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When
Noon – 12:50 p.m., Dec. 4, 2024
Where
Available remotely via Zoom
Weekly Seminar Format
Available via Zoom only. Contact the department to subscribe to the email list (zoom link provided in announcement).
Abstract
Mesoscale environments supportive of supercellular convection are well-established. Yet, severe convective storm environments are known to exist on a spectrum from nearly homogeneous to highly complex and heterogeneous in time and space; terrain, surface boundaries, diurnal effects, other nearby convection, and even the storm itself can induce changes in the surrounding environment. The presence of such environmental variability can result in challenges in accurately predicting storm intensity, longevity, organization, and severe weather production.
Previous work using idealized models has demonstrated that accounting for shifts in the near-storm environment, regardless of their origins, produces more accurate depictions of supercell evolution. Yet, questions remain regarding the timescale at which supercells respond to changes in their environments, the influence of the magnitude of the heterogeneity, the dependence of the storm’s maturity when variability is imposed, as well as the relative importance of internal storm processes versus environmental variability in determining storm evolution and severe weather production. This presentation will review what is currently understood about the role of environmental variability on supercell evolution through synthesis of recent observational and idealized modeling studies investigating heterogeneity in the inflow environment.
In the same manner that supercells evolve in response to their local environments, undergraduate and graduate students and their understanding of course material have complex interactions with their classroom environment. This presentation will wrap up with a discussion of how to support positive progression of student understanding across the curriculum in meteorology and atmospheric science in concrete ways and promote everyone's long-term success.
Bio
Dr. Casey Davenport is an Associate Professor of Meteorology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she pursues a unique blend of research on the evolution of severe thunderstorms and the science of teaching and learning in meteorology. She uses a combination of observations and idealized numerical modeling to investigate storm behavior and longevity with a goal of building more accurate conceptual models and improving short-term forecasts. Dr. Davenport also explores how undergraduate students learn meteorology and tests pedagogical methods to improve their skills and understanding, particularly within traditionally challenging coursework. She has received honors for her efforts in both of these realms, including the Outstanding Early Career Award by the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Mesoscale Processes and the Integration of Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Davenport truly embraces her role as a teacher-scholar and highly values impactful research, mentorship, and teaching of undergraduate and graduate students.
Contacts
Kim Wood, Weekly Colloquium Coordinator