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The Atmospheric and Planetary Science Program is an interdisciplinary program of Columbia and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Institute for Space Studies, which is located near the University’s Morningside campus. Staff members of the Institute hold adjunct faculty appointments, teach courses, and supervise the research of graduate students in the program. The Institute holds colloquia and scientific conferences in which the University community participates. Opportunities for visiting scientists to conduct research at the Institute are provided by a postdoctoral research scientist program administered by the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and supported by NASA, and also through a joint cooperative program sponsored by the Columbia University Center for Climate System Research, the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, and the Institute.
The Institute conducts theoretical and experimental research in global change, focusing on humanity’s large-scale impact on the environment, by fostering interaction among the atmospheric, geological, and biological science communities. Included in this initiative are the Climate Program, involving basic research on climatic processes and climatic variations, including the development of one-, two-, and three-dimensional numerical models to study the effects of changing trace gas and aerosol concentrations, solar forcing, and surface conditions on Earth’s general circulation and climate; the Biogeochemical Cycles Program, which focuses on the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, and dynamical models of the distribution of trace gases and particulates in the troposphere and stratosphere; the Earth Observations Program, involving research in the retrieval of cloud, aerosol, and surface radiative properties from global satellite radiance data for further understanding of climate forcings and feedbacks; and the Planetary Atmospheres Program, including theoretical studies of radiative transfer and dynamics of the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, Titan and the Jovian planets; participation in spacecraft experimental studies; and studies of extrasolar habitable planets.
While operating a modern general-purpose scientific computing facility consisting of SGI Origin 3000 and 2000 servers, Macintosh G5, IBM RISC 6000 and SUN Sparc workstations, and peripheral equipment, the Institute has IBM and Macintosh workstation-based video display systems that permit interactive processing, display, and analysis of satellite imagery and other digital data. Also lying within the Institute’s purview is the Global Processing Center for the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project, a multidecadal observational program involving data from five geostationary and two polar-orbiting Earth satellites. An analogous Global Aerosol Climatology Project is producing a global 20-year record of aerosol distributions and radiative properties. Institute personnel frequently collaborate with scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Close research ties also exist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, especially in the areas of geochemistry, oceanography, and paleoclimate studies, with the Columbia Earth Institute in the area of climate impacts; and with the Columbia Astrobiology Center in the area of habitable planet studies. All facilities, including the Institute’s library, which contains approximately 17,000 volumes, are made available to students in the program.
The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is a research institute of the University situated on the Hudson River in Palisades, New York. The Observatory is active in many fields relating to the properties of Earth as a planetary body, including seismology, gravity and geodesy, geomagnetics, geochemistry, oceanography, and meteorology. Aspects of planetary science, including cosmochemistry, planetary petrology, and meteorites, are also actively pursued at the Observatory.
A participant in the Atmospheric and Planetary Science Program must apply to and be admitted by one of the following participating departments and must satisfy the requirements of that department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science); Astronomy, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Physics (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences).
A participant needs a strong background in physics and mathematics, including advanced undergraduate courses in mechanics, electromagnetism, advanced calculus, and differential equations. Deficiencies should be remedied during the first year. Undergraduate courses in atmospheric sciences, earth sciences, and astronomy are helpful but not necessary.