Kaylee Lundstrom

I am a Ph.D. student researching the dynamics and microphysics within wintertime extratropical cyclones east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States under the guidance of Drs. Robert Rauber and Stephen Nesbitt. My current work builds on my master's thesis which investigated the manifestation of elevated potential instability (EPI) within the comma head of extratropical cyclones sampled during the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign. When layers of EPI are forced to rise,  elevated convection results which can lead to heavy snowfall and, in some cases, thunder snow. I used model data along side airborne X and W-band radar data from 14 storms to identify and quantify EPI characteristics and to study vertical motions resulting from EPI. Despite all that was learned about the nature of EPI from my master's work, the microphysics within EPI layers is still unknown which is the focus of my Ph.D. work. During my Ph.D., I seek to develop a machine learning model to predict ice microphysical properties from radar data and apply the model to IMAPCTS cyclones to investigate the microphysics in the context of EPI.  

As an undergraduate student, I worked with Dr. Robert Rauber to analyze airborne W-band radar data from the Seeded and Natural Wintertime Orographic Clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). Within wintertime orographic clouds during SNOWIE there were transient and fixed, orographically-forced vertical circulations that ranged in size and strength. Trajectories of ice particles were run through vertical cross sections of vertical motions from a 900 m WRF simulation and vertical motion derived from the W-band vertical Doppler radial velocity to assess the impact of transient features on the trajectories of ice particles created by cloud seeding. Outside of winter storm research, I held an internship with the National Severe Storms Laboratory under Dr. Harold Brooks and Dr. Kimberly Hoogewind where we used self-organizing maps of 500 mb daily ensemble mean heights from the 20th Century Reanalysis Dataset Version 3 to determine the efficiency of height patterns at producing tornado days. I was a student volunteer during the 2022 season of Propagation, Evolution, and Rotation in Linear Storms (PERiLS) where I launched weather balloons in the field.

In my free time, I enjoy pushing my body to its limits by running, biking, swimming, and hiking. I'm always excited to go on walks with others and discuss deep questions about life or play a good game of pickleball, volleyball, spikeball, etc.