Facilities & Equipment

The Department of Atmospheric Sciences occupies upper floors of the 15-story Oceanography & Meteorology Building. The Doppler weather radar on the roof of the building is a campus landmark. Students gain hands-on experience operating the radar in courses and research projects. The department is part of a consortium that is building two truck-mounted 5-cm wavelength Doppler radars, the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radars. These radars will be used in national and international field campaigns to study cloud physics, remote sensing, and storm dynamics. The department also receives a continuous, comprehensive stream of meteorological data from ground stations, balloons, aircraft, radars, and satellites around the world. Data and forecasts are available from the department web site, and are archived for research and teaching purposes. Two well-equipped computer labs are regularly upgraded to provide state-of-the-art equipment. The university provides computing infrastructure such as campus networking and high-speed Internet access. In addition to campus libraries, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography together maintain a Working Collection of scientific journals, books, and reports.

There are several institutes and offices associated with the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. The Cooperative Institute for Applied Meteorological Studies (CIAMS) is affiliated with the Southern Region Headquarters of the National Weather Service located in Fort Worth. The Institute employs research scientists and graduate students in a broad program of applied research and service to Texas and surrounding states in the areas of weather forecasting, lightning and severe weather research, and Doppler radar and computer model studies of precipitation and severe storms.

The Office of the State Climatologist (OSC) is a component of the Department and the Texas Center for Climate Studies. The OSC maintains a large climatic database covering Texas, publishes regular reports and monographs, and undertakes research on climate patterns and applied climatology.