A&O SCI 113Introduction to Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences · 4 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)
Intermediate course on atmospheric and ocean dynamics. Topics include vorticity and potential vorticity, waves, quasi-geostrophic theory, barotropic and baroclinic instability, Ekman layer. Study combines theory and rotating tank experiments.
Letter grading.
When it runs
- Spring 2026
- Spring 2027
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
Official UCLA wording
Requisites: courses 101, 103, or equivalent courses in fluid mechanics or transport phenomena.
BruinTree reads · Prerequisite
confidence 1.00 · from UCLA’s structured dataRequires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
A&O SCI 113
- A&O SCI 101Fundamentals of Atmospheric Dynamics and Thermodynamics
- LIFESCI 30BMathematics for Life Scientists
- LIFESCI 30AMathematics for Life Scientists
- PHYSICS 1BPhysics for Scientists and Engineers: Oscillations, Waves, Electric and Magnetic Fields
- PHYSICS 1APhysics for Scientists and Engineers: Mechanics
- MATH 32ACalculus of Several Variables
- MATH 32BCalculus of Several Variables
- PHYSICS 5BPhysics for Life Sciences Majors: Thermodynamics, Fluids, Waves, Light, and Optics
- PHYSICS 5CPhysics for Life Sciences Majors: Electricity, Magnetism, and Modern Physics
- A&O SCI 103Physical Oceanography
2 direct requisites. Showing 19 courses over 3 levels; the branches marked with a count carry on past it. Every course here opens its own tree.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.