USRA Post-Wildfire Flooding Internship at NASA Ames Research Center (PAID)
Post-Wildfire Flooding
The objective of this internship is to develop a fine-tuned precipitation dataset from a new generation of radar data and match its spatial and intensity patterns to nationally operational radars.
California has been experiencing severe wildfires over the past years. One of the disastrous side-effects of wildfires are post-wildfire floodings. The flooding happens even with low amount of rainfall due to loss of vegetation. Californian authorities are exploring new technologies to monitor precipitation in urban scale and high temporal resolution via new radar technology. The new radars are not finely calibrated and have discrepancies compared to nationally operational radar data such as NEXRAD. This project will focus on reducing the differences between the two generations of radars and calibrate new radar to produce more reliable estimations. The outcome will benefit researchers, decision makers and public to understand the new technology and how to transition between the two generations.
The intern will:
· Retrieve new and operational radar data
· Pre-process both datasets.
· Apply a statistical and/or machine learning method to adjust the distributions.
· Measure the task success by calculating statistical metrics and visual comparisons.
· Visualize the data in a user-friendly format.
Preferred Qualifications:
· Strong mathematical and statistical skills
· Programming languages including but not limited to Python, R, MATLAB.
· Data visualization experience is desired.
· Earth science background is a plus.
Deliverables:
· Provide working software code
· Full report on technical work
· Final presentation to the technical group
The internships are open to Foothill College students and offered part time during the school year and full time during the summer. The students will work alongside USRA and NASA PI (s) at the NASA Ames Research Center. The aim is to encourage students, specially from underrepresented groups, to continue their education in Science, Technology, Education and Math (STEM) fields within government, academia, or industry.
About Application Process
Make sure to go through both USRA and Foothill College's application portals.
For USRA application: please upload cover-letter, CV, and transcript via Handshake. More information about the internship program can be found here: https://nams.usra.edu/student-r-d-program/.
For Foothill College application: https://fhda.academicworks.com/opportunities/4941
Both are required for a complete application.
About Universities Space Research Association
Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is an independent, nonprofit research corporation where the combined efforts of in-house talent and university-based expertise merge to advance space science and technology. USRA works across disciplines including biomedicine, planetary science, astrophysics, and engineering and integrates those competencies into applications ranging from fundamental research to facility management and operations. USRA engages the creativity and authoritative expertise of the research community to develop and deliver sophisticated, forward-looking solutions to Federal agencies and other government sponsors.
About Foothill College Science Learning Institute (SLI)
The Science Learning Institute’s mission is to advance equity in STEM by supporting students from underrepresented groups in their academic and career pathways in STEM and through initiatives working with faculty and within the institution.
____________________________
Point of Contact:
Sophia Kim, M.Ed.
Director, Science Learning Institute