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Extensive research within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has demonstrated that active learning leads to greater educational success for students relative to traditional lecture methods. While studies have explored active learning use across various STEM fields, minimal research has focused specifically on the atmospheric sciences. A baseline knowledge of the use of active learning in this field is vital for determining instructional effectiveness and can identify areas for improvement. The goal of this study is to provide a baseline regarding the state of active learning within the atmospheric sciences, including understanding what active learning strategies are most widely used, their frequency of use, and who is using them. Atmospheric science instructors were invited to participate in an online survey to provide information about their active learning use in the classroom and resources used to learn more about active learning strategies. Survey results indicate that case studies are the most popular high-use active learning strategy across all levels of instruction, though how they are implemented within the classroom is not clear. New atmospheric science instructors, instructors beyond the typical 5-yr tenure mark, and female instructors exhibit the highest number of unique active learning strategies. Future work stresses the need for a larger sample size and more direct classroom observation of instructors using active learning.

Increasing participation in education research and encouraging the use of evidence-based practices in the classroom has been identified as a Grand Challenge in the Geosciences. As a first step in addressing this Grand Challenge, a survey was developed and disseminated to a broad range of atmospheric science professionals to collect data about 1) the number of community members involved in atmospheric science education research (ASER); 2) whether ASER is valued within the community, and if so, to what extent; 3) potential barriers to involvement in ASER; and 4) the resources necessary to encourage involvement in ASER. Survey results revealed that while many in the atmospheric science community highly value education research, barriers to greater involvement include a perceived lack of value and a lack of visibility of ASER. Recommendations are made for addressing these barriers.

Since 2013, the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has offered an online course titled “Climate and Climate Change.” Students enrolled in this course learn the physical principles governing Earth’s climate and climate change within the broader context of societal impacts and global political considerations. Students interact weekly with each other about these topics, and frequent instructor interaction stimulates further learning related to the course goals. The course was delivered through a balanced mix of forum discussions, weekly worksheets, quizzes, and a final project. For this study, student climate literacy was assessed through voluntary pre- and post-course surveys containing student self-assessment questions and a variety of questions directly based on course content. Post-course survey results indicate 99% of students taking this course feel “fairly well informed” or “very well informed” about their physical understanding of Earth’s climate and the numerous processes governing climate change. The 2019 cohort observed a statistically significant increase in the percentage of students adopting the viewpoint that climate change is caused primarily by human activities. We present a template for implementation in other Earth science or atmospheric science curricula, which includes discussion forum, quiz, and worksheet examples from this course.

General education science courses strive to promote scientific literacy and the development of scientific process skills. However, research shows that many general education courses are still designed to stress content mastery. In this study, the number of topics in five semester-long introductory atmospheric science courses was reduced to increase time for the development of scientific process skills, a critical component of scientific literacy. The Atmospheric and Climate Science Literacy Frameworks and a general science education skills rubric were used to guide the course redesign and development of course activities. Details of the course structure and sample course activities are described. A pre-post-test was developed to evaluate attainment of five scientific process skills and the efficacy of the course redesign. Preliminary validity and reliability studies suggest that the majority of the assessment questions are reliable, though further validation of the assessment is required.

Narrow, tropopause-level wind speed maxima known as jet streams or jets are among the most ubiquitous structural characteristics of Earth’s atmosphere. Two species, the polar and subtropical jets, can be observed on any given day. The polar jet is tied, via eddy momentum flux convergence associated with extratropical wave development, to the troposphere-deep baroclinicity of the midlatitudes, while the subtropical jet is tied, by angular momentum constraints, to the poleward edge of the tropical Hadley cell. As a consequence of their different origins, the polar and subtropical jets are separated by both latitude and elevation. However, there are times when these two usually separate features become vertically superposed to form a single, intense jet core designated as a jet superposition or superposed jet. An objective method for identifying tropopause-level jets is employed in the construction of 50-yr cold season (November–March) synoptic climatologies of the Northern Hemisphere polar jet, subtropical jet, and jet superpositions. The analysis demonstrates that while superposition events are relatively rare, there are clear geographical maxima. Superpositions are most frequent in the western Pacific from December through February, with a secondary peak in southern North America and along its eastern seaboard. Consistent with expectations, the spatiotemporal maxima in jet superpositions appear to be coincident with maxima in the polar and subtropical jets.

Although considerable research attention has been devoted to examination of the Northern Hemisphere polar and subtropical jet streams, relatively little has been directed toward understanding the circumstances that conspire to produce the relatively rare vertical superposition of these usually separate features. This study investigates the structure and evolution of large-scale environments associated with jet superposition events in the northwest Pacific. An objective identification scheme, using NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis 1 data, is employed to identify all jet superpositions in the western Pacific (30°–40°N, 135°–175°E) for boreal winters (DJF) between 1979/80 and 2009/10. The analysis reveals that environments conducive to western Pacific jet superposition share several large-scale features usually associated with East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) northerly cold surges, including the presence of an enhanced Hadley cell–like circulation within the jet entrance region. It is further demonstrated that several EAWM indices are statistically significantly correlated with jet superposition frequency in the western Pacific. The life cycle of EAWM cold surges promotes interaction between tropical convection and internal jet dynamics. Low–potential vorticity (PV), high- air, appearing to be associated with anomalous convection in the western Pacific lower latitudes, is advected poleward toward the equatorward side of the jet in upper-tropospheric isentropic layers, resulting in anomalous anticyclonic wind shear that accelerates the jet. This, along with geostrophic cold air advection in the left jet entrance region that drives the polar tropopause downward through the jet core, promotes the development of the deep, vertical PV wall characteristic of superposed jets. A conceptual model synthesizing the results of this analysis is introduced.

The vertical structure of tropical deep convection strongly influences interactions with larger-scale circulations and climate. This paper focuses on investigating this vertical structure and its relationship with mesoscale tropical weather states. The authors test the hypothesis that latent heating plus turbulent flux convergence varies (in space and time) in association with weather state type. The authors estimate mean-state vertical motion profile shape and latent heating plus turbulent flux convergence for six weather states defined using cloud-top pressure and optical depth properties from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) dataset. Assuming two modes of vertical motion profile variability, these modes are statistically extracted from reanalysis data using a principal component analysis. Using these modes and the relationship between vertical motion, the dry static energy budget, and mass continuity, the authors estimate vertical motion profile shape. In these estimates, the authors use Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) [and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42] precipitation and Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) surface convergence data in the ITCZ region from 2001 to 2006. Finally, these profile shapes are categorized by weather state type and spatiotemporally averaged to generate mean-state vertical motion profiles and latent heating plus turbulent flux convergence. The authors find that vertical motion profile shape varies by weather state. The isolated systems convective regime exhibits more “bottom heaviness” than the other convectively active regimes, with maximum upward vertical motion occurring in the lower troposphere rather than the middle to upper troposphere. The variability observed does not coincide with the conventional profile variability based on stratiform rain fraction.

Research suggests non-experts associate different content with the terms “global warming” and “climate change.” We test this claim with Twitter content using supervised learning software to categorize tweets by topic and explore differences between content using “global warming” and “climate change” between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2014. Twitter data were combined with temperature records to observe the extent to which temperature was associated with Twitter discussions. We then used two case studies to examine the relationship between extreme temperature events and Twitter content. Our findings underscore the importance of considering climate change communication on social media.