CREST hosted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, 2023 at the Grove School of Engineering, City College of New York. The purpose of the event was to help CUNY CREST and NOAA NSSL understand each other’s needs and brainstorm collaborative research ideas/potential partnerships to address the same. 

Group Picture from Day 2 of the Visit 

Following NOAA NSSL members participated in the visit along with CCNY and CREST faculty & affiliates: 

  • Dr. DaNa Carlis: Director
  • Dr. J. Rafael Mendoza: Physical Scientist for the Radar Research and Development Division 
  • Dr. Kodi Berry: Program Lead for Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats 
  • Dr. Jonathan J. Gourley: Research Hydrologist 

On the first day of the visit, NOAA NSSL members were introduced to some of the CCNY labs, Urban Hydrometnet (NYC-uHMT) and field campaigns followed by a tour of the LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR)/Ocean Remote Sensing Facilities ( by Dr. Fred Moshary) and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) Lab (by Dr. Spencer Hill). 

On the second day of the visit, NOAA NSSL and CUNY CREST members helped each other understand the work they do and brainstormed collaborative project ideas through presentations, discussions, updates, and breakout working groups. Following topics were focused on:

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Climate Justice, Access 
  • Education 
  • Phased Array Radar and Radar 
  • Hydrometeorology
  • Heavy/Extreme Precipitation
  • Flash Flooding
  • Warn on Forecast System (WoFS) climatology and data analysis
  • Climate extremes and severe weather

Participants during a Breakout Session 

On the last day of the visit, NOAA NSSL and CUNY CREST members including Dr. Shakila Merchant, Dr. Tarendra Lakhanakr, Richard Rivera, Harry Cikanek, and Srishti Tyagi  along with Dr. Veeshan Narinesingh, NOAA Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (NOAA EPP/MSI) Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies II (CESSRST) Alum and now NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) Scientist, visited the Eagle Academy Young Men of Harlem. During the school visit, NOAA NSSL members inspired the young students by sharing their personal and professional journeys as well as motivating life lessons. Students were deeply engaged. Additionally, Richard Rivera conducted a demonstration of the New York Urban Hydro-meteorological Testbed (NY-uHMT) weather station installed at the school by CUNY CREST. Further, to wrap up the visit, NOAA NSSL and CUNY CREST leadership participated in an executive session where they reflected on the visit  and discussed potential partnership ideas and steps moving forward. 

CUNY CREST team will now work on creating collaborative project concepts in order to  provide planning information to NOAA NSSL which in turn will enable the agency to identify matches between their funding opportunities and CUNY CREST’s collaborative project ideas.