Research Goals
My unique degree path requires me to take part in a research project for the benefit of Vaisala, a private sector meteorological instrumentation company. In addition, my research with NCAR's Auto-nowcaster will help refine their system in Ft. Worth and provide the framework to implement total lightning into White Sands Missile Range. The following bullet points emphasize the goals we hope to accomplish thru my research.
Explore applications of total lightning data taken from LDAR II, specifically in the area of nowcasting
Research the effectiveness of Flash Extent Density as a representation of total lightning data and its applications toward identifying storm cells and their attributes
Determine the physical relationships that exist between reflectivity and total lightning derived cells using TITAN
Develop membership functions derived from LDAR II data for use in the fuzzy logic growth/decay portion of NCAR's Ft. Worth Auto-nowcaster
Run statistical analysis on archived Auto-nowcaster cases to see if the LDAR II data compliments the reflectivity membership functions in the 60-minute forecast of the growth and decay of convection
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using LDAR II data for the nowcasting of thunderstorms
Develop a business model for LDAR II data to maximize its market potential for the benefit of Vaisala