• about
• people
• education
  • undergraduate program
  • graduate program
    • degree programs
      • atmospheres, oceans, and climate
      • geology, geochemistry and geobiology
      • geophysics
      • planetary science
      • MIT/WHOI joint program
      • 5th year masters
    • funding opportunities
  • postdoctoral program
  • admissions
  • education office
  • virtual library
• courses
• research
• news & events
• resources

• contact
• site map
• EAPS home

• search

EAPS Graduate Program

EAPS Graduate Degree Programs

 

Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC)

Prof. R. Alan Plumb, Director
Degrees Offered: S.M., Sc.D., Ph.D.

Atmospheric and oceanic sciences and the study of climate are founded on the basic principles of physics, mathematics, and chemistry, with particular emphasis on the fundamentals of fluid mechanics. The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC) involves many scientific disciplines, including dynamical and chemical oceanography, atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, and geochemistry. In all areas, PAOC emphasizes the synthesis of theoretical, observational, and modeling approaches.

Graduate admissions information.

PAOC offers students ample opportunity for complex, interdisciplinary work. For this reason, our programs are flexible and serve primarily to guide students through an organized body of study and research. In fact, our four educational programs overlap considerably. Students select one of these programs but may switch to another as their research interests develop.

1. Atmospheric Science – In the atmospheric science program, emphasis is placed on an integrated approach involving theory, modeling, experiments, and data analysis. Study areas include atmospheric dynamics, synoptic meteorology, atmospheric convection, dynamics of the middle atmosphere, tropical meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and atmospheric radiation. Because of its cross-disciplinary nature, the program often includes study in mathematics and/or chemistry. Recent areas of research have included the ozone hole, the dynamics of hurricanes, adaptive sampling, and air-sea interaction.
   
   
2. Climate Physics and Chemistry - The newest of the PAOC degree programs, the climate physics and chemistry program was created to capitalize on the overlapping nature of the atmospheric, oceanic, and geological sciences as they relate to climate and climate change. Students have access to unique expertise in all aspects of climate including paleoclimatology and the geological record, all of atmospheric and oceanic physics and chemistry, fluid dynamical modeling of the climate system, hydrology, and geophysics. Ongoing research activities include the study of high latitude North Atlantic deep-sea cores as records of the climate of the past 200,000 years; coupled models of air-sea interaction developed in MIT’s Climate Modeling Initiative; studies of possible mechanisms of the Permo-Triassic Mass extinction; Atlantic Climate Variability; and global biogeochemical cycles.
   
   
3. Physical Oceanography - The program covers a wide range of physical oceanography research and includes modeling, theory, observations of the ocean at sea and from space, and laboratory models. Students explore the ocean’s general circulation, mixing processes, and coastal and upper ocean processes. Recent PAOC research in this field includes: the construction of the first three-dimensional time-evolving estimates of the oceanic general circulation, employing both a new numerical model and global observations; the role of mesoscale eddies in the ocean circulation and their interactions with biological fields; deep convection and thermohaline circulation; and the study of the interactions of the tropical oceans with mid-latitudes.
   
   
4. Chemical Oceanography - Inorganic, organic, radioactive, and stable isotopic geochemistries are used as tools to understand: the ocean, its sediments, and the seafloor crust as a biogeochemical system; the role of this system in regulating climate change; and its impact on the geological evolution of the Earth. Elemental chemical variability and speciation are used to establish anthropogenic impact on ocean chemistry and the role of trace metals in the nutrition of marine organisms. Beginning with weathering, global biochemical cycles are followed from rain, rivers, and groundwaters into the ocean, and their subsequent fate in sediments and seafloor hydrothermal systems is studied. Biomarker molecules are used to trace the early history of the Earth, ice age climate history, and the fate of biogenic compounds as they are transformed by microbes in the ocean and sediments. Radioactive isotopes are used to quantify rates of processes in the marine system and establish reliable geochronologies of sedimentary and other climate archives. Stable isotope ratios of elements ranging from hydrogen, helium and other noble gases, carbon, nitrogen, and trace metals such as iron, zinc, and molybdenum are all under active investigation. Field work takes place on continents, coastal vessels, and open-ocean research vessels; computer modeling and interpretation of this data is integral to this effort.

The PAOC graduate programs in oceanography are joint doctoral programs within the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program. WHOI, located about 70 miles south of Boston, is one of the world’s leading oceanographic research centers, with extensive laboratory facilities and an impressive fleet of research ships and submersibles operating around the world. PAOC students may reside and conduct research at either MIT or WHOI, and much effort has been made to render communication and travel between the institutions as easy as possible. All students are jointly supervised by MIT faculty and WHOI staff and have access to all of the capabilities and expertise of both institutions.

• MIT/WHOI Joint Program
  
• EAPS Research Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate