Huntsville's R&D Magazine Spring 2013 issue highlights ATS/ESSC interdiscplinary research and education using geospatial technologies
UAH researchers blend academics and research across a variety of scientific disciplines related to GIS to find that the real excitement lies between the silos. Using this integrated approach. Huntsville's National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) at UAH - along with the academic arm of the UAH Department of Atmospheric Sciences. and its research arm. the Earth Systems Science Center (ESSC) - is tackling some of Earth's most intriguing climate, cultural and planetary problems. (Click here for complete article)
Knupp wins Distinguished Research Award!
Dr. Kevin Knupp (Professor, Department of Atmospheric Science), is the winner of the 2013 UAHuntsville Distinguished Research Award. This is the highest research award given by the University.
He will be recognized for this award on May 4, 2013 (10am) at the Von Braun Center, Propst Arena during the commencement ceremony.
UAH scientists seek photos, video of storm
Scientists in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center are hoping the public can help them study the storm that dropped two small tornadoes over south Huntsville on Thursday afternoon.
The scientific team lead by Dr. Kevin Knupp hopes to marry amateur photos and video with the readouts of at least three Doppler radar units to learn more about how to recognize and provide warnings against fast forming tornadoes. They hope the photos and video will provide visual confirmation of what the storm was doing at each stage of development so they can look for radar clues and patterns they might use to identify the early stages of tornado formation in future storms.
read more...
College honors 3 students and 2 faculty
The Atmospheric Science Department was well represented in the 2013 UAHuntsville College of Science honors program.
Emily Foshee, an MS student in atmospheric science, and Eric Anderson, an MS student in Earth system science, were named the top graduate research assistants in UAH's College of Science. Elinor Crook was the top undergraduate student in Earth system science.
Dr. Kevin Knupp, professor of atmospheric science, received the College of Science dean's service award, and Dr. Tom Sever, a professor in atmospheric science, won the college's teaching excellence award.
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Dr. Richard McNider, distinguished professor emeritus in atmospheric and mathematical sciences, receives the 2013 AMS award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advance of Applied Meteorology from the organization's president, Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, at the AMS awards banquet on Wednesday, Jan. 9. He was recognized by the AMS for "innovative contributions to dealing with agricultural drought by improving monitoring and forecasting technology, and for promoting sustainable irrigation in the Southeast." McNider was largely responsible for founding UAHuntsville's remote sensing laboratory, which led to the creations of both the Earth System Science Center and the Atmospheric Science Department. To see more photos from the conference, view them here.
2 ATS grad students published in AMS journal
Two graduate students in UAHuntsville's atmospheric science program are lead authors on research papers published in the February edition of the Monthly Weather Review, an American Meteorological Society journal.
Research by Dr. Ken Leppert and Todd Murphy with UAH faculty (and one NASA scientist) may lay the groundwork for developing tools to give better predictions of both hurricanes and tornadoes.
Leppert, who has completed the requirements for his Ph.D. and is a postdoctoral fellow, found that certain traits that can be seen from space might help give earlier warnings of which low pressure systems coming out of Africa or South America are more likely to develop into tropical storms or hurricanes.
read more ...
Graduate students and scientists from UAHuntsville's Atmospheric Science Department and the Earth System Science Center studied the storm that passed through north Alabama on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. One group of students went to Lawrence and Franklin counties in west Alabama, collecting wind, humidity and pressure data both in the elevated and valley areas near the edge of the Bankhead forest, where they unexpectedly ran across an air traffic control radar station operated by the FAA. Other members of the severe weather research group set up the MAX Doppler radar in New Market to study waves (both gravity and other) that interacted with the approaching storm system.
see more pictures ...
UAH professor honored for
a lifetime of applied science
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Jan. 2, 2013) — In a field of science notorious for complex formulas and interconnected variables, Dick McNider acknowledges that even by those standards his most recent scientific publication is a "nerdy paper," filled as it is (says a co-author) with "horrible partial differentiated equations."
"You can read the introduction and the conclusion and probably get all you need from that paper," said McNider, a distinguished professor emeritus in mathematical sciences at UAHuntsville. McNider will be be honored next week by the American Meteorological Society for his contributions to applied meteorology.
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New free phone app tracks air quality
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Nov. 29, 2012) -- People with respiratory problems can get an instant up-to-date local report on a key air pollutant through a new free mobile phone app created at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
MobileAQI™ (Mobile Air Quality Index) uses data from instruments on board NASA and NOAA satellites to supplement pollution estimates available from other sources, to give a more accurate and reliable report on fine particulates (particles no bigger than 2.5 microns) in the air, said the project leader, Dr. Udaysankar Nair.
"That is the size that is most efficient at getting into your lungs," said Nair, an assistant professor of atmospheric science at UAHuntsville. "The population most at risk is the elderly, especially people with respiratory problems, although this could be of use to children or anyone with serious respiratory problems, such as bad asthma."
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Five students in UAH's Earth system science MS program presented results
from their research at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples,
Italy, in early October. In addition to presenting their work at regular
(not student) sessions, the students also met with NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden (center) and Associate Administrator Michael O'Brien. They
discussed their use of date from NASA satellites and their collaborations
with NASA, including SERVIR.
"Mom! Dad! It's a twister!" Five-year-old Lauren Kliesner from Madison watches carefully as the "tornado" her father spun up in a bottle spins into another bottle. Lauren and her family were among the hundreds of people who attended the 2012 Rocket City Weather Fest at UAH's Shelby Center.
Additional photos from the 2012 Rocket City Weather Fest are available HERE.
Five ESS students to attend IAC in Italy
Five students in the Earth System Science master's degree program will spend
several days presenting the results of their research at the 63rd
International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Naples, Italy, from Oct. 1-5.
They might also try the fresh seafood and pasta, and do a little shopping.
The ESS five will present oral presentations in regular technical sessions
at the event, on research that includes using satellite sensing systems to
assess drought conditions in the southeastern U.S., using NASA satellite
data to help forecast food shortages in Nepal, and measuring the
environmental and economic impact of the April 27, 2011, tornadoes in
Alabama using data from NASA's EOS satellites.
The ESS team is part of a group of 34 UAHuntsville students, graduate and
undergraduate, scheduled to attend the congress.
The IAC is the world's largest single meeting of aerospace professionals.
