Earth-Ville Insight
Air Pollution study at MU
Mlliersville Uinversity's Earth Science Department has began monitoring the levels of air pollution in lancaster county. See link for more details.
EEOS STUDENTS PRESENT AT NCUR
Environmental Earth and Ocean Sciences (EEOS) students were selected to present their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on April 13-15, 2023. NCUR promotes undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity through an annual conference for undergraduate students.
Natalie Sprague, "The State of Dissolved Oxygen in the Longhurst Ecological Provinces," Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ajoy Kumar
Emily Stauder, "Student Shark Research at Millersville University," Faculty Advisors: Dr. Ajoy Kumar and Dr. Dominique Didier
Samantha Reynolds, "Physiological and Behavioral Effects of Ocean Acidification on Two Species of Intertidal Snail," Faculty Advisors: Dr. Ajoy Kumar and Isaac Ligocki
X-BAND WEATHER RADAR INSTALLED AT MILLERSVILLE UNIVERSITY
Climavision, a climate-tech data pioneer, has partnered with Millersville University and installed a new weather radar system on campus. The radar, placed atop Millersville University's water tower, will supplement weather coverage in between the four closest S-Band Next Generation Weather Radars (NEXRADs), which are located near State College, Pennsylvania; Fort Dix, New Jersey; Ellendale, Delaware; and Sterling, Virginia. Because of regional topography and the nature of weather radar technology, the radar beam moves higher in the atmosphere the further it gets from the radar location. As a result, gaps in S-Band radar coverage exist across the United States. This leaves some areas, such as Lancaster County, exposed to weather phenomena that often happen in the lower atmosphere, such as snow squalls, sleet, ice, and tornadoes. The new dual-polarization, X-Band weather radar is designed specifically to fill these small gaps by providing the highest-resolution view of what's happening close to the ground. This will enable forecasters and emergency management officials to better plan, prepare, and respond to volatile weather situations.
Millersville's meteorology program has long been considered a nationally-recognized flagship program of the University. Thanks to the partnership with Climavision, students in the program will now have access to data from an X-band weather surveillance radar. Faculty and students will be able to use the radar data for teaching, research, projects, grants, scholarship activities, and manuscript and conference publications. Millersville University alum Dr. Jim Kurdzo, a radar scientist at MIT's Lincoln Labs, helped design the algorithm that determined that the Lower Susquehanna Valley is one of the top three locations in the contiguous U.S. to have a gap in low-level coverage.
"We're excited about our collaboration with Millersville University for lots of reasons," said Climavision cofounder and CEO Chris Goode. "We're not only closing a critical gap in weather surveillance but also get to support the future of weather science by providing students with an invaluable learning tool."
The partnership allows Climavision to lease the site for 20 years. The installation took place on June 27, 2023, and the radar will be fully operational for research, teaching, and weather-detection services in October. The video below highlights the partnership between Climavision and Millersville, as well as applications of and opportunities surrounding the new X-Band radar.
MILLERSVILLE METEOROLOGY STUDENTS DEPLOY AEROKATS FOR PBL RESEARCH
Millersville Meteorology students in Dr. Greg Blumberg's Boundary Layers & Turbulence class (ESCI 448) deployed the first small-scale, multi-kite network to characterize the low-level Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) weather conditions. The AEROKATS systems used is National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) technology provided by the AEROKATS and ROVER Education Network (AREN) Science Activation Team.
MILLERSVILLE METEOROLOGY STUDENTS EXCEL IN WXCHALLENGE
WxChallenge is a collegiate-focused meteorological forecasting competition. It is a non-profit entity, whose income is used to maintain necessary infrastructure, promote the competition to students and faculty, and provide non-cash awards (trophies) for excellence in forecasting. Forecasters predict the daily high and low temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit), maximum sustained wind speed (in knots), and cumulative liquid precipitation amount (in inches) for select locations across the United States. To allow for fair competition, forecasters are separated into categories. Category 3 forecasters include junior- and senior-level students, and Category 4 forecasters include freshman- and sophomore-level students. The competition runs for 10 weeks in the Fall semester and 10 weeks in the Spring semester. During this time, there are a total of 10 locations in which forecasts are made. In each location, forecasts are produced for a two-week period. At the end of that period, the top two students in each category receive trophies for their outstanding performance. There is an additional three-week tournament following the end of the Spring semester for the top 64 overall best forecasters.
