Atmospheric Sciences

The Atmospheric Science Program, jointly sponsored by the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences and the Department of Geography, conducts teaching and research in atmospheric science. It is an interdisciplinary programme, with faculty members coming from not only these two departments, but also from Agricultural Sciences, Chemistry, and Applied Science, with research covering boundary layer meteorology, atmospheric chemistry and air pollution, climate and climate variability, weather and climate prediction, cloud physics, atmosphere-ocean interactions, geophysical fluid dynamics, and interactions between the atmosphere and land (especially vegetation and soil).

Sample skill sets

Junior Students

• Assist with Geologic mapping, including making cross sections and stratigraphic sections
• Students are knowledgeable about field safety
• Assist in petrographic analysis (thin section identification of common rocks & minerals)
• Providing field assistance during drilling
• Mineral inventories
• Assisting with core logging
• Plotting data using computer software
• Recording and measuring river and stream stage and flows

Senior Students

• Collecting groundwater-level information
• Collecting and preserving water samples
• Elementary well testing
• Testing fill material for compaction and moisture during road construction