The first week of “research” has been a whirlwind! It’s just been a firehose of information and quite overwhelming. That’s to be expected, I suppose. My mentors had sent me some articles to read prior, but I wasn’t able to digest most of it. Monday we started out with a crash course in micrometeorology, but in the afternoon we went out to the site to deploy the lidar. Unfortunately, my mentor had a meeting to get to, so we had to leave early, but it was interesting to see how they chose their site and the factors they consider. (That’ll be the extent of my field work for the summer haha.) Tuesday was just another day of background research and mini lectures, so it was nice to take a break on Wednesday, and try to absorb what we’d gone over. I think it was especially hard, partly, because I don’t have any background in the atmospheric sciences, but also, and possibly more importantly, my project requires having a good understanding of how the lidar works. Wednesday also allowed a few of us to help Susannah do a test run of her experiment and give some feedback/work out some of the kinks. Thursday was my a-ha! moment, and we were able to break down what it is I’ll actually be doing, and I was able to start to put it all together.
Overall, it’s been a great week! My mentors have been amazing and very patient with me as I try to assimilate everything, sometimes having to go over concepts multiple times. It’s all very fascinating though, and I’m excited to share my project with my cohorts, as well as see and hear about their projects, especially now that we have a little more detail and a better grasp of what we’re all doing.
