climate and Earth processes
CODY KIRKPATRICK Lecturer | Atmospheric Sciences
Cody conducts research in mesoscale meteorology - the atmospheric scale that includes circulation
sizes from tornadoes and individual thunderstorms up to hurricanes - and the high impact weather that
these phenomena produce. His primary area of interest is improving our prediction of how thunder-
storms move, and understanding why certain storms may produce hail or tornadoes while other storms
nearby do not. Recently, he has also cultivated interest in the meteorology of wildfires, and how these
conditions may evolve under Earth’s changing climate.

On August 21, 2017 EAS faculty and staff
participated in a campus-wide “Celeste
Fest” celebrating the solar eclipse
PAUL STATEN Assistant Professor | Atmospheric Sciences
Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University is “green and growing,” so to speak, and the Staten Lab
is no exception. Last year, Staten hosted an international working group on the “Width of the Tropics,”
on campus to discuss the evidence for, and consequences of desertification and shifting wind and rain
patterns. The Staten lab is also now home to four graduate students, with research topics ranging from modeled
tropical rain cycles in Earth’s geologic past to climate’s effects on midlatitude clouds as observed by
satellite. Undergraduate students also play an active role in the lab, with a Sustainability Scholar helping to run the weather
research forecast model each morning. This model is being used to teach students about water use on campus, and
to create high-resolution local forecasts specifically for the upper midwest.

Department, college, and campus support continue to provide favorable
growing conditions for the Atmospheric Sciences program. The renam-
ing to ”Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences” not only high-
lights the department’s strength in diversity, but also provides the Atmo-
spheric Sciences program a named home. Graduate Fellowships from
the college have attracted top talent to the program, and the recently
announced Grand Challenge on Environmental Change has spurred the
search for new faculty. The new Big Red 2+ and Carbonate supercom-
puters provide exciting capabilities and processing power to the active
group. Undergraduate student Zoey Mintz forecasts the weather for
the coming week on Hoosier News Source.

10 | hgr