Spring 2027

Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean II

Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean II covers radiation, energy budget, and cloud physics, including scattering, absorption, emission, and diabatic heating via shortwave and longwave processes.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Fraser King

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.67 GPA, 73.3% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 59.1% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain the relevance radiation has for weather and climate and the basic properties of radiation and the electromagnetic spectrum.

  • Describe reflection, refraction, and their relationship to optical phenomena.

  • Summarize radiative properties exhibited by natural and artificial surfaces on the planet and the use of satellite imagery to detect them.

  • Explain thermal emission, including blackbody radiation and emissivity.

  • Describe atmospheric emission and transmission, including extinction, scattering, and absorption in a plane-parallel atmospheric formulation.

  • Calculate radiative equilibrium and the balance at the Top of the Atmosphere (TOA).

  • Explain principles of absorption of atmospheric gases and particles.

  • Summarize main aspects of broadband fluxes and heating rates.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ATM OCN 330

ATMOCN 340 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 300

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.67 GPA, 73.3% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 59.1% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Radiation, energy budget, and cloud physics
  • Shortwave and longwave scattering, absorption, emission, and diabatic heating
  • Cloud nucleation, particle growth, precipitation development, and convective clouds

Skills

  • Calculate radiative equilibrium and Top of Atmosphere balance
  • Use satellite imagery to detect radiative properties of surfaces

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ATMOCN 340 · Spring 2027

Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean II

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:640:012742",
    "course_id": "ATMOCN 340",
    "course_uid": "course_7ca43eeabc44efa532501826",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "012742",
    "source_subject_id": "640",
    "title": "Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean II",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3c33af6b57294a83fa6ccd04758809a8ae7aecf760749c38bcf0116849b440af",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}