Graduate Program Curriculum
A graduate program in Climate System Science (CSS) has recently been developed at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Geological Sciences. Because of a strong hiring program, including full professors with long experience in teaching Climate System Science, the program has quickly developed and stabilized. We welcome new applicants to our program for the Fall, 2009 semester.
Students in the CSS Graduate program select courses from three categories:
1. CSS Integrative Courses
These classes promote an interdisciplinary understanding of the climate system while retaining a high technical level. They are typically co-taught by 2 CSS faculty, with both professors present in the classroom for most lectures to insure continuity.
Two 3-credit introductory courses in Climate Change Dynamics are offered in the Fall semester:
- Climate Change Dynamics: The Past
- Climate Change Dynamics: The Present and Future
Students entering the CSS Graduate Program generally take both of these classes, which serve to introduce students to the breadth of the field of Climate System Science. These classes also serve as a basis for incoming graduate students to get to know each other and the faculty, and they bring students with diverse science backgrounds to a uniform academic level in support of subsequent coursework. Prerequisites for these courses are two semesters of calculus and one semester each of chemistry and physics, so they are accessible to students from a wide variety of undergraduate majors.
In addition to the Climate Change Dynamics courses, the following integrative courses are offered:
- Climate System Dynamics: fluid dynamics applied to the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere
- Climate System Physics: thermodynamics of the atmosphere, oceans, and cryosphere; radiation; clouds and precipitation processes; thermohaline circulation and ocean mixing processes
- Analysis and Interpretation of Climate System Observations and Model Output: modern observational networks and techniques; time series analysis, uncertainty evaluation, and statistical analysis of observations and model output
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles: global cycling of carbon, methane, nitrogen, oxygen; soil formation; ocean salinity chemistry
- Seminar in Climate Change
2. CSS Disciplinary Courses
A series of disciplinary courses compliments the breadth of the integrative courses. These courses include:
- Climate System Modeling
- Paleoclimatology
- Advanced Atmospheric and Ocean Dynamics
- Tropical Climate and Weather
- Land surface/atmosphere interactions
- Hydroclimatology
- Glaciology: Ice Sheets and Mass Balance
- Paleoceanography
- Quaternary Geochronology
3. Courses outside of the CSS Program offerings
The Department of Geological Sciences contains excellent graduate programs in Geophysics, Environmental Geology, Paleontology, Petrology and Geochemistry, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, and Structural Geology and Tectonics in addition to the Climate System Science Program. These related graduate programs maintain a substantial curriculum to support the study of the earth system, and CSS graduate students regularly take courses within these programs. Other related graduate programs located within the Jackson School of Geosciences and in related departments add to the opportunities, including the Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program and the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
CSS students take advantage of strong graduate course offerings throughout this large university to support their research and enhance an interdisciplinary perspective. Depending on their interests and long term goals, CSS graduate students may even chose additional coursework in, and interactions with, the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the McCombs School of Business.