Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences
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Brian Magi

CO2 time line for May 2013

June 02, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

The month of May is officially over, and perhaps the Earth is about to take a big breath in and begin to draw down CO2 from its year 2013 peak. The last tweets by @Keeling_curve showed a relatively (emphasis on relatively!) sharp decrease from May 29 to May 30 with CO2 falling from 400.33 ppm to 398.41 ppm, and then May 31 had variability that was too high as tweeted here. Funny side note was that for whatever reason, this “data too variable” drew the attention of one well-known (but not well-respected) blog, to which @Keeling_curve replied “see here“. Geez, you’d think seasoned bloggers would click a couple of web links before tweeting a question like that. The values of CO2 should start their annual decrease from the peak value in the Northern Hemisphere as the plant life in temperate and polar zones comes to life, but in the mean time, we’re living in the age of a 400 ppm CO2 world, which is very unusual in recent geological history, as discussed here and shown here. Here’s the time line of CO2 concentrations for this historic May 2013co2-2013-05which shows the weekly-averaged CO2 from the daily-averaged values posted on Twitter (ok, tweeted). The straight horizontal purple line is the monthly-averaged CO2 of 399.82 ppm (wow!), and the straight red line is the mystical 400 ppm CO2. I calculated the weekly-average as the value of the previous 7 days up. For example, May 15 weekly-average is the average of values from May 9 through May 15. The weekly-average ideally is 7 data points, but occasionally a daily-averaged value is not tweeted due to high variability in the data. From the figure you can see that we reached our first weekly-averaged CO2 concentration greater than 400 ppm on May 19. I actually thought that would be it for the year, but from May 24 to May 29, daily values were again well over 400 ppm. This brought the number of weekly-averaged values greater than 400 ppm up to 5. Roughly, about 33% of the days in May 2013 had CO2 greater than 400 ppm. The decline should begin soon with the annual minimum in September-October reaching values of about 394-395 ppm, noting that the annual minimum for 2013 will probably be very close to the maximum from only 2 years ago. Below is the data shown in the graph above. An impressive May, and one that will be recorded in the history books.

                       carbon dioxide (ppm)
year    month   day     daily   weekly
2013	5	1	*	399.61
2013	5	2	399.29	399.40
2013	5	3	*	399.40
2013	5	4	399.68	399.49
2013	5	5	399.54	399.50
2013	5	6	399.52	399.51
2013	5	7	399.71	399.55
2013	5	8	*	399.55
2013	5	9	399.73	399.64
2013	5	10	399.4	399.60
2013	5	11	399.46	399.56
2013	5	12	399.41	399.54
2013	5	13	400.16	399.65
2013	5	14	399.91	399.68
2013	5	15	399.74	399.69
2013	5	16	400.25	399.76
2013	5	17	400.04	399.85
2013	5	18	399.8	399.90
2013	5	19	400.15	400.01
2013	5	20	399.73	399.95
2013	5	21	399.91	399.95
2013	5	22	399.85	399.96
2013	5	23	399.88	399.91
2013	5	24	400.09	399.92
2013	5	25	400.2	399.97
2013	5	26	400.53	400.03
2013	5	27	400.27	400.10
2013	5	28	400.06	400.13
2013	5	29	400.33	400.19
2013	5	30	398.41	399.98
2013	5	31	*	399.97

*data was too variable over the course of the day. no value was reported on twitter.

Tags: carbonCO2data visualizationglobal environmental changeglobal warmingNOAA

Climate science movies

May 31, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

I held a screening of Thin Ice: The Inside Story Of Climate Science on Earth Day in April 2013, the day the film was released. The response from the students was good – they liked seeing Earth scientists working on complex data collection related to improving our collective understanding of the Earth system. thiniceBased on a written survey I asked many to fill out, I would say that the most general concern was that Thin Ice did not show enough data analysis – a great initial exploration into climate data is the National Academy of Sciences documentary on youtube called Climate Change: Lines of Evidence. I personally really appreciated the work of the Thin Ice film makers in showing not only how cohesive seemingly disparate problems in Earth sciences actually are, but also how enthusiastic Earth scientists are about their work. This enthusiasm, this love of their world and trying to understand it, is in my experience “the norm” amongst scientists studying some aspect of the Earth, whether that research is about the climate or climate change or weather or whatever (Earth sciences is a big topic). We love actively trying to solve these mysteries and understand how the physical world works. So I heartily recommend Thin Ice to anyone thinking about majoring in Earth Sciences or Meteorology or Geology or Geography. chasingiceYou may not work with ice cores or ocean-based research or even climate models, but you will have the chance to work with a group of highly dedicated people on problems that are interesting and sometimes poorly understood. Let your passion lead you!

Thin Ice the movie is available for mp4 download for only $10 through June 15 and you can watch from any device that plays mp4s. I will almost certainly screen Thin Ice in the Fall and Spring semesters of the upcoming academic year in my courses (Global Environmental Change and Applied Climatology). I am planning on buying another movie that visualizes change in a much different way called Chasing Ice. I haven’t watched this one yet, but I’ve heard very good things about the sweeping and powerful images of ice melting away before our eyes as the globe continues to warm.

Why is ice the theme of both movies? Well, actually Thin Ice is more about the scientists studying climate and my understanding of Chasing Ice is that it documents the ice as it is now with the implication that the ice will not be this way in even another generation. So, two ice-themed movies, but much different messages. Buy the mp4 of Thin Ice or watch for my screenings announcements. I’m 90% sure I’ll screen Chasing Ice in at least one of my classes as well. Visualizing global warming and seeing what scientists do (and LIKE to do!) is really important.

Tags: Chasing Iceclimatedata visualizationglobal environmental changeglobal warmingThin Ice

CO2 in the very merry month of May

May 30, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

The whole month has been an edge-of-your-seat wait-and-see when CO2 will stop hovering above and below 400 ppm and just stay above. Unlike Miguel Cabrera‘s triple crown of 2012 or the thoughts that he could repeat that feat in 2013 or even be the first since Ted Williams to hold a 400 batting average (can he do it – this evidence says yes), the increase in CO2 above 400 ppm is inevitable. Inevitability means you just need patience. Patience for me means more time to think about the numbers.

CO2 data are available from a number of sites

Sites around the world that are monitoring CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere.

Sites around the world that are monitoring CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere.

and there are differences in hemispheric CO2 concentrations that are completely expected due to emissions source location and atmospheric transport times, as discussed earlier. The Mauna Loa CO2 measurements are the ones I’ve been watching with more interest than this year’s baseball season and the daily-averaged CO2 concentrations are reported on the web and via twitter, among other places. Twitter is turning out some good and interesting data like this.

According to the twitter feed, daily-averaged CO2 exceeded 400 ppm on May 13 with CO2 of 400.16 ppm. By my own calculations using the daily tweets, weekly-averaged CO2 exceeded 400 ppm for the first time in the week ending May 19 (CO2 was 400.01 ppm). The next milestone is when the monthly-averaged CO2 exceeds 400 ppm, and then annually-averaged, and so on. We are approaching what should be the peak CO2 this calendar year as the growing season begins and CO2 is drawn down from plants breathing in CO2. Eventually, the Earth will be perpetually impacted by more than 400 ppm CO2 and even the seasonal drawdown in CO2 of 5-6 ppm from May to October every single year as plants in the biosphere convert CO2 into oxygen via photosynthesis will not overcome the long-term trend in CO2. The CO2 will remain in our atmosphere for 100s-1000s of years. The Earth will slowly re-equilibriate to this elevated CO2 through a myriad of processes that include ocean uptake, plant growth, chemical weathering, and finally increased surface and lower atmospheric (tropospheric) temperatures due to the absorptive power of CO2 in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The impacts of increased CO2 and other atmospheric components that can force climate into a new state are the main reason climate science remains active. In a post that will be ready as soon as the data is available (June 2), I’ll show the weekly-averaged CO2 trend in the month of May based on the Keeling Curve twitter feed. In other words, I’ll show inevitability.

Tags: carbonclimateCO2global environmental changeglobal warmingNOAA

CO2 and climate sensitivity

May 18, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

On Thursday, May 16, 2013, the official daily-averaged CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was reported by Scripps as (drumroll please)co2-2013-05-16Like I pointed out, 400 ppm is inevitable because CO2 increases by 2 ppm every year, but to actually see a value like that reported makes it more real. Now we await a value that is over 400 ppm for an entire week, and then for a month, and then it’s just a matter of time when we are in a world with 400 ppm of CO2, remembering how different this is than any time in Earth’s recent history as shown in the figure to the right (click to make larger).co2_800kRemember that CO2 in the atmosphere is a pretty simple physical perturbation on the Earth’s energy budget – more CO2 will result in an atmosphere that absorbs more of the infrared energy that the Earth emits to space to try and cool off. The energy that does not escape and is absorbed is then re-emitted towards the surface (and towards space). This forces the Earth to warm in response to try to bring the energy budget back into balance since balance is inevitably what everything in the universe seeks to achieve. This forcing of the Earth’s temperature has never been in doubt. The real question is how the Earth SYSTEM will respond to the extra energy or extra warmth. The SYSTEM is something I will start talking about here and it is certainly the most complicated aspect of climate science. Imagine the complexities associated with trying to understand how the atmosphere, ocean, land and plants, ice, and even humans and animals will all respond and how each affects the other! That is the heart of Earth system science and the heart of the very current discussion about climate sensitivity – a measure of how the system in total will respond to perturbations like more CO2 in the atmosphere. A very nice op-ed in the New York Times by Justin Gillis this week highlights the frank evaluation and debate about climate sensitivity occurring in the scientific community that has arisen from the apparent slowdown in the increase in globally averaged temperature (since about 2002 in the GISS time series or slightly more evident in the NCDC time series below)global-201101-201112The issue is getting a load of attention and, as Gillis wisely acknowledges, the analysis and studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature will take a couple of years to “settle” on an answer. I agree. The public and policy makers and just about everyone wants to know the answer though so every publication or even statement about climate sensitivity will be intensely amplified. I’ve been reading about this issue myself, mostly as I prepare to bring the very current discussion into the classroom (here, here), but also because I am as concerned about the Earth as anyone. Here’s a final statement by Gillis that I also agree with.

Even if climate sensitivity turns out to be on the low end of the range, total emissions may wind up being so excessive as to drive the earth toward dangerous temperature increases. So if the recent science stands up to critical examination, it could indeed turn into a ray of hope — but only if it is then followed by a broad new push to get the combustion of fossil fuels under control.

Regardless of the climate sensitivity, changes to our lifestyles are inevitable. Will our society and will the USA be seen as forward-thinking or will we revert to the simplest and most destructive way to get energy?

Tags: carbonclimatedata visualizationglobal environmental changeglobal warmingNOAA

Cold spring and signs of summer

May 17, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

A great description of some of the unusual recent temperature swings in the north central part of the USA by Minnesota State Climatologist office with the original link here:

A taste of summer air surged into Minnesota on May 14th, sending the mercury soaring into the 80s and 90s across a good part of the state. A few locations even cracking 100 degrees. Notable exceptions were locations near ice covered lakes in northern Minnesota and near Lake Superior. At 2pm May 14th, the air temperature was 102 degrees at St. James and 44 degrees at Grand Marais. This kind of temperature range happens occasionally in the spring. One of the more dramatic episodes in recent years was May 19, 2009 when there was a difference of 66 degrees from Grand Marias to Granite Falls. The warmest temperatures found from a National Weather Service Cooperative site was 103 degrees from Sherburne 3 WSW in Martin County and Winnebago in Faribault County. Amboy also had reading of 102 degrees. Extremely dry air was in place as well, with desert-like relative humidity readings in the single digits at St. James. At 2pm while it was 102 degrees at St. James, the dew point temperature was only 28 degrees, creating a relative humidity of seven percent. Very low relative humidity readings happen on occasion. On April 28, 2004 the relative humidity dipped to just 2% at Pipestone. The lowest relative humidity reading ever recorded in the Twin Cities is 10% measured at 5pm April 22, 1953. The statewide hottest maximum temperature for the entire month of May is 112 degrees measured at Maple Plain in Hennepin County on May 31,1934. The Twin Cities had a high temperature of 98 degrees on May 14. This broke the old record high of 95 degrees that was set in 1932. This is also the hottest temperature recorded so early in the season for the Twin Cities. Ironically, despite how cool it has been this spring, 2013 had its first 90 plus degree day in the Twin Cities four days earlier than 2012, which hit 93 on May 18.

That last line is a pretty interesting weather tidbit, noting that the salient graphs from NCDC are below201304201302-201304 North Dakota had its coldest April in 119 years! Yow. Most of the central part of the country was colder than average, but by comparing the April 2013 to the multimonth average February-April 2013 plot, you can see signs of the transition out of spring to summer as well as parts of the country which had an above-average warm month (California, mid-Atlantic, Nevada, Arizona). More about this later – but these “extremes” are exactly the kind of weather we can expect as the Arctic warms or stays warmer than usual due to less sea ice. N_stddev_timeseries-2013-05The Sun will eventually win this battle and the mid-latitudes (southern USA) will inevitably heat up this year (at least I think so!). Here’s the temperature departure for the last week from HPRCC which clearly shows relatively warm temperatures creeping from the Pacific Northwest into the heretofore frozen Great Plains. 7dTDeptUS-2013-05-16 Summer is coming. Will Summer 2013 be like Summer 2012? Another question for another day.

Tags: climateglobal environmental changeNCDCtemperatureUSAWeather

Another week of CO2 from Scripps

May 16, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

An update to my update from the original post. CO2 is rising 2 ppm/year and has been for about the last decade (see graph here). So the daily ups and downs and pretty miniscule. 2 ppm/year is 0.0055 ppm/day, or thought of yet another way – it’ll take about 180 days for CO2 to increase 1 ppm. While we await the inevitable, here’s an update with May 13 at least above 400 ppm, although the measurements are pretty variable for some reason.mlo_one_week-2013-05-14Variability in CO2 during the course of any one day can be for a number of reasons. One that scientists responsible for quality-control of the data have to account for is the simple fact that Mauna Loa is a gigantic shield volcano

Photo taken by me from the Kilauea Caldera in 2007. Mauna Loa (13000 ft elevation) looms in the background under a shroud of clouds, but it's shocking how small that 13000 ft mountain looks.

Photo taken by me from the Kilauea Caldera in 2007. Mauna Loa (13000 ft elevation) looms in the background under a shroud of clouds, but it’s shocking how small that 13000 ft mountain looks.

Well, scientists are nothing if not rigorous and attentive, so here’s a nice post by a NOAA scientist talking about the volcanic CO2 pulses that occasionally disrupt the background CO2 measurements that Mauna Loa is best known for. I haven’t read the papers about the volcano relevant emissions, but the link at the bottom of the page gives the information needed to track down the publications via google scholar. That being said, it doesn’t look like the variability in the hourly values for May 13 CO2 was due to volcanic emissions.

