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Master's Projects at UAlbany (mesoscale meteorology)

  1. Lake-effect Snow

    While at UAlbany I focused on using numerical experiments to improve our understanding of lake-effect snowstorms (LES). LES occur when cold air crossing the relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes generate powerful storms under synoptic conditions usually associated with fair weather. A newsworthy example of this phenomenon was the Buffalo snowstorm of Nov. 17-21, 2014 that dropped up to 2 meters of snow and shut down the city.

    Under the advisement of Dr. Justin Minder, I created a semi-idealized modeling framework for studying LES. This involved stripping all unnecessary model complexities while still preserving the necessary dynamics to resolve LES. Simplified initial and boundary conditions allowed me to manipulate model state space in a controlled manner and test specific hypotheses.

    I made a poster explaining initial lake-effect snow results for the 16th Conference on Mesoscale Processes. Poster available here.

  2. Orographic Rain

    A secondary research interest was orographically enhanced rain in coastal mountain ranges. From 5/17/2015 - 8/24/2015 I was in Chile conducting an exploratory field campaign (Chilean Coastal Orographic Precipitation Experiment pilot project, CCOPE-15) in the Nahuelbuta Mountains to the south of Concepción. UAlbany collaborated with researchers at the University of Colorado, University of Wyoming, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad de Concepción to observe the kinematic and microphysical aspects of landfalling storms.

    Links