Frederick H. Carr, Director |
Professors Beasley, Bluestein, Carr, Crawford, Droegemeier, Fedorovich, Fiedler, Karoly, Lamb, Leslie, Palmer, Richman, Snow; Emeritus Professors Duchon, Friday, Kimpel, Lilly, Sasaki; Associate Professors Biggerstaff, Chilson, Morrissey, Postawko, Shapiro, Straka, Xue; Research Professor Kogan; Assistant Professor Klein; Adjunct Professors Brooks, Brown, Burgess, Davies-Jones, Doswell, Doviak, Hane, Jorgenson, Kogan, MacGorman, Rust, Ryzhkov, Schaefer, Stensrud, White, Xu, Zrnic; Adjunct Associate Professors Kloesel, Schultz, Wicker; Adjunct Assistant Professors Basara, Brewster, Elmore, Gao, Laufersweiler, McPherson, Yu.
Meteorology, or atmospheric science, is the study of the atmosphere and its interaction with Earth’s surface, oceans, and biological systems. Meteorologists seek to describe, understand, and predict weather phenomena that occur on space scales ranging from millimeters to thousands of kilometers, and on time scales from microseconds to thousands of years or longer. These phenomena range from localized thunderstorms and tornadoes, to regional frontal systems and hurricanes, to global climate change.
There are two major scientific thrusts in meteorology today. One is in the study and prediction of severe and hazardous weather events that strongly affect life and property. These include, but are not limited to, lightning, tornadoes, floods, hail, blizzards, dense fog and hurricanes. The second thrust is understanding the earth’s climate system. Research activities here include study of past climates, regional (mesoscale) climate, surface and boundary layer processes, climate change and seasonal forecasting. The School of Meteorology is actively engaged in research on all the above-mentioned topics.
The University of Oklahoma is the only university in the state which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in meteorology. The School of Meteorology maintains an enrollment of approximately 330 undergraduate students and 90 graduate students. Led by 22 internationally recognized faculty members, and assisted by adjunct faculty members representing scientists from other Weather Center members, the four-year undergraduate program is a broad, rigorous and challenging curriculum in basic meteorology. Students graduating with a bachelor’s degree are well qualified for graduate school or employment in government, the military, or the private sector.
A unique feature of the School of Meteorology is that it has close ties with several university-based state and federal research and operational organizations in Norman. Collectively known as the National Weather Center, these organizations include the School, the Department of Geography, the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, Center for Spatial Analysis, the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, the Environmental Verification and Analysis Center, the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the National Weather Service Forecast Office, the Storm Prediction Center, the WSR-88D Doppler Radar Operations Center, and the Warning Decision Training Branch. These organizations provide employment opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as opportunities to participate in state-of-the-art research projects and observational field programs. The high concentration of research and operational institutions also attracts a large number of distinguished visiting scientists for stays varying in length from a day to a year. Nearly all of these organizations will be housed together in the new National Weather Center building by Fall 2006.
Facilities available to students and faculty include a PC LINUX-based lab/classroom (25 machines), a general purpose Apple Macintosh computer lab as well as departmental servers for e-mail, World Wide Web, and weather data. Departmental computing resources are augmented by the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences Amoco PC lab and the resources of the OU Supercomputing Center, OSCER. All these resources are interconnected through the campus network of wired and wireless connections and to the Internet for access to national super-computer centers, the World Wide Web, and other stops on the information superhighway. The school provides a full suite of current weather data, radar data and forecast products from the National Weather Service. Data are also available from the Oklahoma Mesonet, a unique network of remotely operated ground-based sensors providing current weather at the county level for the entire state. The school also helps support two large mobile Doppler radar vehicles (SMART-R) for the detailed study of tornadoes, thunderstorms, hurricanes, fronts and other small-scale phenomena. Observational and experimental work and instrumentation development are pursued in laboratories located in the School, OCS, and on the roof of the NWC. Hands-on experience is an important part of the degree programs of the School of Meteorology. Facilities at the National Weather Center and its partners taken together provide unique opportunities and challenges for students of all levels.
