Daniel Cunningham will continue his research from the CRS program during the 2012-13 academic year with Dr Magi in the form of Independent Study. He presented a poster at the CRS Symposium on 25 July 2012 and discussed his research experience with a China-US exchange program at UNC Charlotte as well. We plan to move the research forward and present our results at the AMS Annual Meeting in January 2013.
charlotte research scholars
Examining Geospatial Correlations in Lightning Frequency
Categories: Research News
Cross posted from Charlotte Research Scholars blog.
The goal of our research this summer is to explore the possible correlations between lightning frequencies below 40˚N and above 40˚N in the boreal regions of Canada. We are using 15 years of lightning data measured from instruments on NASA satellites.
During the first two weeks of the program I read journal articles related to the satellite instruments and learned about different ways to explore large datasets. I learned how to use a program called Panoply to study the full 15 years of data (Figures 1-2 are from Panoply), and am now learning about MatLab, a program that can be used to calculate statistics for large datasets. Devoted global lightning observation began in 1995 with the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) aboard the MicroLab-1 satellite (Figure 1), but this detector fell out of orbit in 2000.
A second lightning detector, called the Lightning Imager Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite, has been collecting data since 1998 and is still in operation. LIS collects lightning data between 40˚S and 40˚N (Figure 2). As a result, there is a gap in the data above 40˚N after 2000, which can be seen by comparing Figures 1 and 2.
Using MatLab, I hope to determine whether correlations exist between the latitudes with data from 1996-present and the latitudes with data from 1996-2000. I can then use the statistical relationships to extrapolate the dataset beyond the year 2000.
— Daniel Cunningham
Charlotte Research Scholars 2012
Categories: Group News
Daniel Cunningham (junior in Meteorology BSc program) is one of the 50 UNC Charlotte undergraduates selected from a pool of over 170 applicants to receive funding for summer research from the inaugural Charlotte Research Scholars (CRS) program, sponsored by UNC Charlotte Academic Affairs. Daniel will be working with Dr Magi from June-July 2012 on a project titled ‘Lightning and Fires’. We will work on enhancing a lightning dataset, test a couple of hypotheses, and develop a better understanding of how lightning and fire interact. More news as it develops, but congrats to Daniel!