Panoramic view of the Great Salt Lake Basin from Mt. Ogden. Photo courtesy Dan Judd.
A major focus in the Department is basic and applied research to
improve what is known about weather and climate in mountainous
regions. The University of Utah and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the Cooperative
Institute for Regional Prediction in 1996 to foster such research. The
Salt Lake Valley and nearby Wasatch mountains have served as
convenient laboratories to investigate how stagnant pools of air
develop in urban basins and how winter snowstorms
evolve. A major accomplishment for CIRP was
participation in the weather support team for the 2002 Winter Olympics
.
MesoWest is an example of CIRP's integration of research,
transfer of technology to operational forecasting applications, and
benefits to the public. MesoWest is supported financially by the
National Weather Service, Bureau of Land Management, and members
of the CIRP Consortium and provides access to surface weather
and environmental observations throughout the nation. An investigative report of the southern California wildfires during 2003 that
caused over $2 billion in property damage noted:
The majority of IMETs (NWS personnel assigned to provide weather
support
to the fire crews) serving the southern California wildfire made
use of the ROMAN (Realtime Observations Monitoring and Analysis
Network) system developed by the University of Utah and Bureau of
Land Management to monitor surface weather observations. This
system, with roots in the NWS funded project called MesoWest, helped
IMETs to identify surface stations closest to the fires, and set alerts for
critical weather parameter thresholds.
Faculty members, John Horel, Jim Steenburgh, and Dave Whiteman
lead CIRP activities and collaborate with staff and students on a variety
of research projects. Prospective
students interested in participating in this research are encouraged to
contact the faculty directly.
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