Convective Climatology for the Southwestern United States
Faculty Mentor Name
Curtis James, Mark Sinclair, Carter Humphreys, Ronny Schroeder, Jay Park
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
Convection over complex terrain has always been a challenge for meteorologists and computer algorithms to predict. This is a problem that meteorologists around the world need to solve because extreme convective events often cause property damage and loss of life. Convection in mountain climates is often responsible for severe weather, flash flooding, and critical fire weather. The National Center for Atmospheric Research has given Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the National Weather Service a grant to research where convection initiates, propagates, and dissipates over the Southwest Region of the United States. To find thunderstorm tracks, I run Multi-Radar, Multi-Sensing data through Monika Feldman’s Thunderstorm Detection and Tracking algorithm in Python. If the thunderstorm cell exceeds a minimum reflectivity and area, the thunderstorm is added to a track list. The tracks’ centroid location, area, and intensity of the cell is a function of time, Latitude and Longitude. These thunderstorm tracks are then used to create a statistical climatology using the mapping software, ArcGIS, of thunderstorm activity in the desert southwest. This research should give meteorologists a better idea of thunderstorm characteristics over complex terrain.
Convective Climatology for the Southwestern United States
Convection over complex terrain has always been a challenge for meteorologists and computer algorithms to predict. This is a problem that meteorologists around the world need to solve because extreme convective events often cause property damage and loss of life. Convection in mountain climates is often responsible for severe weather, flash flooding, and critical fire weather. The National Center for Atmospheric Research has given Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the National Weather Service a grant to research where convection initiates, propagates, and dissipates over the Southwest Region of the United States. To find thunderstorm tracks, I run Multi-Radar, Multi-Sensing data through Monika Feldman’s Thunderstorm Detection and Tracking algorithm in Python. If the thunderstorm cell exceeds a minimum reflectivity and area, the thunderstorm is added to a track list. The tracks’ centroid location, area, and intensity of the cell is a function of time, Latitude and Longitude. These thunderstorm tracks are then used to create a statistical climatology using the mapping software, ArcGIS, of thunderstorm activity in the desert southwest. This research should give meteorologists a better idea of thunderstorm characteristics over complex terrain.