NOAA Meteorologist Requirements (GS-1340)

Information about NOAA requirements to apply for a NOAA GS-1340 position.

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All Penn State Meteorology B.S. graduates, regardless of their option choice, satisfy the requirements to apply for a NOAA GS-1340 position. Below are the courses that all B.S. graduates take to satisfy these requirements.

For more information, see this checklist or visit NOAA's requirement site

  • 1a) Six semester hours of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics: Meteo 421 or Meteo 422 and Meteo 431 satisfy this requirement.

  • 1b) Six semester hours of analysis and prediction of weather systems (synoptic/mesoscale): Meteo 101 or 201 and Meteo 411; the elective course Meteo 414 applies here too, as do Meteo 415, Meteo 416, and others.

  • 1c) Three semester hours of physical meteorology: Meteo 436 or Meteo 437 or Meteo 454

  • 1d) Two semester hours of remote sensing of the atmosphere and/or instrumentation:  Meteo 440W or the elective course Meteo/EE 477 applies here, as do some other special topics courses*

  • 2) Six semester hours of physics, with at least one course that includes laboratory sessions: Phys 211 and 212 

  • 3) Three semester hours of ordinary differential equations: Math 251 

  • 4) At least nine semester hours of course work appropriate for a physical science major in any combination of three or more of the following: physical hydrology, statistics, chemistry, physical oceanography, physical climatology, radiative transfer, aeronomy, advanced thermodynamics, advanced electricity and magnetism, light and optics, and computer science: Stat 301 or Stat 401 or EBF 472; Chem 110; Cmpsc 101 or Cmpsc 201, among many others that a student might take.

*When applying for a position within NOAA, be sure to provide an annotated unofficial transcript that notes which of your Penn State courses may be used to satisfy the above requirements. For example, note that Meteo 300 is a calculus-based science course, EBF 472 is a rigorous statistics course, and that Meteo 440W satisfies the Remote Sensing / Instrumentation requirement.