Atmospheric Science
Click here for more information about the atmospheric science programTopics
- Atmospheric Chemistry
- Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction
- Climate Change
- Renewable Energy
Faculty
Changes in the modern atmosphere are widely acknowledged as one of the key issues of the 21st century. Natural variability and human-caused alterations in atmospheric and land-surface properties continue to alter energetic and moisture balances of the Earth, thereby causing climate change. Among these alterations are increases in greenhouse gas concentrations and aerosols (small airborne particles or droplets) that lead to associated changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. Research and instruction within the Atmospheric Science Program at Indiana University seeks to better understand these atmospheric-environmental processes and their impacts on natural ecosystems and human society. As such, the Department of Geography has developed research themes that span the entire range of atmospheric scales – faculty actively do research at the global-, synoptic-, meso-, and micro-scales.
The atmospheric science faculty and students who conduct experimental work are housed in the new Multidisciplinary Science Building II (MSB-II). There is extensive laboratory space dedicated to facilitate development, operation and testing of instruments and to conduct analysis of atmospheric samples. For field studies, we have an extensive collection of state of the art meteorological instrumentation, including a variety of instruments that focus on chemical aspects of the atmosphere. The department also maintains an instrumented research tower and associated labs as part of the AmeriFlux network, which provides access to state-of-art research projects and instrumentation. In addition we are international experts in the field of wind energy measurements and modeling.
Indiana University regularly is ranked among the top US institutions for technology resources, including network connectivity, lab resources, and high-performance computing. This infrastructure provides students and faculty working in atmospheric science with an excellent environment for their research and teaching activities. Graduate students and advanced undergraduates can expect to participate in faculty research projects funded by EPA, NASA, NOAA, NSF, and DOE. A key component of our program is the close interaction of students with faculty members in independent research and readings courses in their areas of interest.
