PTYS 505A Principles of Planetary Physics

Core Course

PTYS Graduate Core Course. Introductory physics of planetary and interplanetary gases, fluids and plasmas. Thermodynamics, kinetic theory, plasma physics, hydrodynamics, and magnetohydrodynamics with solar-system applications. This includes planetary atmospheres, turbulence, solar wind, solar-system magnetic fields, dynamo theory, and planetary magnetospheres. Students will be expected to be familiar with vector calculus and both ordinary and partial differential equations. In addition, students will be expected to know, or learn, a programming language such as C, Fortran, IDL or MATLAB. Course requisites: Classical and quantum mechanics at the level of PHYS 151 and PHYS 242.  Sample course syllabus, Giacalone (PDF). Sample course syllabus, Klein (PDF).

Course Level Other
PTYS Graduate Core Course
Course Credits
3
Course Type
Graduate
Semester Section Number Instructor(s) Day/Time Location Resources
Spring 2025 001 Kristopher Klein Tuesday, Thursday 12:30-1:45p.m. Kuiper 312 D2L