The Department
The Atmospheric Science Program at the University of Kansas resides in the Department of Geography and is committed to graduate education and innovative research. The graduate program strives to integrate research applications into coursework. Teaching assistants lead laboratory or discussion sections of Atmospheric Science classes. Research assistants are involved in collaborative research efforts with faculty members. Typically, this collaborative research is closely related to a student's M.S. thesis. Current faculty lead innovative projects addressing fundamental questions related to regional climate modeling and global climate change; the dynamics of land-atmosphere interactions; cloud microphysics and dynamics; numerical modeling; mesoscale meteorology; and meteorology and climate associated with polar ice sheets.
The graduate program emphasizes the importance of both observational and numerical modeling research approaches. Extensive instrumentation at the Nelson Environmental Study Area (NESA) and Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research site provide detailed observations of land-atmosphere interactions. In addition, faculty and graduate students make extensive use of data collected in field campaigns and periodically participate in field programs directly. These observational approaches are coupled with numerical modeling techniques. Students have the opportunity to gain experience with large-eddy simulation, cloud and mesoscale models, regional climate models, and global climate models. The department takes advantage of strong ties with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder and is an NCAR Academic Affiliate.
Atmospheric Science Program Facilities
Graduate students have access to a myriad of observational and computational resources. The department maintains instrumentation at NESA and the Konza Prairie that includes meteorological and eddy covariance towers, and large-aperture scintillometers. A computer lab (Meteorology and Climate Hub [MACH]) contains a mix of computers running Linux and Windows, which serves as a center for hands-on instruction. A high performance departmental Linux cluster is available for simulations or data analysis.
