Weather and Climate Laboratory
Hands-on laboratory course linking geophysical fluid dynamics theory with experiments, instrumentation, and data analysis.
I supported a hands-on course taught by Prof. John Marshall and Dr. Talia Tamarin-Brodsky that integrates theory with rotating-tank experiments to study atmospheric and oceanic circulation. My role focused on working closely with students during lab sessions, assisting with experimental setup, instrumentation, and data analysis, and discussing how the laboratory results connect to concepts from geophysical fluid dynamics.
One student in the course, Youran (Yoland) Gao, developed a particle-tracking tool to follow surface tracers in video recordings of the experiments for a final project. We continued this work after the course ended through regular brainstorming sessions, discussing design choices and analysis approaches. Yoland led the implementation, and I provided input on the overall structure and functionality. We plan to open-source the software after a few more iterations.
Over Summer to Fall 2025, I worked with John on updating the rotating-tank setup and improving the hardware. The updated system will be used in the next iteration of the course.