My vantage point of the world

I study the world, literally.  It’s my research, my passion, my civic duty, and the closest thing to a full-time job that I have.  Most of you know that almost a year ago, I made the leap from grad school to study tornadoes full-time, specifically why major tornadoes tend to take similar paths.  What that entails day-to-day is constant (usually slow) progress on any of about 5 separate research thrusts, each of which has lent me an increasingly intimate view of the world.  I’m an engineer, so here’s a list:

1. Develop simulation code: I want to simulate a tornado moving over complex terrain. But this might take years. So I’m starting at the land surface then working my way up.
2. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis: Fun fact, you can freely access all kinds of data about the land surface anywhere in the U.S., including elevation, land use, tree cover, soil imperviousness, and more! I imported a big stack of these map layers, and I can choose any domain for my simulation’s boundary conditions.
3. Research physical property correlations: Most days, I read. Journal articles, mostly, some dating back over 50 years. One week, I sifted through a stack of papers detailing thermal and moisture conductivities of various soil types. This is the dirty work that makes the model realistic and comprehensive.
4. Watch radar loops of severe storms: During storm season, I had at least 3 windows up on my computer at all times – radar analysis software, storm chaser video feeds, and Google Earth to record terrain features influencing the life-cycle of the tornado.
5. Categorize past tornado tracks: Tornado damage ratings have been recorded since 1950, and detailed path data has been mandatory since 2011. Finding trends within these detailed paths is a big problem well-suited for big data.

Of course, I’ve also traveled the country to connect with meteorology experts, reconnecting with family and friends along the way.  This human aspect of “world observation” has been perhaps the most eye-opening of my experiences as a freelance scientist.  With every natural disaster comes a host of survivors, each with their own unforgettable and often miraculous story.  Beneath every community lies a complex cultural framework, an intertwining of decades of shared experience. Behind all science is a group of scientists, balancing their own ambitions and predilections with the hard truths of data.  Though STEM is my element, this will be more than a science blog, or a travel blog, or an opinion blog.  I want to fully share my vantage point, as an observer.