Gretchen Mullendore Receives NSF Grant Award

Dr. Gretchen Mullendore, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, has received a grant award in the amount of $290,966 from the National Science Foundation entitled “Midlatitude Deep Convective Transport to the Upper-Troposphere and Lower-Stratosphere.”

Deep convection, such as the severe thunderstorms observed throughout the central United States in the summer months, is an efficient vertical transporter of air pollution from the surface to over seven miles in altitude. To fully understand the impacts of severe storms on the chemical and radiative budget of the Earth, we need better ways of quantifying the exact altitudes over which pollutants are transported. The 3-year study will focus on two primary objectives: 1) improving the algorithms already developed at UND to estimate deep convective transport using radar reflectivity; and 2) investigating the impact of variable tropopause structures on deep convective transport. Congratulations Gretchen!