The Ph.D. degree program in atmospheric sciences was initiated with the establishment of the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in 1981. The Atmospheric Sciences program at NC State has grown significantly and the total research grants and contracts currently amount to several million dollars. The number of graduate students enrolled is about sixty of which over one-third are Ph.D. students. Research is an integral part of graduate study and should be a major consideration in the selection of a graduate program. An M.S. student should determine a general area of research within atmospheric sciences, while a Ph.D. applicant should consider in-depth research on a specific topic. At present, the faculty and graduate students research in the atmospheric sciences program at NC State concentrates in the following areas: Air-sea interaction, Boundary layer meteorology, Climatology, Cloud chemistry and microphysics, Convective dynamics and physics, Geophysical fluid dynamics, Meteorological observations and instrumentation, Mesoscale processes,Satellite remote sensing, Storm structure and dynamics, Synoptic-dynamic meteorology, Tropical meteorology, Weather systems and forecasting.