Contact Info

1225 W. Dayton Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Phone: (608) 262-2828
Fax: (608) 262-0166
Email: aos@aos.wisc.edu
Chair: Grant Petty

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web at aos.wisc.edu

UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (UW-AOS)

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Welcome!

Thank you very much for visiting our site, and a warm welcome from our department! Over the last 60 years, we have grown into one of the leading departments in our field of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. We have strong graduate and undergraduate programs which are nationally recognized. We pursue research with a combination of theory, modeling, and diagnostic studies. We support this work with a foundation of first-year graduate core courses, and an appealing range of electives for both graduate and undergraduate students. (more...)

Robock Lecture - Prominent climate scientist Mann speaks at UW-Madison - Now, view online!

This year's annual Robock Lecture was given by Distinguished Professor Michael Mann of Penn State University on Thursday April 17th, at 7PM in the Ebling Science Symposium Center. The talk, entitled The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From The Front Lines can now be viewed online here. The talk was followed by a reception and book signing. The event was very well attended. Thanks to all for planning and attending and making this lecture a success!

Peter Lamb - 6/21/1947 - 5/28/2014

Photo c/o CIMSS, University of Oklahoma

Peter Lamb, George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the School of Meteorology and Director of the University's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS), passed away suddenly at his home in Norman, Oklahoma on May 28, 2014. Peter Lamb received his PhD from UW-Madison in 1976. He was a strong advocate for UW-Madison and for the historic department he attended. His primary research interests were in the physical and dynamical processes of climate and its short-term fluctuations. He is well known for the personal touches he made to the lives of his colleagues and the people he mentored. He was a tireless leader of CIMMS and of all of the NOAA Cooperative Institutes and the research they conduct in support of NOAA and the nation. We will remember his hand-written notes on yellow legal paper that added a personal touch to all meetings and correspondence. His soft-spoken, authoritative voice and personal warmth is a loss to us all.

A memorial service will be held in the Atrium of the National Weather Center, 120 David L. Boren Blvd, Norman, Oklahoma on June 7, 2014 at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to be made to the Ethembeni School, a boarding school serving 300 physically disabled or visually impaired students in the Kwazulu-natal region of South Africa. Please visit www.ethembenischool.co.za to donate and reference "in honor of Peter James Lamb" in the comment section.

His obituary may be found here.

2014 Student Awards

Congratulations to the following outstanding AOS students (view pictures):

• Nick Ofstun – Schwerdtfeger Award for excellent performance in first year graduate studies
• Alex Matus – Lettau Award for outstanding performance as a Teaching Assistant
• Ross Dixon and Croix Christenson – Colloquium Student Service Award for creative dedication to the department's intellectual life
• Shellie Rowe – Wahl Award for outstanding performance as a Teaching Assistant
• Eric Loken – Honorary Horn Award for excellence in overall performance as an undergraduate
• Alex Haugstad – Horn Award for excellence in overall performance as an undergraduate
• Joe Nettesheim – Sunkel Award for exceptional scholarly potential as an undergraduate
• Sam Hartwick – Lettau-Wahl Award for overall excellence as an undergraduate
• Kristina Williams and Marian Mateling – WxChallenge foreast awards - Kristina won the overall best forecaster award, beating out all faculty, grad students and undergrads for the Norman, OK forecast period. Marian was a runner up for the undergrad category for Norman - 4th overall when you consider all faculty, grad students and undergrads.

Professors McKinley and Vimont contribute to Climate Change forum

On December 11th, 2013, AOS professors Galen McKinley and Dan Vimont spoke at an informational forum: "Climate Change: What it means for Wisconsin's Economy and Natural Resources," (View the agenda) hosted by Representatives Fred Clark (D) and Jeff Mursau (R) of the Wisconsin Legislature and co-hosted by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts & Letters.

The forum agenda stated, "The purpose of the forum [was] to begin the discussion of how a changing climate affects Wisconsin's many natural resources and, consequently, Wisconsin's business practitioners that depend on these natural resources.

Steve Ackerman named as a 2014 AMS Fellow

Congratulations to Prof. Steve Ackerman who was named as a one of the 2014 American Meteorological Society Fellows.

Weather Forecasting Article up on The Why Files

Includes interviews with Prof. Jonathan Martin, UW Alumni NWS Director Louis Uccellini and UCAR Director Emeritus Richard Anthes, as well as Hank Revercomb.
Weather: [More data + more computers = better forecasts]

New Department Chair

With the start of the new school year, Prof. Grant Petty, who has been with the department since 2000, is taking over the reins as Department Chair from Prof. Jonathan Martin.
Thank you, Jon, for your 9 years of dedication, service, and hard work!

News 3 Interview of NWS Director Louis Uccellini about "Building a Weather-Ready Nation"

If you missed the Town Hall, you can watch this extended interview of Dr. Uccellini by News 3 Chief Meteorologist Gary Cannalte.
http://video.channel3000.com/watch.php?id=52523

NWS Director Louis Uccellini to lead Town Hall discussion August 22, 2013

Uccellini, the National Weather Service Director and an alumnus of UW-Madison, will be in Madison later this summer to lead a Town Hall discussion titled "Building a Weather-Ready Nation." The discussion will address the question of how we as a nation can better prepare for extreme weather events and other key influences of weather on society.

Sponsored by SSEC and AOS, the event will be held on August 22, 2013 from 5-7pm in the Hector DeLuca Forum at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The Town Hall is open to the public and we're hoping to reach a wide audience. Each of us, scientist or not, has a role to play in discussing how to actively prepare for weather disasters.

Please see the posted abstract for further details

University of Wisconsin grad Louis Uccellini leads National Weather Service

Article in the April 28, 2013 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Professor Bennartz et. al. article published in Nature explains Greenland's record breaking 2012 ice melt

AOS Professor Ralf Bennartz and collaborators have published a study in the April 4 issue of Nature describing the events and processes leading to the record ice melt. A University of Wisconsin News article also summarizes the work..

CCR celebrates 50 years

Congratulations to the Center for Climatic Research on their 50th anniversary. Since 1962, CCR faculty, scientists and students have been working to understand how the climate works and why it changes. The Nelson Institute's In Common Magazine has a nice writeup on the history of CCR.

AOS Alumni donate GR2Analyst license to department

Several UW-AOS alumni have contributed toward, and donated a license for the advanced Nexrad Level II analysis program GR2Analyst to the AOS Department. The students had been using the software after leaving the UW and found it to be extremely useful for analysis of radar data. The software is already being used in our senior level Synoptic Lab (453) class, and will likely be utilized in the AOS 441 Radar and Satellite course as well. Special thanks to Jacob Beitlich, Dan Henz, Brian Miretzky, Matt Sitkowski and Dima Smirnov! Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

The AOSS building hosts three rooftop camera (currently facing west, northwest, and north.) The most recent images and time lapse quicktime movies are now available. Daily sunrise to sunset movies and highlights of particularly interesting phenomena will be coming soon.

Journal of the UW-AOS

This is an unofficial journal of working papers written by undergraduate and graduate students of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. These papers are not intended to be used as official references.
Check out their work in the Journal of the UW-AOS