A Multi-Year Multi-Institution Collaborative Research Project Developed during the Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS) REU Program

The Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS) REU program is unique in that it is brings together two primarily undergraduate institutions, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Plymouth State University to serve as an REU site. This presentation will explore an intra-cohort, multi-year, and multi-institution research collaboration comprised of two 2019 REU participant pairings (one at PSU mentored by Dr. Cordeira and one at HWS mentored by Dr. Metz), sustained engagement with two 2018 REU participants, and a new collaborator at Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM; Dr. Evans). The 2019 REU research extends a 10-yr climatology of atmospheric rivers (ARs) developed by two rising sophomores that participated during the 2018 NEPARS REU. The ARs climatology now covers 30 years. Both 2018 REU participants continued their research at their home institutions (PSU and UWM) during the subsequent 2018-2019 academic year and had 2019 summer research positions funded by external grants. One of the 2018 NEPARS REU students is leading an effort to submit a manuscript describing the Northeast U.S. AR climatology. All six undergraduate REU students contributed to the development of the ARs climatology and further each 2019 REU participant conducted their own research to investigate specific impacts of Northeastern ARs such as their relationship to flash flooding, snowfall, and water quality. This is a pinnacle example of a collaborative REU research project that benefits from multi-year (2018 and 2019), intra-cohort (PSU/HWS), and external (UWM) collaboration, as well as sustained engagement with REU participants. This presentation will discuss potential educational benefits of the multi-pathway research collaborations that existed for this project.