Curriculum
Title
Curriculum That Works Around Your Schedule
Through coursework and a capstone project (M.S. students only), you’ll gain expertise that is needed in the private and public sector to solve increasingly critical global environmental problems, through using tools in Python and R to assess weather and climate-related risks, implement and use predictive models for the weather-climate interface, and run computational analysis/analytics on weather and climate data.
All courses in the Weather and Climate Risk and Data Analytics certificate and M.S. program are 100% online so you may complete the courses from wherever you are! Each course has weekly expectations and deadlines, but with flexibility within to allow you to complete work while still meeting your professional and personal obligations. For example, all lessons are pre-recorded for you to watch on your own time within a given week. Some courses have a scheduled weekly synchronous session online so that you have the opportunity to interact with other students in your courses, along with faculty in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences. Students that may need to miss an occasional synchronous session may work with the faculty member teaching the course to review the session recording or make other arrangements.
In our program, you’ll find a balance between flexibility and engagement, as you’ll interact with other students on a regular basis through various media and feel like you’re part of a program with supportive colleagues (as opposed to completely self-paced learning).
Courses
ATMS 517 | Data Science for the Geosciences: 4 credit hours
Build and apply basic-to-intermediate data science tools in Python to weather and climate data, to process, statistically analyze, visualize, and understand patterns, relationships, and changes in the data
ATMS 520 | Weather and Climate Phenomena and Hazards: 4 credit hours
Quantitatively analyze the development, prediction, and hazards of high-impact phenomena such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and hurricanes
ATMS 521 | Climate Analysis, Variability + Prediction: 4 credit hours
Explore drivers of the climate system (e.g., land, ocean and modes of climate variability) on sub-seasonal and longer time scales and develop statistical techniques and run climate models to analyze and predict this variability
ATMS 523 | Weather and Climate Data Analytics: 4 credit hours
Build and apply advanced, open-source data science tools in Python for statistical analysis of weather and climate data, using techniques such as time series analysis, neural networks, image analysis, data assimilation, and objective analysis
ATMS 526 | Risk Analysis in the Geosciences: 4 credit hours
Build and apply statistical models and tools in R to evaluate risk and uncertainty and improve decision-making for high-impact weather and climate events, using probability theory, hypothesis testing, extreme value theory and time series analysis
GGIS 407 | Foundations of CyberGIS & Geospatial Data Science: 4 credit hours
Apply cyberGIS techniques to analyze and visualize geospatial data in Python, using advanced cyberinfrastructure and high-performance computing
ATMS 596 | Non-Thesis Research (Capstone): 8 credit hours
Apply skills obtained through this program to a weather or climate problem tailored to the student’s interests, mentored by faculty or industry partners
Master's Degree
Students pursuing the master’s degree will complete 32 total credit hours of coursework which will include courses from the list above and may also include other adviser-approved electives. The program requirements will conclude with 8 credit hours of the capstone course typically taken across two semesters (ATMS 596 Non-Thesis Research). If courses are taken toward the certificate sequence prior to admission to the master’s program, they may also be applied to the master’s degree requirements. Students should consult with a program advisor to discuss a program plan of study for the master’s program.
Certificate Program
Students completing the graduate certificate must complete a minimum of 12 credit hours of courses from the list above—typically three 4-credit courses. Once admitted to the certificate program, students should consult a program advisor regarding course selection/sequencing based upon their particular area of interest and desired professional goals. ATMS 596 is not taken as part of the certificate program (capstone).