Final thoughts for the summer

Before the semester starts, I want to record some of my thoughts reflecting on the work done this summer and the work to be done over the next months and years.

NCAR

The trip to NCAR was a good experience. It was too short, though. Two weeks is not long enough. I still have a lot to figure out regarding WRF/Chem, and there are only a few people around who will be able to answer my questions. I’m having trouble keeping all of the procedures, tricks, and methods straight in my head, so I need to document what I learn and document the troubles I have with it. I also need to determine my future research goals so I can cater WRF/Chem to that end.

Research

I didn’t do any real research during my undergraduate career, with the exception of my senior thesis. I didn’t take advantage of any of the REU opportunities, nor did I try to get credit through lab work or research. At the time, I figured I would be going to industry when I completed my degree, and that I wouldn’t really need research experience. I’m feeling the cost of that mindset right now.

I am enjoying the work I’m doing now, but I often feel like I’m flailing around in the dark. I’m throwing together figures and paper sections without a well-defined research goal. I can feel some form of research narrative emerging in the paper, but it’s elusive and slippery. I really need to sit down and figure out what I want to do these next several years, what opportunities and resources I have available, and how to fit my goals with the bounds of the projects and work that will be paying for my education. I’m nervous. There is a lot to determine and solidify.

Research Paper

Beyond enjoying my research, I’m enjoying the act of writing this research paper. It’s been awhile since I had a big writing project, and there is a joy in trying to craft phrases, concepts, and information into a coherent structure. I’m comfortable with converting raw data into figures, although it took me a long time to get to this point. I can create figures all day long, but that would not be research. Rather, I need to pick a few main points, craft the structure and argument and figures to support these points, and then smooth everything out. Very few people are going to read this paper, and very few people are going to think hard about it, or incorporate it into their work. But I need to convince those few people that I know what I’m doing, that my message is accurate, coherent, and useful, and that it’s worthy of publication. I have a lot to learn. Particularly regarding…

The Philosophy of Science

I’d currently call myself an atmospheric scientist. But I feel like I’m missing the philosophical and conceptual framework that I need to be a good scientist. I have difficulties when I make statements in my writing and research. Am I using deductive or inductive arguments? Is my reasoning rational? Is what I’m doing leading to an actual statement of truth? How do I justify the mind-numbing complexity of the model I’m using? Why should anyone listen to what I am saying? I really need to work my way through the functional basis of science and modeling so that I can be confident and coherent as a modeler and as a scientist. Thankfully, Mary pointed me towards a book that should do just that: the Scientific Method in Practice, written by the Cornellian Hugh Gauch. I’ve started reading this, but it’s slow going. It’s a text book, and I really want to chew on the ideas and internalize the methods and reasoning. I hope to finish it by the end of the semester, and therefore be a more confident scientist and researcher by then.

Focus

I also feel like I really need to turn up my ability to focus. I have some very specific goals for this semester (write the paper, take one class, learn WRF/Chem) and some very vague goals as well (determine my future research, incorporate policy somehow into my work). The more concrete goals are ones that I can discretize and make into checklists (write a methodology section, read Chapter 5, work my way through Exercise 2), and therefore I can move through without a whole lot of reflection. The more general goals, however, require constant reflection and reorientation. I need to find some way to organize my thoughts and wants and form actual goals and targets. I need to focus on them. Focus hard and focus for long periods of time.

I also need to sit down and focus on atmospheric science, chemistry, and modeling. If I’m going to become an atmospheric scientist, I better damn well know atmospheric science. I need to read and read and read, and talk and discuss and make mistakes, and reflect and internalize and question the expanse of data and concepts that are at my finger tips.

People

Finally, I just want to say that I feel blessed (and I’m not one to use this term often) to be surrounded by the people that I am now. I feel open and able to express myself in front of my advisors, professors, and fellow students. I feel comfortable spending my days in the soil and water lab, and thrilled that I’m able to build strong friendships alongside my academic development. After my two weeks in Colorado and two weeks with my family for a vacation, I had a strong desire to get back here and hang out with my Ithacan friends again. I wanted to study, learn, climb, hike, birdwatch, chat, eat, cook, celebrate, drink, and generally be with these people. Many of them are good (or great) acquaintances. A growing number of them are becoming friends. A small (but growing) number of them are becoming good, close friends that I don’t want to lose touch with in the future. Thank you all so much for being the awesome people you are, and making me feel like I actually belong here.

And now I’m ready to take on this semester.

Second Week

Wow, time goes fast.

I don't have too much time left here, but I've made some significant progress. I'm able to run WRF just fine, and I've run through several of the test cases provided on the online tutorial. I've installed (configured and compiled) WRF/Chem and it seems to work just fine without any chemistry (I have one running right now), and my goal for today is to get something running with actual chemistry. That is the main goal of this trip: to get WRF/Chem running.

It is very nice to have people around that can answer questions. I still feel bad taking up their time, but I keep reminding myself that I enjoy helping someone out, as long as they are not too demanding. Katrina works a few cubicles over and she's been a real help, and then Alma is down one floor (who is also going to be working on this EPA grant), and she's also giving me boatloads of guidance.

It's strange, because Peter is not at all familiar with WRF/Chem, so I cannot go to him for help. I can (and do) go to him for guidance and advice. But for the most part for this project, this WRF/Chem is going to be my baby. And I am enjoying this process. Well, not in the sense that I would chose to do this everyday with my free time, but I do like the process (the careful planning and positioning of the right input files, the careful selection of the namelist variables and specifics of the run, and then the little burst of endorphins that I get when I see the phrase "Successful Completion of XXX"). This is an incredible powerful tool, and I have increasing control over it. I can do a lot with this.

