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Humboldt Field Research Institute

Posted January 25, 1999

EET Program Offers International Adventure Engineering Course on Mount Washington

Ducking 100 mile-per-hour wind gusts, students in an Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) class got a glimpse in August of what it takes to monitor the weather in one of the most inhospitable spots in New England. Under the guidance of Jill Schoof and Scott Dunning, faculty members in EET, 10 students traveled to the Center for Wind, Ice, and Fog Research (CWIFR) at the Mt. Washington Observatory in New Hampshire.

Schoof knows the difficulties of keeping track of weather extremes first hand. She is the chair of the science and engineering committee at CWIFR where she has supervised wind, ice and fog research since 1990. She came to UMaine in 1998 and teaches electronics and instrumentation courses as well as a controls systems course. Her courses give UMaine students a chance to design and test new instruments for purposes such as industrial process control and weather monitoring.

Since 1932, weather observers have recorded the extreme conditions on the mountain top, year-round, 24 hours a day. In 1934, they recorded a world-record 231 mph wind. Today, the research involves scientists and engineers from universities, government agencies and industry. The University of Maine's Robust Instrumentation Laboratory works with the Center in all areas of equipment design for this extreme environment.

Besides the extreme icing conditions and world record winds, electrical equipment must also face the complications of a television transmitter 200 feet away.

The August trip had an international dimension. UMaine students collaborated on their exercises with German students from the Ruhr University—Bochum. Schoof had made arrangements with a German professor, Andreas Pflitsch, for the students to meet at the mountain top observatory. The Europeans were studying climate and the influence of landforms on weather patterns.

In previous research, Pflitsch had found unique topological features which create the extreme winds on the Mount Washington summit. He was excited about the opportunity to bring research students to New Hampshire to perform data measurements and learn about temperature and wind variations.

Bob Desjardins, Senior EET student, said the Maine students found they have common interests with their German peers. “We were a little nervous to meet the German students. Surprisingly, we began discussing music that we liked and found we liked the same bands. From then on, we quickly developed friendships,” he said.

The students were divided into three teams. They investigated how temperature measurements are affected by wind and how the winds vary on the windward and lee sides of the mountain. They also studied how rock formations, vegetation and instrument designs influence weather data.

One team used a data logger and fourteen sensors to make measurements around a rock formation near the top of Tuckerman ravine. Another one compared data from an infrared visibility monitor with measurements from a laser-based cloud height detector and visual measurements by human observers.

Students also tested a device known as a pitot-static anemometer which was developed by Schoof's laboratory and the Observatory. It measures wind speed by sensing differences in air pressure in a narrow tube.

The highlight for many of them was a brief demonstration of the mountain's unpredictable weather. During a hike to take data near the summit, students were pinned down behind a rock formation for a fifteen-minute period while the wind speeds rocketed from 30 miles per hour to 122 miles per hour.

Schoof and Dunning plan to offer the course during Spring break and in the fall.

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