Department Information

What Sets Us Apart

The Department of Atmospheric Sciences at UNCA provides a comprehensive and unique undergraduate program in meteorology.  There are several things that make our department stand out among others across the country:

	The department is set in a public liberal arts institution.
	The department is one of the only two state universities in the State of North Carolina, which have well-established meteorology program.   The other is the North Carolina State University that emphasizes research and graduate programs.  In comparison, the department at UNCA is a comprehensive undergraduate program.
	The nearby National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of NOAA is the world’s largest repository of climatic data.   It provides an excellent resource for the students and faculty of the department.
	There have been 230 graduates since the establishment of the department in 1981.   More than 69% of graduates are still in the field of meteorology, and they keep very close contacts with the department.
	The strong faculty and student interface within the department has helped foster the learning experience in the department.
	There are 14 universities/colleges in the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges , which is an alliance of public liberal arts colleges and universities. None of them has a meteorology program, except for UNCA.   The integration of the science of meteorology with a liberal arts education has proved to be beneficial to the majors and non-majors at UNCA.   Furthermore, there are 24 institutions selected by UNC-General Administration as peers in 1995 for UNCA.  Once again none of them has a meteorology program.
	In the United States, only 18 universities/colleges have the meteorology program that offers a Bachelor Degree as highest degree in Meteorology.   UNCA is one of them, and the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at UNCA has the most comprehensive curriculum offered to the students with limited resources and faculty.
	In the department, hands-on experience and lab exercises are included in the curriculum.    Co-operative education and professional and technical internship programs in the working environment are strongly encouraged and have been rich supplements to the classroom experience.

Facilities

In the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, students take daily weather observations at the Weather Station.   They study weather maps, satellite and radar imagery carefully for the daily weather forecasts..    They use PC’s in the Meteorology Lab to manipulate and display weather data and graphics, and Internet connection; and they also use PC’s for word processing and presentations. 

1.          Weather Station
The UNCA Weather Station was established in 1982 near the upper tennis courts to provide a continuous record of weather conditions.   More importantly it gives majors a hands-on observation experience.     Students have been taking daily readings at this site to record the high and low temperatures, soil temperatures, and precipitation amount since its establishment.  

At the Weather Station, there are a standard Stevenson instrument shelter, a standard 8-inch rain gauge, and a continuously recording weighing rain gauge.   Within the instrument shelter, there are standard maximum and minimum thermometers, a hygrothermograph to record temperature and relative humidity, and a soil thermometer to measure maximum and minimum soil temperatures at a depth of four (4) inches.

The weather data recorded at this site also give students a long-term climatic data set for climatic analysis.  Students in the Meteorological Instrumentation (ATMS 320) take observational readings; and students in Meteorological Statistics (ATMS 455) analyze the climatic data observed at the Weather Station.  The daily observations at the Weather Station are also used to verify forecasts made by the students in the Weather Forecasting (ATMS 350) and Synoptic Meteorology I and II (ATMS 410 and 411).

This weather station has been replaced by a roof-top Vantage Pro wireless weather station since August 2004.   This weather station is no longer in function.

2.         Meteorology Lab (Robinson Hall 238)
The facilities in the Meteorology Lab include various instruments, several personal computers, laser jet printers, and one wireless roof-top observing instruments.   

These weather data are essential for maintaining an operational meteorological environment crucial for the educational experience.    One of the Linux PC's (storm5) serves as the LDM (Local Data Management) server to continuously receive LDM and McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System) data through Internet connection.   Other PC's running Fedora Core or Red Hat Enterprise Edition can access and display the real-time weather data (including satellite and radar data, conventional upper and surface data and forecasts) using McIDAS and GEMPAK meteorological software packages.   Students can interactively manipulate weather data to understand the atmospheric processes.

3.          Space
In addition to faculty offices in Robinson Hall (RBH) 236, there are three rooms close to the ATMS faculty offices are used for variable purposes:

• Meteorology Lab (RBH 238) is for map discussion, classroom teaching, and lab exercises.

• RBH238A and 237 are for undergraduate research.

(More) History of the Department
 

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, CPO #2450, UNC Asheville, One University Heights, Asheville, NC 28804-8511
Phone: (828) 251-6149  Fax: (828) 232-5046  Email: