J. Marshall Shepherd (Photo by Nancy Evelyn/UGA)
Marshall Shepherd, director of the atmospheric sciences program and professor in the geography department with the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was recently quoted in a Washington Post article about a private weather firm’s imitative to operate a satellite fleet to improve forecasts.
ClimaCell, a private weather company, plans to invest $150 million in the launch of its own satellite radar constellation in order to make more accurate forecasts.
Shepherd said he views the project as a way to improve the prediction of weather extremes.
“Precipitation is at the heart of many weather-related extremes ranging from flooding to hurricanes, yet is very difficult to measure on global scales,” he said. “I am not surprised that scholars are exploring new ways to provide measurements with the accuracy and resolution useful for applications.”
The article continued to detail ClimaCell’s venture capital funding efforts and the fact that the majority of the world doesn’t have radar coverage.
