BLISS-FUL

My Role

• Led the design, proposal, and execution of the BLISS Field Universalization Lab, a month-long test deployment of NWC community boundary layer sensors.
• Provided opportunities for students to submit their own IOP requests to practice planning field missions.

BLISS Field Universalization Laboratory (BLISS-FUL)

A group of collaborative researchers at OU, CIMMS, and NSSL, comprising the Boundary Layer Integrated Sensing and Simulation (BLISS) research group, deployed boundary layer observing platforms at the OU Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station (KAEFS) to complete critical field-readiness tests and calibrations, enable new training and education opportunities at graduate and undergraduate levels, and conduct novel and convergent research. This deployment was the BLISS Field Univeralization Laboratory, or BLISS-FUL. It lasted just over one month (May/June 2021) and included a two-day virtual workshop, one week of field testing, a demonstration day for community leadership, two days of training for students and early-career researchers, and approximately four weeks of scientific data collection.

The deployment included several platforms focused mostly on the lowest portion of the atmosphere, and spanned multiple disciplines including meteorology, geography, biology, and more. BLISS-FUL also offered a unique opportunity for students and early-career researchers to propose intensive observation periods of their own during the data collection phase. In addition to serving as a critical test ahead of a daunting post-COVID deployment schedule for late 2021, 2022, and even into 2023, this deployment also built on many of the ideas presented in the BLISS White Paper, Pushing the Boundary (Layer): An Initiative for Boundary-Layer Research in the National Weather Center Community to bring researchers from many stages and groups together––safely––to build and maintain a collaborative research community.