AGS-FIRP Track 1: Learning by Doing: Observing the Lake Michigan Lake-Breeze Circulation

The PI in this proposed work will deploy the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) Portable Atmospheric Research Center (SPARC) along with the associated instrumentation from April 29, 2024, through May 10, 2024, in order to observe the Lake Michigan lake-breeze circulations for term projects for mesoscale meteorology students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Concurrent observations will be taken for a single day by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Vessel Neeskay which will be deployed in Lake Michigan. Undergraduate students will use the new observations in the classroom, seventh-grade classrooms will gain hands-on experience with the SPARC, and an open house will be organized to engage the broader public. These facilities will be used to collect data to test two hypotheses: (1) near-surface lake breeze thermodynamic characteristics immediately adjacent to Lake Michigan are not significantly different from their counterparts over Lake Michigan owing to the short residence time of the lake-influenced airmass over land and (2) horizontal and vertical temperature and density gradients along the leading edge of the lake-breeze circulation have greater magnitudes early in the lake-breeze season than they do during the season’s peak because of the climatologically greater temperature differential between Lake Michigan and adjacent land masses. The proposed research will allow undergraduate atmospheric science majors the opportunity to develop new understanding and generate their own conceptual models of lake-breeze circulations and to apply theories from the classroom to observational research. Further, the project will involve three seventh-grade science classes from Milwaukee Public Schools in hands-on activities with the SPARC. Finally, an open house will facilitate broader public engagement with atmospheric observation and regional weather and climate. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.