Our Research Tools

We use a variety of tools to perform our research, from numerical models to uncrewed aircraft. Only the power of models and observations combined can give us the unique insight required to elucidate how storms and clouds are controlled by their environment and how, in turn, they influence the environment around them.

tobac

tobac is an open-source Python package used for rapidly identifying and tracking clouds and storms in model and observational data

Uncrewed Aircraft

We use Uncrewed Aircraft (Uncrewed Aerial Systems, Drones, UAS) to measure and sample the environment in the boundary layer, including storm inflow and outflow.

Numerical Models

We use and develop numerical models of the atmosphere, such as the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to quantify processes that occur in and near clouds. Of particular interest to our group are high-resolution storm and basin-scale numerical models, which can represent storm processes and provide insight into what makes storms work.

Research Radars

We use observations from various research radars to study cloud and storm dynamics in the atmosphere. We primarialy use the Mobile Alabama X-Band (MAX) and the Advanced Radar for Meteorological and Operational Research (ARMOR) radars, which are both located here at UAH.