  
Graduate
Atmospheric Sciences
REQUIREMENTS
| RESEARCH | FACULTY
Graduate
Program in Atmospheric Sciences
THE
CAMPUS
North
Carolina State University, a Land-Grant University founded in 1887,
offers 89 undergraduate fields of study, 80 master's degrees, and
51 doctoral degree programs. Total enrollment is about 27,600 students,
of which about 19% are graduate students. The campus is located
in Raleigh, the state capital (population 250,000), and is within
commuting distance of Duke University, the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Park.
ATMOSPHERIC
SCIENCES PROGRAM
The
undergraduate meteorology program at NCSU began in 1969 within the
former Department of Geosciences. Graduate-level courses were introduced
and the M.S. degree in meteorology was authorized in 1976. The Ph.D.
degree program in atmospheric sciences was initiated with the establishment
of the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in 1981.
The Atmospheric Sciences program at NCSU has grown significantly
and the total research grants and contracts currently amount to
several million dollars. The number of graduate students enrolled
is about sixty of which over one-third are Ph.D. students.
STUDENT
BACKGROUND REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Students
applying for admission to the M.S. program in atmospheric
sciences should have an adequate background in atmospheric sciences
and/or in the appropriately related sciences and mathematics. The
latter would include at least three semesters of calculus, two of
general physics, and one of general chemistry. Students with little
or no background in atmospheric sciences would be expected to take
selected undergraduate courses as prerequisites and to remove other
deficiencies.
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RESEARCH
FACILITIES
The
following on-campus and off-campus facilities are available for
graduate and faculty research in atmospheric sciences:
On
Campus
- University
Computer Center, Departmental SUN, IBM and Macintosh microcomputers
and workstations.
- 17
SUN Workstation Facility for real-time weather data processing
(UNIDATA/WXP); GEMPAK & NCAR Graphics.
- DIFAX,
weather observatory, weather data and satellite imagery archives.
- Cloud-aerosol
interactions laboratory housing a cloud condensation nucleus spectrometer,
a haze nuclei spectrometer, a rain simulator and supporting equipment.
- Planetary
Boundary Layer Laboratory with a wide variety of field instrumentation.
- Microcomputer
access to laser disk data sets, including NCDC grid point data,
GALE data, etc.
- Mobile
research laboratory (26 feet GMC Sierra Van) instrumented for
pollutant (e.g., O3, NOx, SO2,
H2O2) and meteorological monitoring.
- Real-time
MASS mesoscale modeling facility.
- RISC
workstations in the Facility for Oceanic and Atmospheric Modeling
and Visualization (FOAMv) supported by IBM.
- Air
Quality Laboratory for analysis of speciated non-methane hydrocarbon and trace gases.
- Phytotron
for controlled atmospheric pollutant exposure.
- Scanning
electron microscope and X-ray diffraction spectrometer.
- Ion
Chromatograph.
- Access
to National Weather Service Forecast Office on the NCSU Centennial
Campus with AFOS and Doppler weather radar.
Off-Campus
- RV
Cape Hatteras, a 135-foot fully-equipped research vessel berthed
at Beaufort, North Carolina.
- Meteorological
and air quality monitoring networks of federal and state agencies.
- Research
farm instrumentation for agricultural meteorology.
- Research
aircraft and other facilities of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research.
- Coastal
Engineering Research Center Field Facility of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers at Duck, NC.
- Mt.
Mitchell, NC, air pollution and climatology observatory.
- North
Carolina Supercomputing Center CRAY Supercomputers, Research Triangle
Park, N.C.
OTHER
INFORMATION
Graduate
students may also pursue a minor field outside their major discipline,
although a minor is not required. The areas that traditionally have
been of interest to our students are environmental sciences, physical
oceanography, statistics, computer science, mathematics, civil engineering,
mechanical and aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, and
chemical engineering.
Our
faculty members are aware of the need for their students, to outline
their sequence of graduate courses early in the program. Therefore,
upon request, any faculty member can provide you with a suggested
plan of course work for his area of research interest.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Research is an integral part of graduate study and should be a
major consideration in the selection of a graduate program. An M.S.
student should determine a general area of research within atmospheric
sciences, while a Ph.D. applicant should consider in-depth research
on a specific topic. At present, the faculty and graduate students'
research in the atmospheric sciences program at NCSU concentrates
in the following areas: Air-Sea Interaction
Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality
Boundary Layer Meteorology
Climatology
Cloud Chemistry and Microphysics
Convective Dynamics and Physics
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation
Mesoscale Processes
Satellite Remote Sensing
Storm Structure and Dynamics
Synoptic-Dynamic Meteorology
Tropical Meteorology
Weather Systems and Forecasting
For more detailed information, see our Atmospheric Research page.
