A group of Purdue students is putting a unique twist on a trip to a conventional spring break location.
Twelve juniors and seniors from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences are heading to Florida to study how sea breeze circulation causes thunderstorms.
Professor Jeff Trapp is supervising the students, and says they will have access to some sophisticated technology.
"One of the things that we're using during this trip is a mobile Doppler radar. And one of the purposes of this trip in Florida is to allow us to use this radar to sample some interesting weather."
The National Science Foundation is letting the group use the radar truck to track storms throughout the week.
Trapp says although this field experiment doesn’t directly relate to conditions in Indiana, it is important for students to understand how weather works elsewhere.
“We're focusing on the Florida sea breeze because it's a persistent phenomenon. We're assured of sampling it, studying it, numerous times during the week. Even though we don't have a sea breeze [in Indiana], the basic atmospheric process relates well to our weather.”
Trapp hopes the trip will give insight into how weather works in different parts of the country. He took a group of students on a similar trip to Puerto Rico last spring break.