CAPS originated in 1989 as a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center and graduated from this program in 2000. It continues to be supported by a number of agency grants as well as private industry, and its primary mission remains the development of techniques for the prediction of high-impact local weather with an emphasis on thunderstorms and mesoscale phenomena. Its research programs include numerical modeling and computational fluid dynamics, data assimilation, small-scale predictability, physical process studies, Doppler radar analysis and forecast evaluation. CAPS recently helped initiate a new NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) that is focused on developing new Doppler radar technology and also leads an NSF Information Technology Research grant known as Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD). CAPS offers graduate research assistantships, post-doctoral fellowships, visiting scientist appointments, and undergraduate fellowships. For additional information, visit the Center’s web site at www.caps.ou.edu
CIMMS is a joint University of Oklahoma/NOAA cooperative institute designed to improve the effectiveness of research and instruction by providing a stimulating environment where scientists can meet and work on problems of mutual interest. Current research themes include convective and mesoscale processes, forecast improvements, climatic effects of/controls on mesoscale processes, socioeconomic impacts of mesoscale weather systems and regional-scale climate variations, Doppler weather radar research and development, and climate change monitoring and detection. CIMMS is also the home of the Site Scientist for the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program for the Southern Great Plains, and the Data Quality Office for all three ARM Sites (Southern Great Plains, Tropical Western Pacific, North Slope of Alaska). CIMMS is housed on the second and third floors in the National Weather Center. For additional information, visit the Institute’s Web site at www.cimms.ou.edu
The Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC) brings together scientists to work as a team to develop, apply, and teach geostatistical methods used to verify model and remote sensing data. The center includes representatives from different university and government programs and the Mesonet network of environmental monitoring stations capable of providing a variety of measurements at high time and space resolution. For additional information, visit the center’s web site at http://www.evac.ou.edu/
Located in the National Weather Center on OU’s Research Campus, the NSSL is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laboratory dedicated to improvement of our understanding of severe convective and mesoscale events. Areas of emphasis include forecasting and analysis techniques, radar development and applications, and applications of multi-scale numerical forecast models. Research assistantships are available through CIMMS and adjunct faculty at the NSSL supervise graduate student research in the School of Meteorology.
The NWSFO, a technologically advanced forecast facility was the first forecast office in the nation to be located on a university campus during the 1980’s and is now located on the 2nd floor of the National Weather Center. Intern and temporary position opportunities are available for OU students.
The NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is the NWS National Center of Expertise for mesoscale hazardous weather forecasting. It has responsibility for issuing tornado and severe thunderstorms warnings for the contiguous United States. In addition, SPC prepares outlooks of areas with expected tornado and severe thunderstorm activity during the next eight days. The SPC also produces eight day forecasts for areas of the country where conditions are compatible with the ignition and spread of wild fires, and short term forecasts of mesoscale features associated with hazardous winter weather and excessive precipitation. The SPC is one of the organizing partners of the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed which explores ways to improve the timeliness and accuracy of hazardous weather forecasts. The SPC collaborates with meteorologists from around the world, and has conducted many joint projects with programs in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences.
The OCS is a state agency housed at the University of Oklahoma and serves as one component of the School of Meteorology’s current research cluster. The OCS is a dual-purpose organization functioning as a service provider and conducting cutting-edge research. OCS contributes data resources and expertise in a broad field of interests such as climate and climate change, real-life application of weather data, and the operation of the Oklahoma Mesonet, Oklahoma’s weather network. Research interests include K-20 education, first-responder instruction and support, surface transportation monitoring systems, and weather instrumentation research. The main office of OCS is located in the National Weather Center, part of the new Norman Research Campus. For additional information, visit the agency’s Web site at www.ocs.ou.edu
The ROC, a NOAA organization partially located in the National Weather Center on OU’s Research Campus, provides life-cycle hardware and software engineering and maintenance support for a world-class network of 167 Doppler weather radars (also known as NEXRAD) installed nationwide and at several overseas locations. The ROC uses a co-located WSR-88D radar for development and testing, operates a 24/7 helpdesk to support operations and maintenance activities, and deploys teams of engineers and technicians to perform major maintenance. Working in collaboration with NSSL and OU researchers, the ROC transitions new radar techniques and products to operations to continually improve the nation’s weather radar capabilities.
The School of Meteorology is located in the National Weather Center building, which contains the largest combination of academic, research and operational meteorologists in the world. Located in OU’s Research Campus, the 500 people working in the NWC facility are also in close proximity to other OU research centers, the Oklahoma Supercomputer Center for Education and Research (OSCER), the Sasaki Institute, and a variety of private sector weather companies. The facility contains state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories, computer labs, a library, food court, student center, several lounge areas distributed around a spacious atrium, an observation deck on the roof, and a high-bay garage for the mobile radar vehicles. The School’s 80 offices and classrooms occupy all of the fifth (top) and parts of other floors, allowing students and faculty to interact closely with the researchers and practitioners in the other NWC organizations.