Tags: carbonclimateCO2global warming

CO2 hovering above and below 400 ppm

May 09, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

An update from the measurements being reported from Scripps that I discussed earlier. Here’s the screen shot when I checked the “box scores” for our favorite greenhouse gasco2-2013-05-07whew! I know if I patiently wait, the CO2 concentration will rise above 400 ppm in earnest since CO2 concentrations have been increasing by about 2 ppm/year

Global growth rate of atmospheric concentration of CO2

Global growth rate of atmospheric concentration of CO2 from 1959 to 2012 (data from NOAA ESRL in link below). 1959 is the start of in situ measurements. The best-fit line is overlaid for reference. You can see that the correlation coefficient is high. In this case, the R2 = 0.43 means that a line captures about 43% of the variance in the annual data. That, in turn, means that a line is a good approximation for predicting where we are going in the near-future.

for a long time with some indication of acceleration in the last few years as the NOAA ESRL CO2 data repository data indicates. Finally, note that hourly measurements of CO2 have already jumped over 401 ppm at times as shown in this figure from Scripps. 400 ppm is inevitable, but what this means for the world is something that science is trying to figure out.mlo_one_week-2013-05-07

Tags: 400 ppmcarbonclimateCO2global warmingIPCCkeelingNOAA

Carbon dioxide concentrations are nearly 400 ppm

May 06, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

The latest reported value from 4th of May 2013 was 399.68 ppm. That’s as close to 400 ppm as we (our civilization and planet, that is) have gotten.The Earth The best place to see the rapidly updated CO2 concentrations is at the Scripps/UCSD website – the curve seen at the link is of course the famous Keeling curve, named after the scientist (Charles Keeling) who began the systematic monitoring of CO2 gas concentrations in our atmosphere back in the late 1950s. CO2 is measured at sites all around the world (choose a site from the map, then click on Carbon Cycle Gases, Time Series, Submit to see CO2), but the remote ocean sites like Mauna Loa, Hawaii provide the background concentration. This means that the concentration represents the average concentration around the world, as opposed to putting the instrument that measures CO2 concentration right next to a power plant or a fire or some other direct source of CO2. Once CO2 is emitted from a source, it mixes throughout the atmosphere fairly evenly because the molecule has a long (100-1000 year) chemical lifetime before it is drawn out of the atmosphere and into the oceans, forests, or rocks. This long life in the atmosphere means that CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere. The Northern Hemisphere has a slightly higher CO2 concentration than the Southern Hemisphere because there are more CO2 emission sources in the north (more human activity) and because mixing across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is relatively slow – it takes about a year for a gas molecule to float across the equator, as shown in the figure to the right from Daniel Jacob’s atmospheric chemistry textbook. transport You can also see in the figure that it takes much less time to mix East-West and to the North for a molecule emitted in the Northern Hemisphere. Go to the link at NOAA Earth System Research Lab (ESRL) to see this mixing/emission effect play out. I chose to compare Mauna Loa in the remote Pacific and Crozet Island which is southeast of Africa in the even more remote southern ocean. Crozet Island is well behind Mauna Loa in data processing but we can compare July 2012 CO2 concentrations, which are about 396 ppm at Mauna Loa and 391 ppm at Crozet Island.

Getting back to the 400 ppm, we can expect this value to be drawn down as the biosphere – plants – breathe in the CO2 during the summer growth period. This happens every year, but our fossil fuel emissions are overwhelming that breathing cycle. Science always boils down to context, and in this part of the global warming problem, the context is simple. CO2 concentrations are much higher than anything ever seen in since human civilization emerged. Note the time scales on the graphs below are the past 300 years and past 800,000 years. As many times as I have seen different versions of these figures, I still am in utter shock at how much we’ve altered the chemical composition of our planet’s thin atmosphere. co2_800k_zoomco2_800k

Tags: climateCO2global warmingKeeling curve

North Carolina climate compared to the USA and globe

April 27, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Earth System Observer

