Creation of a new forecasting- and measurement-intensive field course at SJSU

A new field course has been developed at SJSU. It was run for the first time in August, 2009. The 10-day course is designed to provide students an opportunity to prepare accurate forecasts, deploy instrumentation in the field, and analyze data gathered, all in connection with a variety of meteorological phenomena. The main event studied this year was the southwestern monsoon in Arizona. This was chosen to provide an opportunity to study convective weather, which is not a common occurrence in coastal California.

We will show results from the inaugural field trip. We will also discuss the rationale for the class, and ongoing efforts to develop sustainable funding for it.