OWLeS in Snow
For the past few weeks, 24 Millersville University students and two meteorology professors, Dr. Todd Sikora and Dr. Richard Clark, have joined researchers from across the country to convene in Geneva, N.Y. The students are there to launch weather balloons, monitor surface conditions and photograph ice crystals as part of the NSF-funded Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) project.
Millersville deploys a new type of balloon called a Helikite to capture high resolution detail in the lower atmosphere under high wind conditions. “The balloon is very stable even when the wind speed approaches 45 mph,” said Dr. Richard Clark, OWLeS project scientist.