Diploma (Dip.) Meteorology(30 Credits)
Offered by:Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Degree:Diploma in Meteorology
Program Requirement:
The Department offers an intensive, one-year program in theoretical and applied meteorology to B.Sc. or B.Eng. graduates of suitable standing in physics, applied mathematics or other appropriate disciplines, leading to a Diploma in Meteorology. The program is designed for students with little or no previous background in meteorology who wish to direct their experience to atmospheric or environmental applications, or who need to fulfill academic prerequisites in meteorology to qualify for employment. For further information, contact the Undergraduate Program Director (https://www.mcgill.ca/meteo/facultystaff/staff
An exemption of up to 6 credits may be allowed for courses already taken. Students granted such exemptions are required to add complementary courses from an approved list to maintain a total credit count of 30 completed at McGill.
Required Courses (15 credits)
-
ATOC 512
Atmospheric & Oceanic Dynamics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Introduction to the fluid dynamics of large-scale flows of the atmosphere and oceans. Stratification of atmosphere and oceans. Equations of state, thermodynamics and momentum. Kinematics, circulation, and vorticity. Hydrostatic and quasi-geostrophic flows. Brief introduction to wave motions, flow over topography, Ekman boundary layers, turbulence.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Fall
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 314, MATH 315, or permission of instructor
-
ATOC 521
Cloud Physics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Review of dry and moist atmospheric thermodynamics concepts. Atmospheric aerosols, nucleation of water and ice. Formation and growth of cloud droplets and ice crystals. Initiation of precipitation. Severe storms and hail. Weather modification. Numerical cloud models.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites (Undergraduates): ATOC 315, MATH 314, and MATH 315, or permission of instructor.
- Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ATOC 621.
-
ATOC 531
Dynamics of Current Climates
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: The general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans. Atmospheric and oceanic general circulation models. Observations and models of the El Niño and Southern Oscillation phenomena.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Fall
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 315 or permission of instructor
- Corequisite (Undergraduate): ATOC 312 or ATOC 512 or permission of instructor
-
ATOC 540
Synoptic Meteorology 1
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Analysis of current meteorological data. Description of a geostrophic, hydrostatic atmosphere. Ageostrophic circulations and hydrostatic instabilities. Kinematic and thermodynamic methods of computing vertical motions. Tropical and extratropical condensation rates. Barotropic and equivalent barotropic atmospheres.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Fall
- 2 hours lecture; 2 hours laboratory
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 314, MATH 315, or permission of instructor
-
ATOC 541
Synoptic Meteorology 2
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Analysis of current meteorological data. Quasi-geostrophic theory, including the omega equation, as it relates to extratropical cyclone and anticyclone development. Frontogenesis and frontal circulations in the lower and upper troposphere. Cumulus convection and its relationship to tropical and extratropical circulations. Diagnostic case study work.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Winter
- 2 hours lecture; 2 hours laboratory
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): ATOC 312 and ATOC 540 or permission of instructor.
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
6 credits selected from the courses below.
* Students may take either ATOC 519 or CHEM 519.
-
ATOC 309
Weather Radars and Satellites
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Basic notions of radiative transfer and applications of satellite and radar data to mesoscale and synoptic-scale systems are discussed. Emphasis will be put on the contribution of remote sensing to atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Winter
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite: ATOC 215
-
ATOC 315
Thermodynamics and Convection
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Buoyancy, stability, and vertical oscillations. Dry and moist adiabatic processes. Resulting dry and precipitating convective circulations from the small scale to the global scale. Mesoscale precipitation systems from the cell to convective complexes. Severe convection, downbursts, mesocyclones.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
-
ATOC 519
Advances in Chem of Atmosphere
3 Credits*
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Exploration of the field of atmospheric chemistry that is identified as the significant
driver of climate change and the cause of millions of premature death every year. Discussion of cutting-edge novel technologies for observing and quantifying
pollutants (from ground to satellite) using artificial intelligence, the fate of emerging
contaminants (e.g., nano/microplastics, trace metals, persistent organic), and modelling of atmospheric and interfacial processes. Examination of topics like
atmospheric gaseous and multiphase components like bioaerosols. Study of
photochemical, photophysical, and aerosol nucleation processes that affect air quality, climate change, and ecosystem health.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
-
CHEM 519
Advances in Chem of Atmosphere
3 Credits*
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Chemistry: Exploration of the field of atmospheric chemistry that is identified as the significant driver of climate change and the cause of millions of premature death every year. Discussion of cutting-edge novel technologies for observing and quantifying pollutants (from ground to satellite) using artificial intelligence, the fate of
emerging contaminants (e.g., nano/microplastics, trace metals, persistent
organic), and modelling of atmospheric and interfacial processes. Examination of topics like atmospheric gaseous and multiphase components like bioaerosols. Study of photochemical, photophysical, and aerosol nucleation processes that affect air quality, climate change, and ecosystem health.
Offered by: Chemistry
9 credits ordinarily selected from:
* Students take either PHYS 432 or MATH 555.
