Meteorologist Christina Edwards, who works at the local Atlanta radio station 95.5 WSB, visited ASDL to share her expertise with teams of graduate students working on Grand Challenge projects that involve weather impacts. Ms. Edwards has a B.S. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech so was happy to come back to campus to engage with research faculty and students to understand and provide input on their research.

One of the projects discussed during her visit involves the potential use of High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) for enhancing current weather forecasting capabilities for airline operations. This project is supported by a team of five graduate students and two ASDL research faculty members, Dr. Michael Balchanos and Dr. Alexia Payan. The team is trying to identify potential gaps in input data to current meteorological forecast models for various weather phenomena that are known to lead to airline operation disruptions.

“It was an honor to have Ms. Edwards visit the lab,” said ASDL Director Prof. Dimitri Mavris. “Given her expertise in meteorology, meteorological models, and weather forecasting, plus her connection to Georgia Tech, we had a great discussion about near and far challenges that ASDL tackles in its research. Some of these topics include areas on which weather could have an impact such as the air transportation system, carbon emissions and sustainability, impact of alternative fuels for aviation, supersonic vehicle design, and energy infrastructure planning.”