Kate Spends Semester at NCAR

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO is one of the largest atmospheric science research centers that is devoted to service, science and education. Several educational opportunities are available at NCAR for students to expand their atmospheric science research skills and knowledge, including the Graduate Student Visitor Program.

Kate attended NCAR for two months under Dr. Andrew Gettleman to expand her master’s thesis research on the transport and distribution of dust aerosols across the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The research involved using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), which is a global atmosphere model created by NCAR in 1983. She compared dust patterns across the tropical Atlantic Ocean from CloudSat and CALIPSO to CESM both annually as well as on an individual storm basis to determine how the model was distributing dust aerosol around large convective storm events. Her model research at NCAR was influential to her continued observational research at the University of Wisconsin, aiding in additional knowledge synthesis on the transport of dust aerosols across this region.