Benjamin Rodenkirch
I am a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Angela Rowe on NASA’s Convective Processes Experiment (CPEX) field campaign series. Utilizing CPEX (2017), CPEX-AW (2021), and CPEX-CV (2022) campaign data, along with spaceborne remote sensing observations and idealized numerical model simulations, my research focuses on interregional analyses of near-storm environmental relationships with tropical oceanic convective structure. In the summers of 2021 and 2022, I actively participated in the field for the CPEX-AW campaign (based in St. Croix) and the CPEX-CV campaign (based in Cabo Verde), respectively. Amongst many duties, I co-led the CPEX-CV forecasting operations to assist science flight planning, and I served as a flight scientist and mission scientist. I also deployed dropsondes during science flights, quality controlled incoming dropsonde data, and launched numerous radiosondes.
Prior to my graduate education, I received a B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences with a certificate in Environmental Studies from UW-Madison in 2017. While earning my Bachelor’s degree, I worked with the CIMSS ProbSevere research team at the Space Science and Engineering Center. I served as a validator of the severe weather prediction model, while additionally using Python to calculate performance metrics and subsequently create geospatial statistical displays for ProbSevere’s performance in each NWS WFO region. In between my degree pursuits, I worked professionally as a data technician for 2.5 years for a transportation data collection and mobile LiDAR company in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.