern Shore, Maryland.
AOSC400
Physical Meteorology
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (PHYS171, PHYS161, MATH141); or permission of CMNS-Atmospheric & Oceanic Science department.
The application of basic classical physics, chemistry and mathematics to the study of the atmosphere. Composition of the atmosphere; energy sources and sinks (radiation in the atmosphere; radiative balance and radiative forcing of atmospheric processes); atmospheric thermodynamics; clouds and precipitation physics; atmospheric electricity and optics; mesoscale processes (e.g., orographic mesoscale phenomena and instabilities); air mass boundaries; severe weather, tropical cyclones; storms; global circulation.
AOSC420
Physical Oceanography
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: MATH141 and PHYS141.
Recommended: AOSC200.
Also offered as: GEOL670, AOSC670.
Credit only granted for: AOSC420, AOSC670, or GEOL670.
Ocean observations. Water masses, sources of deep, intermediate, and surface water. Mass, heat, and salt transport, and the meridional overturning circulation. Geochemical tracers and cycles, including carbon. Western boundary currents, mixed layers, and processes maintaining the thermocline. Coastal and estuarine processes. Surface waves and tides. the ocean's role in climate.
AOSC431
Atmospheric Thermodynamics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (PHYS171, PHYS161, MATH141).
Recommended: MATH246.
Classical thermodynamics applied to both the dry and the moist atmosphere. Composition; phase changes of water; stability concepts; Properties of aerosols and clouds, cloud nucleation and precipitation processes, atmospheric electricity, cloud and precipitation chemistry.
AOSC434
Air Pollution and Environmental Justice
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: CHEM131 and MATH241; or permission of instructor.
Cross-listed with: CHEM434.
Credit only granted for: AOSC434 or CHEM434.
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
Cross-listed with CHEM434. Credit only granted for CHEM434 or AOSC434.
AOSC436
Principles of Biogeochemistry
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: MATH120 or MATH140; or must have completed MATH220. And (GEOL100 or GEOL120); and GEOL322. And CHEM131 and CHEM132; or (CHEM135 and CHEM136).
Restriction: Non-degree-seeking students require the permission of the instructor.
Cross-listed with: GEOL436.
Credit only granted for: GEOL436 or AOSC436.
An introduction to the basic principles of biogeochemistry including aspects of organic geochemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, global geochemical cycles, the origin of life and paleoenvironmental evolution.
AOSC470
Synoptic Meteorology
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Minimum grade of C- in AOSC431 and AOSC432.
Credit only granted for: AOSC470, AOSC600, or METO600.
Atmospheric properties and observations, meteorological analysis and charts, operational numerical forecasts. Application of quasigeostrophic theory, baroclinic instability, midlatitiude and mesoscale weather systems. Tropical meteorology. Weather forecasting using numerical and statistical models. Prediction of weather phenomena on the global, syoptic, meso, and local scales. Analysis of surface and upper air data; Norwegian cyclone model; introduction to weather forecasting.
AOSC493
Senior Research Project I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Permission of CMNS-Atmospheric & Oceanic Science department.
Restriction: Must be in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science program; or permission of instructor.
Technical writing and oral presentation skills. Planning, writing, and presenting a plan for research in the geosciences.
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
AOSC600
Synoptic Meteorology I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: AOSC610.
Atmospheric properties and observations, meteorological analysis and charts, operational numerical forecasts. Application of quasigeostrophic theory, baroclinic instability, midlatitude and mesoscale weather systems. Tropical meteorology.
AOSC610
Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Ocean I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in MATH462; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Equations of motion and their approximation, scale analysis for the atmosphere and the ocean. Conservation properties. Fluid motion in the atmosphere and oceans. Circulation and vorticity, geostrophic motion and the gradient wind balance. Turbulence and Ekman Layers.
AOSC620
Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: MATH461; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Air parcel thermodynamics and stability; constituent thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. Cloud and aerosol physics and precipitation processes.
AOSC652
Analysis Methods in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: PHYS141 and MATH241; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Recommended: AMSC460, CMSC660, AMSC660, or CMSC460.
A variety of the analysis methods used by atmospheric and oceanic scientists will be applied to observational data sets such as Vostok ice core record, temperature trends, and satellite measurements of ozone,sea ice, etc. in a hands-on, computer laboratory setting. Students will be exposed to Fortran and Python as well as modern file formats such as HDF and netCDF. No prior programming experience required.
AOSC670
Physical Oceanography
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Permission of CMNS-Atmospheric & Oceanic Science department; or permission of CMNS-Geology department.
Cross-listed with: GEOL670.
Credit only granted for: GEOL670, AOSC670 or AOSC420.
Ocean observations. Water masses, sources of deep water. Mass, heat, and salt transport, geochemical tracers. Western boundary currents, maintenance of the thermocline. Coastal and estuarine processes. Surface waves and tides. Ocean climate.
AOSC680
Introduction to Earth System Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
An introduction to the study of the earth as a system: atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere, solid earth, and humans. Cycling of materials and energy in the earth system: the energy cycle, the hydrologic cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle. Climate processes and variability: land-atmosphere, ocean-atmosphere, biosphere-climate, and human interactions, short- and long-term variability in climate.
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
Flagship Institution of the University System of Maryland
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
/
Phone:
301.405.1000
Copyright
© 2026 University of Maryland
/
Privacy /
Web Accessibility
Contact us
with comments, questions and feedback
/