Research
Atmospheric Science encompasses a broad spectrum of topics related to the composition and structure of the atmosphere as well as processes that govern a variety of weather phonomena. At Texas Tech our research focus includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Thunderstorms (initiation, tornadogenesis, lightning)
- Hurricanes (wind flow characteristics and boundary layer structure)
(Click the image to go to the Hurricane Research Team web site) - Numerical Weather Prediction
- Boundary Layer Processes
- Observational Networks
- Tropical Meteorology
- Doppler Radar
To enhance both research and teaching, faculty and students utilize several modern observational tools including
- The West Texas Mesonet
- Two C-band mobile radars known as the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radars (SMART-R)
- A 200 meter instrumented tower
- The Wind Engineering Mobile Instrumented Towers (WEMITE 1) and (WEMITE 2)
- A fleet of five Mobile Mesonets
- About two-dozen rapid-deployment observing platmforms called Stick-Nets
- A radiosonde platform
- A 900 MHz lower-troposphere wind profiler
In addition, students and faculty may access the Measurements and Analysis Laboratory and the High Performance Computing Center.
The Atmospheric Science Group maintains a close working relationship with the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Tech. Faculty memebers are presently collaborating on building two mobile Ka-band radars that will more accurately observe and help to model three-dimensional wind flow for atmospheric and engineering applications.
The local National Weather Service Forecast Office affords an opportunity for faculty and students to interact with operational forecasters.