OU College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences

08/24/2026

AGS Fam, consider this your official welcome back. 👋

Join us for the annual AGS Welcome Back Bash on Friday, August 28, from 5–7:30 p.m. at the National Weather Center. Come hang out, meet up with friends, grab some food, and kick off the semester with us!

📍 National Weather Center
📅 Friday, August 28
⏰ 5–7:30 p.m.

All AGS students, faculty, and staff are welcome!

OU Dept. of Geography and Environmental Sustainability University of Oklahoma Aviation School of Meteorology

08/14/2026

Where are our independent, adventurous, calm-under-pressure, perfectionist girlies at? ❤️‍🔥🚁

Meet Soami Ellis — University of Oklahoma Aviation’s newest Certified Flight Instructor!

Soami is the first Professional Helicopter major to complete her Private Pilot, Instrument, Commercial and CFI certifications and is the first OU student CFI hired for Semper Fly.

Now, she joins Semper Fly Helicopters/OU Aviation as an instructor while she works toward her CFII.

Student → Pilot → Instructor. We love to see it. Huge congrats, Soami!

08/11/2026

What do we think—did Boomer pass his checkride?

Maybe one of our all-time favorite photos ☝️

Photo by Travis Caperton, April 2024, during the new fleet fly-in at the University of Oklahoma Aviation, part of the OU College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences ✈️

08/11/2026

Welcome to AGS, Dr. Zhenghong Tang!

Zhenghong Tang, Ph.D., has been named chair of the OU Dept. of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, bringing nearly two decades of experience in planning, environmental research and community resilience to the role.

Tang joins The University of Oklahoma from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he most recently served as associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Architecture.

His research, which has focused on environmental monitoring and assessment, hazard mitigation and geospatial technologies, has received funding support from agencies including the United States Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Department of Housing and Urban Development and Environmental Protection Agency.

As chair, Tang will oversee the department and its mission of creating a community of interdisciplinary scholars and experts who aim to better understand the Earth’s human-natural systems. He is also joining as a professor within DGES.

“As chair of the search committee, I had the opportunity to work with an outstanding pool of candidates from across the country,” said AGS Dean Bob Palmer. “Dr. Tang distinguished himself through his collaborative leadership style, research excellence and unwavering commitment to student success. We are delighted that he has joined the University of Oklahoma, and I am confident he will provide exceptional leadership.”

Welcome to OU, Dr. Tang! ☝️

08/09/2026

Researchers with the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) at The University of Oklahoma are helping Oklahoma City better understand and prepare for extreme heat.

Through a long-standing partnership with the Oklahoma City Office of Sustainability, SCIPP has contributed historical heat analyses, participated in extreme heat preparedness exercises, and shared research that supports heat resilience strategies across the community.

SCIPP’s contributions to heat awareness and preparedness efforts were recognized by Mayor David Holt with an official proclamation of Heat Safety Awareness Week, June 1–7, 2026.

By connecting climate science with local decision-making, SCIPP continues to turn research into solutions that help communities prepare for a changing climate.

OU Research

08/04/2026

The National Weather Service has, for the first time, purchased vertical atmospheric profiles collected by drones — data collected by The University of Oklahoma and Meteomatics.

This milestone is the next step forward for the Oklahoma 3D Mesonet, a first-of-its-kind observation system that integrates uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) technology with the Oklahoma Mesonet ground network to capture real-time, three-dimensional data across the lower atmosphere.

Read the full story at the link in our comments!

📷 by Jonathan Kyncl

US National Weather Service Norman Oklahoma
OU Research
School of Meteorology
University of Oklahoma Aviation
National Weather Center
CIWRO
Congressman Tom Cole

07/31/2026

A new era of drone-based weather observation has landed.

While weather balloons will likely remain the backbone of atmospheric monitoring systems, drones with integrated sondes can ascend twice as fast as balloons and be flown more frequently, giving meteorologists more information to issue alerts and keep people safe.

Read more at the link in our comments about the 3D Oklahoma Mesonet concept, which integrates the CIWRO UAS program with the Oklahoma Mesonet ground network to fill existing data gaps in upper-air observations, and how the US National Weather Service Norman Oklahoma has, for the first time, purchased vertical atmospheric profiles collected by drones from The University of Oklahoma and Meteomatics.

07/29/2026

Hey, AGS alumni and close colleagues 👋

Check your inbox! Invitations are out for the National Weather Center's 20th anniversary celebration on Sept. 12.

Come catch up with old friends, enjoy the OU v Michigan game on the big screen, take a tour, check out demos, and celebrate 20 years of the NWC.

Didn't get your invitation? Have questions about the event? Email [email protected] , and we'll make sure you have the details.

Hope to see you there!

07/21/2026

All your burning questions about weather balloons answered ✅ (spoiler: they are NOT safe for bovine consumption)

Come along with PhD student Andrea and another meteorology student, Eli, as they launch a weather balloon for a class research project! ☝️

07/17/2026

Geography is more than just sitting in a computer lab making maps 🌍 🪨

Flashback to last summer, when The University of Oklahoma Geography & Environmental Sustainability crew went underground into the gypsum caves of the Oklahoma Tourism Dept's Alabaster Caverns State Park.

The trip was guided by OU Dept. of Geography and Environmental Sustainability faculty members, Trey Lee, PhD, and Carrie Leslie, PhD.

Dr. Lee says:

"Here's what makes gypsum interesting: it dissolves fast enough that you can actually watch the landscape change. Sinkholes, shifting groundwater, the whole thing. Most karst takes millennia, but this stuff works on our timescale, which also means it's easy to wreck. Good place to think about what's worth protecting.

Headlamps on, no signal, and the dark down there is real, actual darkness. Our next trip to caves in the Ozarks is currently being planned!"

Who's ready to go?!?

📷 by Trey Lee, PhD