2009 News

Penn State's Fancy Weather Center

— posted on Oct 06, 2009 01:04 PM

Penn State editor, Tina Hay, makes a nice blog post about her visit to the Joel N. Myers Weather Center during Parents and Families Weekend 2009.

Lack of Twisters Aside, VORTEX2 Gets Useful Data

— posted on Jun 29, 2009 12:07 PM

"Paul Markowski, a meteorologist at Penn State University who serves on VORTEX2's steering committee and directs a team of mobile observation platforms taking part in the experiment, said the datasets the teams collected on supercells that didn't produce tornadoes were "real gems for us," because they can be compared to data sets on tornado producing storms to identify key differences."

Scientist says climate change isn't fueling hurricanes

— posted on Jun 04, 2009 12:45 PM

"Hurricane specialist Chris Landsea, with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, disputes theories that global warming has caused more hurricanes, in a study to be published soon in The Journal of Climate. Prof. Michael Mann disagrees with his research findings, saying that his technology argument ignores the chance that a single storm could have been counted twice before satellite records could show the exact track. He expressed doubt that the study would pass muster to be published."

Astronaut Scott Carpenter to present Tyler McCandless with $10,000 scholarship

— posted on Sep 04, 2009 05:23 PM

Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter will present senior Tyler McCandless with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) during a public presentation and ceremony at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18 in 22 Deike Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The award ceremony will coincide with a presentation by Carpenter during which he will share his experiences as an original Mercury 7 astronaut and what it was like to be the second American to orbit the Earth. Carpenter’s lecture will be the keynote address at a special symposium, "The Earth -- Within and Beyond."

How to get rich off the weather

— posted on Sep 15, 2009 09:03 AM

After all, a recent study at Penn State pitted two groups against each other in a weather-trading simulation to see which would be more successful. According to the study's press release, "the results so far show the market to be far more profitable for traders who are studying meteorology than those who are studying business."

Supercomputers Simulate Stars, Cars, Hurricanes, and Blood

— posted on May 18, 2009 11:26 AM

From the American Physical Society, May 2009: "Recreating existing complex clouds is exactly what Fuqing Zhang of Penn State University is doing. He has been taking Doppler radar information on the paths of hurricanes crossing the Gulf of Mexico in hopes of predicting where they’ll hit the coast. This approach to forecasting relies primarily on probabilities derived from estimated cloud turbulence models."

Penn State Meteorology celebrates 50 years on TV

— posted on Oct 09, 2009 11:19 AM

Long before The Weather Channel, when TV news was in black and white and only 15 minutes each evening, Penn State's Department of Meteorology began broadcasting local weather to central Pennsylvania farmers and residents. Fifty years later, Penn State meteorologists are still providing weather information to the entire Commonwealth via the Pennsylvania Cable Network and to dozens of U.S. cities through Weather World alumni working at TV stations.

Climate change study foresees a warmer, wetter Pennsylvania

— posted on Jul 22, 2009 03:17 PM

A Penn State study of climate change projects a warmer, wetter Pennsylvania, with a longer growing season and significantly less snow by the middle of the current century. Study co-authors include Raymond Najjar, Associate Professor of Meteorology.