Ryan Gonzalez is from Fort Worth, Texas. He attends Texas A&M University and
is going into his senior year.
"The main source of freshwater for life on Earth occurs in the form of rain.
Extreme rain events can provide this vital water, but they can also cause
catastrophe in the form of floods. Thus, an accurate prediction of how extreme
precipitation will change in response to warming surface temperatures, and
therefore, increased amounts of water vapor, is necessary.
"This summer I worked to observe this question using satellite and reanalysis
data, from the Global Precipitation Measurement core satellite and ECMWF
ERA-Interim datasets, respectively. I merged the two datasets together in order
to look at rain rates while varying the values of water vapor. This same process
was done with CAPE and vertical profiles of specific humidity to provide a
deeper understanding into how other meteorological variables affect extreme
rain."
Ryan's research poster, may be found here, Evolution of Extreme
Precipitation: A Satellite Based Investigation.
Ryan's other research interests include mesoscale meteorology, severe weather,
and climate change. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer, kiteboarding,
and spending time outdoors.
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