EDWARDS, Calif. – – Highland resident Patricia Oliphant attended a weather seminar several years ago. Little did she know then that the presenter, NASA meteorologist Edward Teets, would become her mentor. Oliphant is spending her second summer as an intern with the Tybrin Corp. at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
“I have always had a fascination with the atmosphere and meteorology, but was unaware until I attended the seminar that the meteorologist had a place at NASA,” Oliphant explained.
Oliphant is writing a computer program that plots and analyzes atmospheric data and allows use of the information in a manner that meets NASA flight project needs. She is creating another program that examines large quantities of climatology statistics and identifies areas of wind shear in the atmosphere. Earlier this summer Oliphant launched a weather balloon with a radiosonde attached. A radiosonde communicates using a radio frequency while measuring pressure, altitude, location, temperature, wind speed and humidity. During NASA Dryden’s Bring Your Children to Work Day, Oliphant demonstrated weather instruments to more than 300 children.
Oliphant is currently a junior at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, majoring in meteorology. She is vice president of the university’s chapter of the American Meteorological Society. She is a 2006 graduate of George Washington High School in Charleston, W.V.
“At Dryden I discovered that NASA is comprised of many different types of people with many different abilities and interest,” Oliphant explained.
For more information about NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and its research projects:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden
– end –
text-only version of this release
To receive status reports and news releases issued from the Dryden Newsroom electronically, send a blank e-mail message to dfrc-subscribe@newsletters.nasa.gov. To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail message to dfrc-unsubscribe@newsletters.nasa.gov. The system will confirm your request via e-mail.
Dryden Flight Research Center
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, California 93523
Phone 661-276-3449
FAX 661-276-3566
Beth Hagenauer
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
661-276-7960
beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov