Weather on the move - Understanding weather hazards for cars, trucks, and drones
Public domain via rawpixels
6:30 – 7:45 pm MST
Where we’re going, we need roads…and vehicles. We use cars to commute, planes to travel, and new technology–drones and autonomous vehicles–are poised to transform how we move goods. Yet each year, adverse weather leads to thousands of accidents, lost goods, and creates hazardous conditions to travel safely.
In this Lafayette Learns and NSF NCAR collaboration, Dr. Brittany Welch will discuss how adverse weather affects different vehicles and how NSF NCAR researchers and transportation agencies are guiding the safe development of new automated technologies.
No registration required for this event.
Brittany Welch
Dr. Brittany Welch is an Advanced Study Program Postdoctoral Researcher in the Research Applications Laboratory at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). She specializes in microscale urban meteorology, turbulence modeling, and high-resolution atmospheric simulations. Dr. Welch’s research uses these models to investigate urban boundary layer dynamics, building-induced turbulence, and flow interactions in complex terrain and cityscapes, with applications to transportation safety for both surface and aerial vehicles.
Her work aims to improve decision-making tools for road weather operations by examining how localized weather hazards affect transportation networks. She also studies micro-weather impacts on ground vehicles, strategies for traffic management during wildfire evacuations in Wildland-Urban Interface regions, and the safe integration of automated technologies. Dr. Welch serves as Co-Chair of the American Meteorological Society Road Weather and Technology Committee and as a member of the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Winter Maintenance and Response to Weather Events.