Adjacent to the Cumming’s Research Park with over 300 companies and close to Redstone Arsenal as well as NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, our innovative, applied research aims to develop solutions for the problems of today and tomorrow. A cross-cutting strength of faculty and students is the application of remote sensing data, both space and ground-based, to the myriad of questions related to the Earth System. We encourage students, undergraduate and graduate, to speak with the faculty relating to their respective interests. Atmospheric Chemistry & Air Quality Research focused on chemical processes within Earth's atmosphere. Research in this area is critical to improved understanding of climate forcing, air quality and reciprocal interactions between the atmosphere and biosphere. This research field is thus situated at the intersection of chemistry with physics and biology. S. Christopher S. Lee M. Newchurch Severe Weather & Lightning Located on the West side of The University of Alabama In Huntsville campus, SWIRLL is a core research facility that houses infrastructure and UAH faculty, staff, and students who are involved in research on severe and hazardous weather, boundary layer meteorology, lightning, radar, and air quality. P. Bitzer L. Carey K. Knupp GIS and Remote Sensing Geographic Information Systems connects data to a map, integrating location data with all types of descriptive information. This provides a foundation for mapping and analysis that is used in science and almost every industry. S. Christopher U. Nair Climate Any climate variable will show some type of change between different periods whether they be weeks, months, years or millennia. Knowing “why” such changes occur however is often unsolvable because our climate system is an expression of two chaotic and turbulent fluids – the atmosphere and the ocean - which together can create an infinite variety of weather and climate patterns all on their own. J. Christy Human-Ecosystem Dynamics Land use changes occur constantly and at many scales, and can have specific and cumulative effects on air and water quality, watershed function, generation of waste, extent and quality of wildlife habitat, climate, and human health.U. Nair Numerical Modeling Atmospheric scientists build numerical models to solve the equations that describe the spate-temporal evolution of the atmosphere quantitatively. The best known examples for such models are numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that have been the backbone of operational weather prediction since the 1980s. J. Mecikalski U. Nair Hurricanes & Tropical Weather Hurricanes, tropical cyclones, including rapid intensification, boundary layer processes and numerical model forecasts of hurricanes are very important given the large societal impacts of these storms. Key research tools are needed to study hurricanes, including a combination of observations (ground-based and small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) and large-eddy simulations, which improves the understanding of air-sea fluxes in high-wind conditions. J. Mecikalski K. Knupp X. Chen
