MERRA data processed and displayed as a contour image using MATLAB R2014b. Lake Victoria and surrounding lakes shown for reference and relevance. Image Credit: Africa Great Lakes Weather Team
This is a part of the 2015 Fall VPS. For more VPS articles, click here
Category: Assessing Human Risk
Project Team: African Great Lakes Weather
Team Location: Wise County Clerk of Court’s Office ÛÒ Wise County, Virginia
Authors:
Will Wilson
Annabel White
Grant Bloomer
Juan Antonio Chacon Castro
Mentors/Advisors:
Dr. Kenton Ross (NASA DEVELOP National Program)
Kristopher Bedka (NASA Langley Research Center ÛÒ Climate Science Branch)
Dr. DeWayne Cecil (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Robert VanGundy (University of Virginia’s College at Wise)
Melanie Salyer (NASA DEVELOP WC)
Abstract:
The African Great Lakes lie along the East African rift valleys and play an important role in the economy and culture of the millions of people in the region. The regional governance of the lakes’ climate and weather, while less understood, is just as profound. Intense storms occur around the lakes with little warning and can create life-threatening hazards to unsuspecting fisherman, causing their fishing vessels to capsize or wreck. Finding correlations between climatic indicators that precede the onset of these storm events will aid the Kenya Meteorological Department in their ability to improve the forecasting efforts of local and regional authorities. Utilizing the overshooting top (OT) detections within the Hazardous Storm Event Database (derived from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager on the Meteosat Second Generation observing satellite), certain times of heightened detection were used as temporal study areas around which an assortment of meteorological data was compiled. Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) products and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) data were used in this project as mediums of analysis for which intensity levels of OT frequency were compared statistically and spatially.