Meteorology and Air Quality

This specialisation educates you as an atmospheric scientist or professional and you gain state-of-the-art in-depth understanding of meteorological processes and atmospheric composition at contrasting spatiotemporal scales, relevant for societal challenges and with a skills in fieldwork, modelling and data processing.

About the specialisation

You are interested in the atmosphere and its role in Earth’s climate. This specialisation enables you to obtain profound insight in the functioning of the atmosphere on a range of scales in space and time (from daily weather to long term climate). You can focus on the physics and dynamics of the atmosphere as well as on its composition and chemistry. Different track suggestions will guide you through the subjects of Weather and climate dynamics, Urban meteorology and air quality, Atmospheric chemistry and air quality, and Boundary-layer meteorology and land-atmosphere interactions.

The use of advanced atmospheric models, observations and data science and data handling is essential to understand the evolution of the atmosphere. Your academic skills, research skills and knowledge developed in this specialisation will help you in the context of research in atmospheric sciences, weather forecasting, environmental policy, air quality inventories and scenario analysis.

Suggested learning paths

The schematic overview (on the right) shows the overall structure of the specialisation. All specialisations consists of courses, an academic master cluster, a thesis and an internship.

Within the specialisation you can choose between suggested learning paths focussing on:

  • Weather and Climate Dynamics
  • Urban Meteorology and Air Quality
  • Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality
  • Boundary-layer Meteorology and Land-Atmosphere Interactions

You are also welcome to develop your own programme, by combining elements from these tracks or choosing courses from other MEE specialisations or other programmes.

Examples of the work-field

About half of the graduates work as a researcher in atmospheric sciences (PhD at any university of the world), while about a quarter of the graduates work as weather forecasters in the public  (KNMI, Min. of Defence) or private sector (e.g. MeteoGroup, Weeronline, Weerplaza and other international companies). The final quarter works in consultancy jobs, for instance on air quality, (urban) spatial planning, and renewable energy (e.g. Arcadis, Witteveen+Bos, Eneco, Alliander).