The first months of 2013 here in Charlotte have seemed unusually cool, but rather than relying on our gut feeling, let’s look at the numbers. Start by going to the NCDC website and mine out the data to find that in Charlotte, January was the 27th warmest in 118 years, February was the 40th coolest, and March was the 4th coldest in 118 years. Now a fair second question is how does Charlotte fit into the big picture? Namely, is Charlotte’s temperature ranking similar to that of the whole state of North Carolina, the USA, and even the world? With only a little bit of work, we can figure this out. The data below shows temperature anomaly compared to the 20th Century average as a +/- number, and the parenthetical numbers are the ranking in the overall temperature record (1 is hottest). USA has 119-120 years of data, while the global time series begins in 1880. 

                  Charlotte*    North Carolina   USA**        Global Land   Global***
    April 2012    +1.7 (31)     +1.1 (39)        +3.7 (3)     +1.1 (6)      +0.6 (7) 
      May 2012    +2.9 (13)     +2.9 (11)        +3.3 (2)     ? (7)         +0.5 (10) 
     June 2012    -1.5 (93)     -1.5 (98)        +2.0 (12)    +0.9 (4)      +0.6 (7) 
     July 2012    +2.4 (8)      +3.2 (2)         +3.3 (1)     +0.8 (5)      +0.6 (7) 
   August 2012    -1.3 (97)     -0.4 (69)        +1.7 (13)    +0.8 (2)      +0.6 (8) 
September 2012    -1.6 (83)     -0.9 (72)        +1.4 (23)    +0.9 (4)      +0.5 (8) 
  October 2012    -1.5 (81)     -0.6 (65)        -0.3 (73)    +1.1 (2)      +0.6 (8) 
 November 2012    -3.6 (109)    -3.6 (108)       +2.0 (20)    +1.1 (6)      +0.7 (5) 
 December 2012    +5.1 (8)      +5.5 (8)         +3.3 (10)    +0.2 (49)     +0.4 (18)
  January 2013    +2.8 (27)     +3.5 (24)        +1.5 (42)    +0.9 (13)     +0.5 (9)
 February 2013    -2.0 (80)     -0.8 (70)        +0.9 (49)    +1.0 (11)     +0.6 (9)
    March 2013    -6.7 (116)    -5.9 (114)       -0.8 (77)    +1.1 (11)     +1.0 (10)

What’s remarkable is that at first glance, it seems like the rankings of Charlotte and NC are essentially on the opposite end of the spectrum of rankings compared to the global rankings in the last 12 months. There’s an easy way to quantitatively evaluate the relationship between sets of numbers and that is by using the statistical correlation coefficient, usually represented by the variable r. A positive r value means the numbers go up and down together, while a negative r means one set of numbers go up while the other goes down. When r is +1 or -1, that means the two sets of numbers are perfectly correlated and perfectly anti-correlated, respectively. Perfect correlation or anti-correlation never happens with data, unless you calculate the correlation of a dataset against itself which isn’t very interesting. That being said, r near +1 or -1 usually indicates that the two datasets being compared are statistically related. To quantify “usually” from the previous sentence and to contextualize the r value, a corresponding statistic that accompanies r is the p value. The p value is a way to quantify the statistical significance of the r value and depends. A p value less than 0.05 means there’s a 95% chance that a random set of numbers is not better related than the numbers you are testing. Thus when p is less than 0.05, you can be confident there is “statistically significant” relationship – remembering that correlation does not imply causation. This kind of analysis is done all the time in all fields of science, which speaks to the idea that math is the universal language. In the table below, r is the +/- number, p is the parenthetical number.

