Sabtu, 28 Januari 2012

Student Participates in "Research Experiences for Undergraduates"

For ten weeks between May and July 2011, NIU senior meteorology student Danny Brouillette participated in the National Weather Center (NWC) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Located on the University of Oklahoma (OU) main campus in Norman, Oklahoma, the NWC is a research and operations facility that houses the OU School of Meteorology and its research groups and enterprises, the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, and several National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agencies, including the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), Norman National Weather Service Forecast Office (OUN NWSFO), Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB), Radar Operations Center (ROC), and National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). The REU program solicits approximately ten students from universities across the United States in a very competitive selection process in which approximately ten percent of applicants are selected in a given year. It pairs student participants with one-on-one research mentors affiliated with a program(s) at the NWC in order to give them a taste of the research working environment. As such, the experience gives participants an indication of whether graduate study in the atmospheric sciences is suited for them.

The REU is centered around participants completing individual research projects under the direction of their mentors. Mr. Brouillette worked under mentor Dr. Yang Hong, an OU associate professor affiliated with the Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (HyDROS) research group, and one of his graduate students, Lu Liu, on a regional climate change project entitled “Quantifying Changes in Extreme Precipitation at Houston and Oklahoma City by 2041-2065 Using the Regional Climate Model (CRCM).” The results of this project helped to confirm that the most intense rainstorms may become more intense in the future even while a net decrease in precipitation is possible. It also helped to begin to quantify the magnitudes of these temporal changes. Mr. Brouillette is lead author of proceedings related to this project in the American Meteorological Society’s 24th Conference on Climate Change and Variability, which was held in New Orleans between 22 and 26 January 2012. He will present a poster there.

Danny delivers his final presentation at the NWC.

Besides the central research project, the REU features a variety of formal and informal activities that add value to the overall experience. Formal activities offered in the 2011 REU included instruction in research ethics, training in basic research applications of MATLAB and statistics, a session on technical writing and presentation, talks from a variety of guest lecturers at the top of their respective fields, and a four-day field trip to Boulder, Colorado, to visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and NOAA research facilities. Informal activities center around forging lasting social and professional connections with peers in the REU and other similar research programs at the NWC. Norman is situated in central Oklahoma, the heart of the traditional Tornado Alley, and the opportunity for storm chasing is often irresistible. Indeed, with a chase group led by Jim LaDue, Mr. Brouillette saw his first (and only—so far) two tornadoes, an EF-5 near El Reno and the dissipation of an EF-4 just north of Purcell, on 24 May. The region has more than just storms and extreme heat, however, and the NWC research interns enjoyed some of their free time by hiking in the Wichita Mountains in southwest Oklahoma and spending the Fourth-of-July weekend in Dallas.

Having had eight participants since 1999, the NIU Meteorology Program has had considerable success in being a source of participants to the NWC REU. In 2008, Becky Belobraydich, currently working on an M.S. in meteorology at OU, participated and did a project under OU researcher Dr. Matthew Biddle that examined how university students perceive, understand, and use severe-weather watches issued by the SPC. The 2007 REU had Victor Gensini, currently working on a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Georgia, participating under National Severe Storm Laboratory researcher Dr. Harold Brooks on a project that investigated thunderstorm parameters over a 42-year period. The other NIU participants were Heather Flachs (2004), Becca Mazur (2003), Kadi Carroll (2002), Jesse Sparks (2000), and Peggy Concannon (1999). Current NIU students who are interested in learning more about this and other REU programs and research and internship opportunities should contact Dr. Walker Ashley or Dr. Dave Changnon.

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