It is also reassuring that I am picking up the intricacies of modeling much more quickly than last summer, where I struggled for months to get the CCSM global climate model running. This one is similar in some senses, and very different in others. But I have enough of a basic understanding that the differences were more in context, and easier to incorporate into my understanding and conceptualization of the model.

I'm trying really hard to write down and log what I'm doing here. I am learning a lot of intricacies, and I often have trouble remembering these things after I'm done. I'm typing up little rubrics, or step-by-step guides to the basic operation of these things. I know that the manuals have these as well, but if I take the time to write it and fix it and make sure it works, I have a better chance at being able to remember the details later on. And, because I intend to show as many detailed slices of this life as I can, here's an example this rubric:

NCAR Day Two

I've been moved up to a nice, open cubicle. I'm able to focus on my work, and I don't know where I'm staying past tomorrow night. Yikes!

I have offers from two people I know from Cornell for floorspace, or couchspace, and I'm in contact with one or two people regarding room rentals for next week. I may be bopping around quite a bit. Tonight I'm going to look into Hostels, because I think that wouldn't be all that bad, and I've never been in one before.

The trip so far has been an interesting experience, with some relaxing, some good work, and many frustrations. First, is the housing problem, but I'm sure I'll find something. Second, and I just realized this today, the bike I bought/rented last night has a bad back wheel. When I press hard of the pedals, the back wheel nicks the left side of the bike frame and creates an artificial braking effect. Not fun for a long bike ride. So I'm going to take the bike back to Play-it-Again sports and see what they say. I payed $100 for the bike, and they've agreed to buy it back for $50 when I'm done. If this wheel thing is something that can be fixed for ~$20, I'll go for it. Otherwise I'll return it tonight and just live off of the shuttles and buses. I'd like to bike around, but not for too much money and not at too much of a cost. I'll be fine with my backpack and suitcase, but a backpack and suitcase and faulty bike is a little much.

I'm enjoying the time I'm spending with Mary. She's very nice, delightfully intellectual, and has great taste in books and movies. This morning we stayed up and chatted about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Neal Stephenson, Phillip Pullman, Beowolf, audiobooks, movie adaptations, among other things. She has two cats (Luna and Chism), which are friendly and a delight.

Here in NCAR, I've met a few people that I'll be working more closely with these next few days. There are a lot of researchers here for long-term, mid-term, and short-term stints. As a two-weeker, I feel welcomed but not embraced.

I am off now to return my bike. I'll walk and take the shuttle and bus the rest of my time here. Keep it simple, Ben. Today was a day where I got almost nothing done, which is not why I am here. That's frustrating.

First day at NCAR

I have arrived at NCAR, and have all of this week and next week to tackle a boat-load of knowledge and material. And to enjoy Boulder as much as I can.

I am staying at Dan's sisters house until Thursday, after which I do not know where I'll be staying. I hope today to make a few phone calls for a rental place for next week, and I may be staying in a hostel or someone's floor on Friday and Saturday nights. We'll see.

And I have a new camera with fun pictures, and here are some of them so far:

On the flight, I saw a anvil thundercloud in the distance.

And some fun popcorn looking clouds down below.

And I nearly tripped over a Northern Flicker on a walk last night.

That's it for now...more pictures and updates soon, when I actually get some work done.

Worf (Chemistry)

I'm preparing for my trip to Boulder next Monday by attempting to run a different model: WRF-CHEM (Weather Research and Forecasting model, with chemistry). It can focus with much higher resolution (even down to a few meters) than the model I am currently using (the National Center for Atmospheric Research's CCSM (Community Climate Systems Model) ), which has a resolution on the order of a few hundred kilometers, at best.

Once again, I find myself venturing into programming territory that is confusing, frustrating, and occasionally rewarding. I've been installing and configuring WRF for about an hour, when I ran into a roadblock: I didn't know what compiler I've been using, which type of computer I've been connecting to, and which particular run option to choose to ensure the successful operation of WRF. Luckily, I have Dan, sitting two desks to my left in an otherwise empty cubicle (it can hold up to 5 people, but three of the desks are currently empty). He's been doing this stuff for almost as long as I've been alive, and he's tremendously helpful. The answers to the above questions, by the way, are a gfortran compiler, a x86_64 Linux machine, and option #15.

So while I'm waiting for WRF to optimize...or compile...or both, I took a snapshot of my desktop as an example:


I have two monitors (well, a laptop and an external monitor), which is why the picture is so wide. You can see my pretty background, my chats (Hi Hnin and Toni!) and the xterminal that is currently struggling to compile. I'm working my way through this tutorial so that I'll have some idea of what's going on when I arrive in Boulder.

I often feel like I'm struggling to have some idea of what's going on around me. I rarely feel like I have a complete grasp on things, and every time I do feel like I understand, something new and confusing pops up. It's an exiting life, well, comparatively. I'm not scuba-diving for a living, but I'm also not performing banal tasks day after day. I learn something almost hourly, and on some days make huge leaps in productivity. Other days (e.g. today) are slow, with tiny little baby-steps of productivity.

I'm going to go do some reading until this thing finishes compiling.

. . .

It finished (after an hour), but it looks like I ran a real case, instead of an ideal case (which is what the tutorial called for). I'll have to go back and clean it up and run an ideal case. I also didn't pipe the output to a log file, which I will do now.

. . .

And now I'm running into Fortran library problems. It seemed to compile just fine, but when I tried to run the executable file, I get some error about unfindable Fortran libraries. I may be running this on the wrong computer...I just emailed my adviser to ask for some advice on this. Whoa, he got back quickly. I'm doing this on the wrong computer.