Atmospheric Science & Engineering

Atmospheric Science & Engineering

University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
U.S.A.

Welcome to the Atmospheric Sciences and Engineering program at UCI.

This interdisciplinary program is concerned with the study of how physical, chemical, and biological processes cause the movement and transformation of substances in natural systems and how these processes can be augmented and/or controlled to achieve acceptable performance within a structure of environmental, economic, legal, and political constrains. The main areas of research interest are:

Sciences

Engineering

Faculty Profiles

Ralph J. Cicerone
Surface sources and sinks of trace gases. Stable isotope techniques applied to identifying sources and sinks of atmospheric chemicals. Mathematical modeling of atmospheric chemical kinetic processes.

Donald Dabdub
Mathematical modeling of Air Pollution Dynamics. Atmospheric Aerosols. Parallel Computations.

Derek Dunn-Rankin
Combustion, optical particle sizing, particle aerodynamics, laser diagnostics and spectroscopy.

Said E. Elghobashi
Dispersion of solid or liquid particles in turbulent shear flow.

Carl A. Friehe
Fluid mechanics, turbulence, micrometerology, instrumentation.

Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts
Atmospheric, Physical and Analytical Chemistry.

Michael L. Goulden
The exchanges of trace gases and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.

John LaRue
Fluid mechanics, heat transfer, turbulence, instrumentation.

Gudrun Magnusdottir
Interactions of the flow between different dynamical regions in the atmosphere. Tropical dynamics, in particular understanding idealized asymmetric flows of the tropics.

Michael J. Prather
Numerical models of atmospheric chemistry must simulate the transport of trace species by winds, convective mixing, boundary layer exchange with the surface, and exchange between the stratosphere and troposphere.

William Reeburgh
Global carbon cycles and atmospheric methane budgets and their response to climate change.

Scott Samuelsen
Combustion, sprays, laser diagnostics, air quality, turbulent transport, alternative fuels, modeling reacting flows, practical systems, energy and environmental conflict.
Laboratories
 
Combustion Laboratory
Laser Flames and Aerosols
Atmospheric Turbulence Laboratory
 
 
Program
 
The Atmospheric Sciences studies are located in the School of Physical Sciences, and the Air Quality Engineering studies are located in the School of Engineering. Each activity has a rich tradition of activity that spans over twenty-five years. And each activity has enjoyed a rich tradition of interac tion over the same time span. The stratospheric impact of chloroflurophydrocarbons was discovered at UCI in the School of Physical Sciences in the 1970's, and recognized in 1995 with the award of a Nobel Laureate. The UCI Combustion Laboratory was established in the School of Engineering in 1970 and has evolved to the largest university program of its type in the world. In the ensuing years, the faculty has grown in both programs to two exceptional groups with close interactions and collaborations. Students, as a result, enjoy a broad expertise within each study area, as well as access to expansive resources in both the Physical Sciences and Engineering. A principal example is the yearly, team-taught graduate course that brings faculty, students, and guest lecturers together in engineering and the physical sciences for quarter of exchange on the current and upcoming regulatory, research, and societal issues in the atmospheric sciences and air quality engineering.

Deparments Links

Department of Chemistry
Department of Earth System Science
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering