The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) collects data from a series of buoys around the United States. From this data collection, the question was is it possible to find Nor’easters over the ocean when they go through an area near the coast. To do this, Google Colaboratory was used—more specifically Python. This is when the location of Long Island, New York was selected to be the research target. From buoy station 44025, data from meteorological and ocean data was pulled from the archives and analyzed. The main parameters in question were wind speed and wave height. These are the two that show when big storms go through an area. From numerous graphs, it is possible to determine when a Nor’easter or other big weather events go through a region based of data collected over the ocean. This project focused in on the time between 2010 – 2020. The next big thing in question is if there is a climate aspect in this project. This will result data being pulled from the 1990 to present data. The goal of this will be to determine if there has been an increase or decrease in storm, as well as an increase or decrease in storm strength.
The research process is a unique experience. It can be methodically planned or change multiple times until a final topic is established. In this case, the project’s research question has been changed and refined multiple times. It is common in the earth sciences to seek data that has already been collected to develop and answer a research question, which is different from other disciplines where the research question is established first, and then data is collected. This project started out as a study of the deep convection events occurring in the Irminger Sea during certain winters and how these events affect the concentration of dissolved oxygen throughout the water column. After finding out the data included other variables that contribute to biological processes in the ocean, the additional variables were to be incorporated into the data analysis. In the process of learning how to graph the data, a whole new data source was discovered that would allow the project to reach areas of the ocean outside of the Irminger Sea. The current state of the project is an exciting endeavor and the current development of the project’s topic would have not been possible without being open to new topics and allowing the research process to be fluid. Keeping an open mind about where the research process will go is especially important when the data available is major factor in determining the research topic.