                NC              USA           Global Land    Global
    Charlotte   +0.97 (<0.05)   +0.52 (0.08)  -0.43 (0.16)   -0.43  (0.16)
           NC   -               +0.48 (0.11)  -0.39 (0.21)   -0.44  (0.16)
          USA   -               -             -0.10 (0.77)   +0.002 (0.99)
  Global Land   -               -             -              +0.92  (<0.05)

Now we’re getting somewhere. Over the last 12 months, Charlotte and NC temperatures are, as expected, significantly correlated (r = +0.97, p < 0.05). If Charlotte sets a cold or warm record, so does NC. Global land and ocean ("global" in the table) and global land are significantly correlated (+0.92, p < 0.05) as well. Not that shocking. What I didn't expect until I started comparing the trend in the rankings is that NC and Charlotte rankings are not significantly related to the USA or global temperature rankings. This is evident by the high p values in parenthesis in the 1st and 2nd rows. Surprisingly, NC and Charlotte are nearly significantly anti-correlated (negative r values, see above) with global rankings, something that might be worth looking into with more data. What’s perhaps even more surprising to me is that USA temperature rankings are essentially unrelated to the either of the global temperature rankings. This means that any given month in the USA tells you absolutely nothing about the global ranking for the same month – you might as well just guess. More data will tell the a more complete story here (and provide better stats), but over the last 12 months, there are some interesting possible relationships (Charlotte and NC similar to the USA, but opposite of the globe), and then occasions where the two datasets have no idea the other exists (USA and the globe). No wonder people get mixed up when looking at the news about global warming and then try to relate it to what’s going on in their backyard.

* NC Climate Division 5
** Contiguous USA
*** Combined land and ocean since 1880, as opposed to “global land” which is only land surfaces. Note May 2012 T anomaly wasn’t listed on NCDC site, but the ranking was. My stats analysis was based on the ranking, so the “missing” data point is not relevant.
Tags: climatedata analysisglobal warmingNCDCnorth carolinastatisticsUSA

UNC Charlotte undergraduate research

April 24, 2013 by Brian Magi
Categories: Group News

The Meteorology Program here at UNC Charlotte is embedded in the Geography and Earth Sciences Department. We have solid core of undergraduate Meteorology BSc majors and coursework in the major is mostly supported by 4 faculty – Dr Adams, Dr Eastin, Mr Shirley, and myself. What has impressed me since I joined the faculty has been how often undergraduates are involved in research and independent study as they prepare for life after college.

I’ve been working with an undergraduate Meteorology major named Daniel Cunningham since July 2012 on a project about global lightning distributions – which is related to my fire research. Daniel has been working hard to keep up with coursework and the research project all year, and his efforts culminated in a nice finish in his senior year. He won 1st place for departmental research projects at the UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Conference! Here’s the department announcement. Daniel presented a poster called “Extending the Time Series of Satellite-Based Lightning Observations” – here’s a key figure he made with Panoply explaining what he did.

Global lightning map before D. Cunningham's research (top) and after (bottom). Northern latitudes were completely missing before his project started. Evaluation of the results are the next step.

Global lightning map before D. Cunningham’s research (top) and after (bottom). Northern latitudes were completely missing before his project started. Evaluation of the results are the next step.

This research has helped in many ways. Daniel was accepted into the University of Alabama Huntsville Atmospheric Sciences graduate program starting Fall 2013, he has picked up programming skills (Matlab), learned about statistical models of physical phenomena, learned how to mathematically explore large data set, how to make figures, and finally how to put together a prize-winning poster. Here is the UNC Charlotte announcement. Undergraduate research is how I got started on my long path to the faculty position here at UNC Charlotte. Perhaps not coincidentally, that undergraduate research was about lightning – I’ve returned to my roots.

Congratulations to Daniel. Also, on the theme of undergraduate research, three of our meteorology majors in total walked away with top awards. Brandy Stimac works with Dr Adams and Dr Eastin. Ricky Huff works with Dr Adams. Undergraduate research is strong in the Meteorology program! I’m looking forward to seeing graduation this year. I think the class size is about 10 students, and about 5 will go to graduate school, and 1 will be working to be a K-12 science teacher. Again, good numbers to see!

Tags: firegraduate schoollightningundergraduate research