{"id":34531,"date":"2022-02-04T12:29:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34531"},"modified":"2022-02-04T12:29:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:29:27","slug":"ou-researchers-team-up-with-nasa-to-study-january-noreaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/02\/04\/ou-researchers-team-up-with-nasa-to-study-january-noreaster\/","title":{"rendered":"OU researchers team up with NASA to study January nor’easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howie Bluestein was waiting for the right storm. On Jan. 28, that storm arrived.<\/span><\/p>

The OU meteorology professor had been watching his weather maps and computer models for days. The date of the incoming storm was approaching, but the models disagreed about if it would even touch much of the East Coast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cSo here we are,\u201d Bluestein recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s basically 48 hours before the event. I had to make a decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Bluestein and his team of radar scientists made the call to board a plane to New York and then drive their radar truck to Massachusetts to do something that had never been successfully done before: study large snowstorms with their radar on the ground while NASA planes collected data from the skies.<\/span><\/p>

The research is part of NASA\u2019s IMPACTS program<\/a>, which stands for \u201cInvestigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms.\u201d In the program, NASA flies a suite of remote sensing planes into snowstorms to understand how snow particles work across snowbands, and how snowbands form and evolve. The hope for the data collected is to significantly advance the ability to predict snowstorm characteristics.<\/span><\/p>

Bluestein and his team made up the ground crew for data collection. Their radar truck, which had been parked at the wharf at Plymouth Harbor the night before, was underwater from the high tide. With 70-mile-an-hour blizzard winds blowing around them, they waited until the tide went down, got in the truck and began over nine hours of data collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

You know it’s an epic storm when legendary research meteorologist Dr. Howie Bluestein from @UofOklahoma<\/a> shows up with @raxpol<\/a> and weather radar expert Dr. David Schvartzman.
\nThey were observing the #Blizzard<\/a> and supporting the NASA @SnowIMPACTS<\/a> campaign.@OUARRC<\/a>@ousom<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/DOEFh3Ttg0<\/a><\/p>

\u2014 Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) January 29, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>