You may research any meteorological event that interests you from a synoptic perspective for your ATM 400 research project. This is a paper that is due at the end of the semester, however, so you should choose a topic that you can discuss in eight to 10 pages and complete in one to two months.

To help you stay on track, you will need to complete various parts of the project by the following due dates:

Topic: September 18

Proposal: September 25

Outline: October 29

Paper: December 10 (by 5 PM)

Presentation: December 14 1-3 PM

Topic:

The topic of your case study needs to be discussed with me before you progress to the proposal stage. Please see me, or email me, to finalize your topic by September 18.

List of topics

Daniel Howard: Texas ice storm, New England snow, and Zeta (2020)

John Farash: The Perfect Storm (1991)

Alex Kramer: Pi Day blizzard (2017)

Nathan Meglio: Buffalo blizzard of December 2022

Declan Moynihan: Nor’easter of 16-17 December 2020

Matthew Palladino: East Coast blizzard of 25-27 February 2010

Selena Ramos: January 2018 East Coast blizzard

Proposal:

Your proposal should consist of a one-page summary of your case study and is due on September 25. The proposal is worth 15% of the project grade and will be graded based on whether you address the following questions regarding your chosen event:

~ Scientific motivation: What makes this event worth studying?

~ Societal motivation: Who was impacted by this event?

~ Geography: When/where did this event occur?

~ Methodology: How will you analyze the event, i.e., which data sources and weather maps will you plot and use?

~ Anticipated results: What synoptic features were key to the event? What dynamic principles are relevant?

Outline:

Your outline is the skeleton of what your paper will look like. The goal of the outline is to get you thinking about how you want to structure and organize your paper. The components of your outline (and paper) should include an Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion/Conclusions, and References. For each of the questions detailed above, your outline should expand on the ideas presented in your proposal. The outline is worth 20% of your grade and is due October 29.

Paper:

Your paper should be a scientific document that adheres to the American Meteorological Society guidelines for journal articles entering the peer review process. Therefore, your paper should include:

1. Abstract (100 to 200 words summarizing your main findings)

2. Introduction

3. Methodology / Data sources

4. Results

5. Discussion and conclusions

6. References (see the AMS Reference/Citation Guide)

The body of the paper (Introduction through Conclusions) should be eight to 10 pages. You should include a title page with your paper title, your name, and the abstract. It is also important that you use figures to demonstrate your motivation, results, and conclusions. You should include a minimum of five figures in your paper and no more than ten. One of your figures is required to be a schematic that graphically summarizes your case study, whether hand drawn or computer generated. The paper is worth 55% of your project grade and is due on, or before, December 10 @ 5 PM.

Presentations:

The oral presentation should be a five-slide, 7-minute overview of your main findings: (1) What was the event, (2) why did you study this event (i.e., motivation), (3) what did you do to study the event, and (4) what were your primary results? Presentations will occur on Saturday, December 14, 1-3 PM, and are worth 10% of your grade.