Michael Waite

The effects of climate change are becoming more and more apparent, increasingly in the unpredictability of the weather, thus raising the stakes for weather forecasters. A major concern involves the scale that the weather models run, representing wind, temperature, and other quantities on a grid of points. Professor Michael Waite explains that the spacing of the points and low photo resolution makes it consistently difficult to see the small details.  

The solution, decreasing the space between the points is expensive and needs immense computing power, which brings in Waite’s research; his innovative work involves running experiments to understand fluid dynamics on a small scale. This allows the opportunity for him to improve the representation of these smaller scale effects.  

This work could ultimately improve climate modeling which in turn enables climatologists to make localized and accurate predictions. To read more, click here.