Depending on availability of funds, the School offers approximately 10-20 scholarships per year for each of its freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. These awards are primarily based on merit and qualified students will receive application forms from the School in advance of the next academic year. The School of Meteorology encourages all applicants to seek University-wide scholarships and financial aid for which they may be eligible. The department offers graduate teaching and research assistantships to highly qualified applicants with undergraduate degrees in meteorology or atmospheric science, physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering, or other related fields. For information, please write to:
Director, School of Meteorology
University of Oklahoma
120 David L. Boren Blvd.
Norman, OK 73072
For detailed semester by semester curriculum requirements, please consult: http://checksheets.ou.edu/atmosgeogindex.html
The lower division (1000 and 2000-level courses) requirements of 64-65 hours are to be met as follows:
Communications: six hours. English 1113 and 1213 or EXPO 1213.
Foreign Language: 0 - 10 hours. Two courses in the same language (can be met by successfully completing 2 years of the same foreign language in high school).
Science and Mathematics: 34-35 hours. Physics 1311, 1321, 2514, and 2524; Chemistry 1315; Lower-Division Science Elective (one of GEOL 1114, ASTR 1504, CHEM 1415, BOT 1114, ZOO 1114); Computer Science 1313; Math 1823, 2423, 2433, and 2443. (Students must earn a grade of C or better in all CS, ENGR, MATH, METR, and PHYS courses that are direct prerequisites for METR courses.)
Humanities: 12 hours. History 1483 or 1493; one course from each of the following three fields: Understanding Artistic Forms, Western Civilization and Culture, Non-Western Cultures.
Behavioral and Social Sciences: six hours. P SC 1113 and a Social Sciences Elective (to be chosen from the University-Wide General Education Approved Course List for Core III (Social Science).
Basic Meteorology Courses: nine hours. METR 1111, 2011, 2013, 2021, 2023.
Other: three hours. Three hours of a faculty-adviser-approved course must be included in the B.S. program. GEOL 1114 satisfies this requirement, or a geography (science or technical), geology, or geophysics course outside the major may be taken as a science elective or climatology elective.
Communications: three hours. English 3153.
Engineering and Mathematics: 15 hours. Math 3413 and 4753 or METR 4303, plus an upper-division Math elective; and ENGR 3723. The upper-division Math elective may be replaced by a course from an adviser-approved area of concentration or minor.
Science Electives: nine hours. (These electives may be replaced by courses required for an area of concentration or minor). Minimum of nine upper-division hours of faculty-adviser-approved courses in geosciences, engineering, math, physical sciences and/or biological sciences.
Meteorology: 31 hours. METR 3113, 3123, 3213, 3223, 3613, 4133, 4233, 4424, 4433, 4911, 4922 and a meteorology or climatology elective.
NOTE: No more than 52 hours may be taken in one department of the college.
In recognition of the increasing job market in the private sector of meteorology, the School of Meteorology and the Price College of Business have joined to institute an area of concentration in business within the meteorology curriculum. A minimum of 12 upper-division credit hours of faculty-adviser approved coursework is required. These courses may be taken in lieu of the upper-division math elective and the nine credit hours of science in the undergraduate meteorology curriculum.
Required courses are MGT 3013 and MKT 3013, plus two electives to be chosen from B AD 4353, MGT 4363, MIS 3353, 3363, 3373, or 4413, or faculty-approved courses. It is important to understand that all required coursework for the area of concentration in business must be completed before any of the completed courses may be used in lieu of nine credit hours of science elective and three of math elective. Otherwise, the student reverts to the regular meteorology curriculum.
The School of Meteorology has joined with the School of Computer Science in the College of Engineering to provide an area of concentration within the meteorology curriculum for students interested in further developing their skills in the use of computers in science, engineering, and business. These courses may be taken in lieu of the upper-division math elective and the nine credit hours of science in the undergraduate meteorology curriculum.
The required courses are CS 1323, CS 1813, CS 2334, CS 2413 and an elective among five to six upper-division CS courses. These four courses substitute for the math elective and three science electives in the Meteorology curriculum. CS 1323 is also required but can replace CS 1313 in the curriculum.
*Three hours must be upper-division.
The minor involves 13 hours of JMC classes to be inserted into the three upper-division science and one upper-division mathematics elective in the meteorology curriculum. Ten JMC hours are upper-division and three JMC hours are lower-division. Course requirements include: COMM 2613 or DRAM 1603; JMC 2033, 3622, 3642, 3663 and 3773.
