Right! I need to start using this blog. I’m now about six months into my PhD and its been an experience so far!
So what have I been doing?
I’ve been attempting to read textbooks, to not much avail. As I have rather changed discipline from maths to environmental sciences I find that my meteorology vocabulary isn’t up to it!
I also went along to some undergrad/MSc level courses, and wow were they slow compared to my masters! Found they were essentially just reading through the textbook, so I did more of that instead.
I played with some data from a field campaign done a few years ago and reacquainted myself with matlab. I compared this data with the Arctic System Reanalysis and found some differences. Had to put that aside to concentrate on learning to use my model.
I got to go to Boulder, Colorado and attend a WRF workshop , I’ll be using WRF for my PhD and this was a really good chance to meet other WRF users and learn about the huge number of uses for this model.
When I got back to the UK I had about six weeks before the field campaign! More reading, this time with some papers thrown into the mix. Started learning BibTex to keep my references neat and tidy.
I also got hold of Polar WRF, as I’m dealing with the Arctic this might be useful. Got that to go (just about) and worked out how to put plots onto google earth!
Then off on campaign!
Now I’m back, and newly enthusiastic! I apparently have an annual review approaching (though I’ve not been here a year, this is a bit confusing!) and may have to submit a literature review. Never done a lit review before…
Scientist in a Skirt 