The Department offers an intensive, one-year program in theoretical and applied meteorology to BSc graduates of suitable standing in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering Science, 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. Graduates of this program qualify for possible employment as a professional weather forecaster with the Meteorological Services of Canada. For further information, consult the ornella [at] meteo [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Administrative Officer), Burnside Hall, Room 946.
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.
Required Courses (18 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 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 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 412 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 412 and ATOC 540 or permission of instructor.
Complementary Courses (12 credits)
6 credits selected from:
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
- Terms
- Instructors
- Frederic Fabry, Gerard Szejwach
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 419
Advances in Chem of Atmosphere
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Selected areas of atmospheric chemistry from field and laboratory to theoretical modelling are examined. The principles of atmospheric reactions (gas, liquid and heterogeneous phases in aerosols and clouds) and issues related to chemical global change will be explored.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Symbols:
- Taught only in alternate years
or
CHEM 419
Advances in Chem of Atmosphere
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Chemistry: Selected areas of atmospheric chemistry from field and laboratory to theoretical modelling are examined. The principles of atmospheric reactions (gas, liquid and heterogeneous phases in aerosols and clouds) and issues related to chemical global change will be explored.
Offered by: Chemistry
- Symbols:
- Taught only in alternate years
9 credits ordinarily selected from:
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
- Symbols:
- Taught only in alternate years
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the academic year
ATOC 530
Paleoclimate Dynamics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences: Introduction to the components of the climate system. Review of paleoclimates. Physical processes and models of climate and climate change.
Offered by: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
- Winter
- 3 hours lecture
- Prerequisite (Undergraduate): MATH 315, or permission of instructor
- Symbols:
- Taught only in alternate years
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the academic year
GEOG 522
Adv Environmental Hydrology
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Geography: Surface and shallow ground water determine the availability of moisture and many chemical elements at the Earth's surface. This course discusses the link between surface water and ground water flow systems and the role this link plays in stream flow production and biogeochemical cycling in lake, riparian and terrestrial ecosystems.
Offered by: Geography
- 2 hours and 1 tutorial
- Prerequisite: GEOG 322, or permission of instructor
- Cross-listed with CASN 300
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the academic year
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
Intro to Partial Diff Equas
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
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 mechanics, small vibrations, normal modes. Introduction to Hamiltonian mechanics.
Offered by: Physics
PHYS 333
Thermal & Statistical Physics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Physics: Introductory equilibrium statistical mechanics. Quantum states, probabilities, ensemble averages. Entropy, temperature, Boltzmann factor, chemical potential. Photons and phonons. Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions; applications.
Offered by: Physics
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisite: PHYS 232
- Restriction: Not open to students taking or having passed PHYS 362
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 332
Course not available
or
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
- Symbols:
- Taught only in alternate years
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the academic year