Millersville Meteorology students have a long track record of success in WxChallenge. The 2022-2023 academic year has been no exception, with multiple students across all class levels winning awards. Below is a list of the top finishers from Millersville in select cities:
- Peter Corman: Runner-up finish (Category 4) in Knoxville, Tennessee (Oct. 10 - Oct. 24).
- Mark Battle: 1st-place finish (Category 4) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Oct. 24 - Nov. 7).
- Alex Massa: Runner-up finish (Category 3) in Olympia, Washington (Nov. 7 - Nov. 21).
- Peter Corman: Runner-up finish (Category 4) in Denver, Colorado (Jan. 23 - Feb. 6)
- Alex Sullivan: 1st-place finish (Category 4) in Atlanta, Georgia (Feb. 6 - Feb. 20).
- Gavin Morgan: Runner-up finish (Category 4) in Atlanta, Georgia (Feb. 6 - Feb. 20).
- Matthew Teare: 1st-place finish (Category 3) in Augusta, Maine (Feb. 20 - Mar. 6).
- Peter Corman: 1st-place finish (Category 4) in San Angelo, Texas (Mar. 6 - Mar. 20).
- Ethan Kerr: Runner-up finish (Category 4) in San Angelo, Texas (Mar. 6 - Mar. 20).
Congratulations on demonstrating true forecasting acumen in these difficult cities!
MILLERSVILLE STUDENTS, ALUMNI, AND FACULTY ATTEND SPACE WEATHER WORKSHOP
The 2023 Space Weather Workshop was held from April 17-21 in Boulder, CO, and brought together instructors, graduates, and students of the space weather programs at Millersville University. Pictured in the front row are, from left-to-right: instructors Drs. Tamitha Skov, Jennifer Meehan, and Sepi Yalda, who is also the program coordinator, and program graduates Sara Housseal and Samantha Carlson. Pictured in the back row are, from left-to-right: instructors Michael Cook and Dr. Richard Clark, program founder and emeritus faculty, Tim Keebler, Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, Athony Williams, graduate student in the Integrated Scientific Applications program, and Wes Taylor, undergraduate meteorology major with a minor in Heliophysics and Space Weather. The group presented three posters and participated in the week-long workshop, whose banquet keynote speaker, Erin Wolf of Ball Aerospace, amazed the audience with a presentation and stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
MILLERSVILLE ALUMNI, FACULTY, AND STUDENTS ATTEND 103RD AMS CONFERENCE
Millersville Meteorology students, alumni, and faculty attended the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Conference in Denver, Colorado, from January 7-13, 2023. For the first time since 2020, the conference was held both virtually and in-person. Students were able to network with students from other universities and the professionals in attendance. On January 10, students, alumni, and faculty attended the Millersville University Alumni and Friends Reception. Pictured below are a group of 4 alumni at the reception: Jason Taylor, Amber Liggett, Melissa Burt, and McArthur Jones (from left-to-right).
Several students had abstracts accepted for poster presentations at the student conference. Pictured below (left) is senior Alexander Massa discussing his summer research experience with a colleague. Alex participated in Penn State University's Climate Science Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and worked with Dr. Gregory Jenkins researching the variability of pollution across western and southern Africa on diurnal and seasonal timescales. He used data collected from low-cost air monitoring sensors located in countries such as Cabo Verde, Nigeria, and Angola to produce plots showing how particulate matter concentrations vary over time and impact air quality. Also pictured below (right) is Millersville's own Dr. Richard Clark, the 2022 president of the AMS, kicking off the Presidential Forum. As president, Dr. Clark spearheaded efforts to foster outreach and cross-sector collaboration across the enterprise, promote scientific breadth and diversity, stimulate opportunities for members, and use data to propel new science, create new knowledge and insights, guide policies and decisions, and advance the scientific, environmental, and societal dimensions of the weather, water, and climate enterprise.
Four members of Millersville Meteorology's Project TILTTING, or the Thermodynamic Investigation of LCL Thresholds at Tornadogenesis and its Influence in the Northeast and Great Plains, also designed posters for the student conference. Pictured are Ryan Argenti (top left), Rhiannon Cahoe (top right), Shane Martrich (bottom left), and Sam Leppo (bottom right). They discussed unique means of fundraising for the project, specifications of their prototype tornado probe, a mathematical proof of concept for deploying the probe into a tornado by drone, and a rear-inflow jet's influence on a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) in southeastern PA on August 30, 2022. Ryan and Shane also spoke at the 23rd Symposium on Meteorological Observation and Instrumentation: Innovative Technological Advances for Mesoscale Observing Systems on the final day of the conference.
