Planetary Atmospheres

3-0-9 units · Undergraduate

Explores exoplanet atmospheres, including their origins, evolution, and observations. Provides students with skills needed to undertake original research on exoplanet atmospheres. Students examine problems of interior structure modeling, atmospheric exchange with planetary interiors, and mechanisms of atmospheric escape to space, particularly hydrodynamic escape. Emphasis on presenting phenomena in context of actual observed exoplanets. Students taking graduate version complete more complex problem sets and an expanded term project.