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FACULTY
All members of the atmospheric sciences faculty are active in research
and supervise graduate students' theses and dissertations. Currently
there are numerous sponsored projects with total funding of several
million dollars. Most of the atmospheric sciences graduate students
work on these sponsored projects as Graduate Research Assistants.
There
are currently 10 full-time tenure-track faculty members and 14
adjunct and visiting faculty in atmospheric sciences. The faculty,
the year and university where they obtained their degree, and their
specialty are listed below:
DEPARTMENTAL
FACULTY IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE
| A. Aiyyer, PhD, State University of New York, Albany, NY, 2003. Tropical meteorology; atmospheric dynamics; climate variability. (aaiyyer@ncsu.edu) |
| V. P. Aneja, PhD, North Carolina State University, 1977. Chemical engineering; air quality; natural emissions of trace gases (nitrogen, sulfur, and hydrocarbons); dry and wet deposition transport; transformation and fate of pollutants in the atmosphere; biospheric-atmospheric interactions, atmospheric photochemical oxidants and gas-to-particle conversion (viney_aneja@ncsu.edu) |
| S.
P. Arya, PhD, Colorado State Univ., 1968. Micrometeorology;
atmospheric boundary layer; turbulence and diffusion; air pollution
meteorology; air-sea interaction; environmental fluid mechanics.
(pal_arya@ncsu.edu) |
| G.
M. Lackmann, PhD, University at Albany, 1995. Synoptic-Dynamic
Meteorology, Numerical Weather Prediction, Forecasting. (gary@ncsu.edu) |
| N. Meskhidze, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003. Atmospheric chemistry, aerosol-cloud interaction, satellite remote sensing. (nicholas_meskhidze@ncsu.edu) |
| M. Parker, PhD, Colorado State University, 2002. Dynamic meteorology, the dynamics of clouds and storms, mesoscale meteorology and numerical atmospheric modeling. (mdparker@ncsu.edu) |
S.
Raman, PhD, Colorado State University, 1972. Air-sea
interactions, boundary layer meteorology and air pollution,
coastal meteorology
and tropical meteorology. (sethu_raman@ncsu.edu) |
| F.
Semazzi, PhD, University of Nairobi, 1983. Climate dynamics
modeling. (fred_semazzi@ncsu.edu) |
| L. Xie, Ph.D., University of Miami, 1992. Tropical meteorology
and hurricanes, air-sea interactions, marine meteorology. (lian_xie@ncsu.edu) |
| S. Yuter, PhD, University of Washington, 1996.
Physical meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, radar and remote sensing. (sandra_yuter@ncsu.edu) |
| Y.
Zhang , PhD, University of Iowa, 1994 Air quality
modeling, atmospheric chemistry and transport, chemistry and
dynamics of aerosols, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis,
and chemistry-climate interactions (yang_zhang@ncsu.edu) |
Adjunct
and Visiting Faculty
K.
Alapati, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ph.D., 1993 (N.C. State University),
Mesoscale Modeling.
R.
Braham, Scholar in Residence, Ph.D. 1951 (Univ. of Chicago), Cloud
Physics, Thunderstorms, Lake-Effect Snow Storms, Weather Modification.
S.
Chang, Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1977 (Penn State Univ.),
Numerical Weather Prediction, Mesoscale Meteorology.
V.S.
Connors, Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1991 (Univ. of Virginia),
Environmental Sciences with Emphasis on Atmospheric Sciences.
J.J.
DeLuisi, Adjunct Professor, Ph.D., 1967 (Florida State Univ.), UV,
Shortwave and Longwave Radiation Measurements; Radiation Transfer,
Remote Sensing of Ozone and Aerosols.
J.
Han, Visiting Research Scientist, 1998( N.C. State Univ.), Planetary
Boundary Layer, Vortex Dynamics
M.
Kaplan, Research Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1972 (State Univ. of
New York), Mesoscale Modeling, Synoptic and Dynamical Meteorology.
R.
Madala, Adjunct Professor, Ph.D. (Florida State Univ.), Numerical
Weather Prediction, Mesoscale Modeling.
T.
Malone, Distinguished University Scholar, D. Sc. (M.I.T.), Climate
Change, Science Policy, Environmental Issues.
J.
Pelissier, Adjunct Professor, Ph.D. 1975 (Univ. of Miami), Hurricane
Prediction, Weather Forecasting.
H.G.
Reichle, Jr., Visiting Professor, Ph.D. 1969 (Univ. of Michigan).
Air Pollution by Satellite.
W.
H. Snyder, Adjunct Professor, Ph.D., 1969 (Penn State Univ.), Physical
Modeling of Stratified and Turbulent Flow, Dispersion in Complex
Terrain/Flows.
Last updated 03/11/08 |
