Titan SURF/Path Prediction for an Earth-based Demonstration Balloon Flight
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Mentor(s): Mark Richardson, Jerrold Marsden, Claire Newman, Philip DuToit
Project Description: This project would support a proposed Earth-based demonstration balloon flight, possibly over the Mojave desert, to take place in 2009. One student will learn to run an Earth-based numerical weather prediction model, WRF (the Weather Research and Forecasting model developed at NCAR) and will produce predicted wind fields for the time and region of interest. Another student will learn to run the MANGEN code, which takes input wind fields and uses them to predict particle trajectories and Lagrangian Coherent Structures (providing information on trapping regions, etc.). The two students will then work together to analyze and explore the results obtained when the WRF wind fields are used to predict the likeliest paths for a passive balloon flight. Extensions to this project would involve assessing the impact and worth of adding control mechanisms to the balloon (such as enabling swift height changes by means of a heating vent).
Recommended Prerequisites: some experience of working with numerical models; basic knowledge of Fortran, IDL and matlab would be a plus; some courses in atmospheric physics would provide a useful background.
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