A minor in mathematics can be obtained by taking one 4000-level math course in addition to the normal meteorology curriculum (if MATH 4753 is taken). Minors in computer science, physics and other areas are available, normally requiring about 18 credit hours. The college-wide Hydrology minor is also available. The school is considering adding other minors as well.
Some students pursue dual degree programs in math, physics, computer science and other areas. Please consult a meteorology adviser for additional information.
The general requirements for admission to the Graduate College must be fulfilled (see http://gradweb.ou.edu). The application form for the School of Meteorology Graduate Program can be found under Graduate Information at the school’s web site. The School encourages applications from B.S. graduates in physics, math, computer science and other science and engineering disciplines as well as from meteorology majors. Students from other disciplines may need to take some undergraduate meteorology, math, and other courses depending on their background. Acceptance into the Graduate College does not guarantee admission into the School of Meteorology.
Incoming graduate student in the School are normally expected to have a working knowledge of calculus, vector analysis, linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, statistics, and computer programming (e.g. UNIX and either FORTRAN or C). However, because of the diverse educational backgrounds of incoming students, some may need to complete courses for prerequisite material. This is usually completed during the first year. In particular, please note that a course in partial differential equations (or equivalent, such as a course on mathematical methods for physicists) is a prerequisite for one of the core classes, METR 5113. For further information, please consult the courses listings at http://catalog.ou.edu/courses/courses.htm or contact the appropriate course instructor.
Pursuit of the nonthesis program requires approval of the Graduate Studies Committee. The non-thesis option includes completion of a special scholarly paper acceptable to a faculty advisor and two readers. Both thesis and non-thesis students present a seminar to the School or Meteorology.
This degree program is designed to prepare its graduates for employment in private industry or with other organizations whose mission is directed primarily toward customer service or product development. Prospective students must possess an undergraduate degree in meteorology, atmospheric science, or the equivalent, and meet the regular graduate admission standards for the School of Meteorology. The degree requirements consist of 36 graduate credit hours including 15 hours in meteorology coursework, 12 hours in a secondary area of study, and nine hours of advisory committee approved electives. A project approved by the student’s advisory committee must also be completed. Specific oral and written requirements must be satisfied. Examples of possible secondary areas of study include computer science, decision science, operations research, statistics, GIS, MIS, electrical engineering, business, economics, hydrology, environmental science, and technical writing. Private companies and other interested organizations will be invited to sponsor students and assist in structuring a student’s course of study, which will include a year-long project of value to the sponsor. Additional information about the program can be obtained by contacting the School of Meteorology.
Students seeking the degree of Doctor of Philosophy through the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma (hereafter referred to as candidate) must satisfy all general requirements set forth by the Graduate College as well as all particular requirements set forth by the School of Meteorology. The principal requirements of both are listed below.
1. The School of Meteorology’s General Exam and its subsidiary Qualifying Exam.
2. Dissertation defense.
Every student who wishes to pursue the Ph.D. degree must pass the Ph.D. Qualifying examination covering topics in the following five categories: dynamics, synoptic and mesoscale meteorology, climatology, physical meteorology, and analytic and computational tools. The exam is usually attempted after several years of enrollment for the Ph.D. degree. In 2004 and 2005 combined, 14 students attempted the exam for their first time, and all unconditionally passed.
In each category, five questions are given. The score of the exam is based on the average of the best eight answers, with no more than two answers counted from any single category. The answer to each question is graded on a scale of 0 to 5. The criteria for passing the Ph.D. qualifying exam are:
The General Exam may be attempted after passing the Qualifying Exam, and the student submits a formal application to the Graduate College for permission to attempt the General Examination at this time. In the School of Meteorology, the General Exam consists of the student writing and defending a “Prospectus of Dissertation Research,” as well as answering any other questions about science or meteorology that the committee asks in the oral exam.
In the Prospectus, the student advocates that the dissertation topic is worthy of research. The student also justifies the methods that will be applied in the research, states the ultimate goal of the research, and argues that the outcome of the research has the potential to be an original contribution. The Chairman of the Doctoral Committee will define for the student any further requirements of an acceptable Prospectus The student defends the Prospectus in an oral examination before the student’s Doctoral Committee. The members of the Doctoral Committee must possess the Prospectus for a mutually agreeable length of time prior to the oral examination. The student has the responsibility for negotiating this length of time with the individual members.
The General Examination thus serves not only a gatekeeping assessment purpose, but may also be a valuable mid-course correction to the dissertation research. The occasion of the General Exam tends to be propitious for eliciting thoughtful advice from the Doctoral Committee about the ongoing research. The student may also learn what standards the Doctoral committee expects to be met in the Dissertation.
September 2006