Integrating Research and Education through Measurement and Analysis

©2008 American Meteorological Society generators, digital multimeters, power supplies, and a spectrum analyzer. A variety of hand and power tools, soldering and desoldering stations, and electronics supplies are also available. The laboratory is located at the Wind Science and Engineering (WISE) research facility, part of the Reese Technology Center, about 10 miles west of campus. A wealth of existing field facilities are located nearby and are available for use in the classroom. These facilities include several mobile hurricane towers, five instrumented mobile mesonet racks, the WISE 200-m meteorological tower, 24 StickNet platforms (quickly deployable 2.5-m-tall meteorological stations), as well as all of the assets of the West Texas Mesonet. Additional instruments, some already under development, are expected to become available as the research infrastructure continues to grow. The location of the laboratory encourages interaction between the students and the technical staff of the WISE Research Center and West Texas Mesonet, and also allows staff to make use of the same laboratory equipment. An upgrade to the laboratory is planned for early 2008 using NSF funding; future upgrades to the laboratory will depend on the availability of internal and external funding. T he training of future scientists to efficiently develop and use instrumentation demands classroom access to platforms and supporting infrastructure. Unfortunately, funding-strapped universities have recently been reducing investment in classroom instrumentation. Conversely, observational facilities at Texas Tech University (TTU) have expanded over the last decade. Integrating the growing observational capabilities into a classroom setting was a logical extension to the ongoing research efforts. This idea served as the impetus for the development of a new laboratory and set of graduate courses.