Basic Meteorology Program Relocated to AFIT

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Chandra Pasillas & Maj. William Graff
  • Air Force Institute of Technology
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  

Did you know the Air Force’s Basic Meteorology Program (BMP) has existed almost as long as the U.S. Air Force? Along with the desire for timely and accurate aviation forecasts, meteorologists were needed to lead weather teams at military bases worldwide to supply resource protection on the ground. BMP was the Air Force’s mechanism for creating weather experts when faced with shortfalls of atmospheric science graduates from civilian institutions (CIs) and at times has provided the community with one-third of its new officers.

From 1952-1993, BMP graduated 20-30 students yearly from CIs. With the startup of the USAFA Atmospheric Science Program in the early 1990s, the SECAF directed BMP stand down. Successive years of not meeting 15W accession goals through meteorology degree programs alone saw the reinstatement of BMP in 1998 at Texas A&M, Florida State University, and The Ohio State University. Changes came again in 2003 when education agreements between the Navy and Air Force moved BMP to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Modifications to World Meteorological Organizations (WMO) requirements drove further updates to Air Force officer accessions in the early 2010s, halting BMP graduates from 2010-2017. Then, the program was revived at NPS where it graduated between 10-15 students each year. The final BMP students at NPS graduated in 2024.

Fall 2024 marked the transfer of BMP to the Air Force’s premier graduate school—the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio—and a landmark upgrade to the credentials it confers. The latest update comes as part of a larger effort by the Air Force to not only improve talent and resource management, but also enable new mentorship opportunities for its junior members. The move to AFIT as a graduate certificate program offers additional benefits. Officers will enter their careers by receiving the designation of “Bachelors +” on their records, indicating the completion of advanced studies in graduate school. Top performers will have the opportunity to compete to remain for three additional quarters using BMP credits to expedite their Master’s curriculum completion, allowing them to finish an advanced academic degree before their first duty station.

The program draws applicants from related disciplines, equipping them with essential skills required by the U.S. Government and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to produce operational weather analyses and forecasts. BMP boasts a double-edged benefit for the Air Force, as the graduate emerges with the skills required to do their tradecraft and the weather community gains a Subject Matter Expert with intimate knowledge of their non-weather undergraduate degree. Notable BMP grads include current and former AFIT Professors Dr. Steve Fiorino (Lt. Col., Ret.), Dr. Bob Tournay (Lt. Col., Ret.), and Dr. Andrew Geyer (Lt. Col., Ret.), as well as former 557th Weather Wing Commander Col. Brad Stebbins.

AFIT hosts students at different points in their career. Because of this, it has a robust infrastructure to help students refresh and improve their command of physics and calculus. Waivers are possible, but a minimum amount of related coursework is still required for BMP before entry. Following refresher sessions, students begin with an introduction to Meteorology that arms them with fundamental knowledge for the rest of the program which includes coursework in topics such as radiative transfer, instrumentation, observation, thermodynamics, the space environment, forecasting, and atmospheric dynamics.

The BMP pulls from the spectrum of academic methods, drawing in cutting-edge teaching methods like active learning themes that allow young officers to apply newfound knowledge to boost knowledge retention. The program will also pioneer AFIT’s new DIYNamics labs where students will create table-sized 3D atmospheres that show the evolution of features like baroclinic development and thermal wind. The BMP’s capstone course will be distinct to AFIT, led by seasoned Weather and Environmental Sciences Officer (WESO) leaders, it will prepare students for their military careers by exposing them to real-world challenges and vignettes from across the spectrum of operations in weather, environmental science, and space.

The BMP will be piloted in AFIT’s Department of Engineering Physics by Atmospheric Science cadre, Lt. Col. Kyle Fitch, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science, Lt. Col. Chandra Pasillas, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science, and Maj. William Graff, Instructor of Atmospheric Science. The program is currently open to applicants for its fall 2025 class. If you know of a future Air Force officer wrapping up their undergraduate degree or prospective cross-trainee, encourage them to submit their application. Contact AFIT Atmospheric Science Program team members for more details at https://e.AFIT.edu/980WK.