-
ATOC 513
Waves & Stability
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Linear theory of waves in rotating and stratified media. Geostrophic adjustment and model initialization. Wave propagation in slowly varying media. Mountain waves; waves in shear flows. Barotropic, baroclinic, symmetric, and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Wave-mean flow interaction. Equatorially trapped waves.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Winter
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 314, MATH 315, or permission of instructor
-
ATOC 515
Turbulence in Atmosph&Oceans
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Application of statistical and semi-empirical methods to the study of geophysical turbulence. Reynolds' equations, dimensional analysis, and similarity. The surface and planetary boundary layers. Oceanic mixed layer. Theories of isotropic two- and three- dimensional turbulence: energy and enstrophy inertial ranges. Beta turbulence.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Winter
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 314, MATH 315, a previous course in fluid dynamics (such as ATOC 512), or permission of instructor
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year
-
ATOC 517
Boundary Layer Meteorology
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Turbulence and turbulent fluxes, atmospheric stability, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, surface roughness and surface fluxes, power law and logarithmic wind profiles including their application in wind energy and engineering sectors, convective and stably stratified boundary layers, internal boundary layer development, large-eddy simulations, fundamentals of boundary-layer parameterization in numerical models, and introduction to urban boundary layers.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
-
ATOC 525
Atmospheric Radiation
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Solar and terrestrial radiation. Interactions of molecules, aerosols, clouds, and precipitation with radiation of various wavelengths. Radiative transfer through the clear and cloudy atmosphere. Radiation budgets. Satellite and ground-based measurements. Climate implications.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
-
ATOC 548
Mesoscale Meteorology
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Theory of meteorologically important mesoscale phenomena including mesoscale instabilities, cumulus convection and its organization (including thunderstorms, squall lines, and other forms of severe weather), internal gravity waves,
and topographically forced flows. Application of theory to the physical interpretation of observations and numerical simulations.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year
-
ATOC 557
Research Methods: Atm&Oc Sci
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: This course is focused on the analysis of observational and modeling data, and the advantages and limitations of different data are discussed. The course covers several analysis methods (regression, principle component analysis, optimal estimation) commonly used in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. In addition to the theory underlying these methods, there will be hands-on applications to observations of Earth.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
-
MATH 317
Numerical Analysis
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci): Error analysis. Numerical solutions of equations by iteration. Interpolation. Numerical differentiation and integration. Introduction to numerical solutions of differential equations.
Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics
-
MATH 319
Partial Differential Equations
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci): First order equations, geometric theory; second order equations, classification; Laplace, wave and heat equations, Sturm-Liouville theory, Fourier series, boundary and initial value problems.
Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics
-
MATH 555
Fluid Dynamics
4 Credits*
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci): Kinematics. Dynamics of general fluids. Inviscid fluids, Navier-Stokes equations. Exact solutions of Navier-Stokes equations. Low and high Reynolds number flow.
Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year
-
PHYS 331
Topics in Classical Mechanics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Physics: Forced and damped oscillators, Newtonian mechanics in three dimensions, rotational motion, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, small vibrations, normal modes. Nonlinear dynamics and chaos.
Offered by: Physics
-
PHYS 340
Majors Electricity & Magnetism
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Physics: The electrostatic field and scalar potential. Dielectric properties of matter. Energy in the electrostatic field. Methods for solving problems in electrostatics. The magnetic field. Induction and inductance. Energy in the magnetic field. Magnetic properties of matter. Maxwell's equations. The dipole approximation.
Offered by: Physics
-
PHYS 342
Majors Electromagnetic Waves
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Physics: Maxwell's equations. The wave equation. The electromagnetic wave, reflection, refraction, polarization. Guided waves. Transmission lines and wave guides. Vector potential. Radiation. The elemental dipole; the half-wave dipole; vertical dipole; folded dipoles; Yagi antennas. Accelerating charged particles.
Offered by: Physics
-
PHYS 432
Physics of Fluids
3 Credits*
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Physics: The physical properties of fluids. The kinematics and dynamics of flow. The effects of viscosity and turbulence. Applications of fluid mechanics in biophysics, geophysics and engineering.
Offered by: Physics
FAQ:
1) What is the language requirement for the diploma program?
The Diploma program is technically an undergraduate program. So, the language requirements follow those of an undergraduate program: https://www.mcgill.ca/applying/requirements/prep.
2) What is the fee structure for the diploma?
The Diploma program is technically an undergraduate program. So, the fee requirements follow those of an undergraduate program: https://www.mcgill.ca/undergraduate-admissions/yearly-costs
3) Is there a mandatory number of credits I must take per semester?
No. Some students have taken three semesters to complete the Diploma, so it is not required to take 15 credits per term.
4) Can I start my diploma program in Winter semester (i.e. January)?
No. The Diploma in Meteorology only has admissions to start in the Fall semester because of the structure of the courses. For example, some winter courses that are required to complete the program have pre-requisite courses from the fall semester.