SPoRT Graduate Student Spotlight: Abby Whiteside
SPoRT is home to several graduate researchers, who are each working on completing the research required to earn their master’s degrees. Last week, we featured Angela Burke’s research into “false alarms” in SPoRT’s imaging software. In this article, we are spotlighting the work of SPoRT graduate researcher Abby Whiteside. Like Angela, Abby has completed a bachelor’s degree in Earth System Science with a concentration in Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Abby is now researching the impact and nature of hail damage.
Abby Whiteside presenting her research at the annual American Meteorological Society conference.
When a thunderstorm produces a significant amount of hail damage, it creates a hail scar, which is an observable area of large hail damage to the environment, such as a long streak of dead vegetation. Abby is working to better understand storms that create these hail scars. She utilizes data from the GOES-R satellite series’ Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) in conjunction with radar data to understand the characteristics and inner-workings of hail scar producing storms. In order to find out why specific storms cause hail damage, Abby compares the storm structures of hail scar producing storms and non-damaging storms. By combining different data sources, Abby can get a more thorough understanding of the way hail producing thunderstorms work. Abby said that she really enjoys working with satellite data, so this project was a unique opportunity that she couldn’t pass up.
Abby’s thesis is a part of a larger collaboration between SPoRT, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and the Marshall Space Flight Center. Abby started working at SPoRT in 2019, after she crossed paths with SPoRT scientists Dr. Chris Hain and Dr. Chris Shultz during an internship with NASA Develop, where SPoRT was a partner.
An Above Anvil Cirrus Plume that manifested from an Overshooting Top producing storm. This storm produced large amounts of hail damage in Nebraska and Wyoming.
Abby’s favorite part of working with SPoRT has been the opportunity to work on solving a problem that has never been thoroughly examined by the meteorology community. She also enjoys finding trends in the GOES-16 satellite’s GLM data. Since the GLM is a newer product, Abby was excited about the opportunity to use its data to support the satellite community. Abby also appreciates working with experts from different areas of meteorology, and attending meteorology conferences is a highlight of her job.
In the future, Abby plans to finish her master’s degree with SPoRT. After completing her masters, Abby hopes to use her expertise in meteorology in support of NASA’s future exploration missions.
About SPoRT
The Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL is a NASA-funded activity with a vision of accelerating the translation of NASA science to applications by collaborating with researchers, innovators, and stakeholders. SPoRT was established in 2002 and is funded under the NASA Earth Science Division Research and Analysis Program’s Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area. Therefore, SPoRT’s early focus was on transitioning NASA products to the operational weather community to improve short-term forecasting with end users within the operational weather community (e.g. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service). Today SPoRT focuses on applied research and applications in 6 focus areas that span weather, atmospheric, and land surface topics with partnerships across government, academia, and the private sector (see Collaborative Partners). A research-to-operations/operations-to-research paradigm (figure below) has been the basis for transitioning over 40 satellite products to stakeholders over 20 years. The main goals of the SPoRT paradigm include (1) early and intentional interaction with stakeholders, (2) identifying and/or developing user-driven science solutions from NASA observations and research capabilities, (3) timely delivery of data products for early stakeholder testing and feedback, (4) integration of data products and capabilities in user formats, visualizations, and display systems, (5) targeted applications-based training highlighting use cases, examples, product advantages and limitations, (5) stakeholder assessments and product testing, and (6) prioritizing operations to research feedback to meet users’ needs and facilitate the sustained use of NASA data in applications. The SPoRT paradigm enables intentional interaction between scientists and stakeholders throughout the research-to-applications/applications-to-research lifecycle to develop innovative solutions through an iterative process that meet stakeholder needs, are tailored for their application, and promote sustained use of NASA observations and research capabilities. SPoRT values innovation, collaboration, and engagement to bridge the gap between science and applications and maximize the benefit of NASA data for operations, applications, and decision making.
Responsible Official: Dr. Andrew Molthan (andrew.molthan@nasa.gov)
Page Curator: Paul Meyer (paul.meyer@nasa.gov)
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