Suzie Duran

July 6th, 2022

*Fairbanks Update: This week has been riddled with veils of smoke due to numerous wildfires, mainly caused by lightning, that have engulfed western Alaska. This past Tuesday (06/28) was the worst it’s been, according to the locals, where the Air Quality Index reached a hazardous level of 491/500. Many worked from home as the air made it difficult to breathe. On 06/30 it was reported by the Geographic Network of Alaska that 51 fires were burning with over 1 million acres impacted. Everyone is hoping for rain.

I would say one of my challenges comes from having to look up acronyms and terms I am unfamiliar with when reading research articles. I’ve overcome this by highlighting the terms on the PDFs, looking up these terms, watching short YouTube videos explaining the science behind the terms, going back to my PDF, and making a note. This helps to better my overall understanding of the research and allows me to re-read the research more fluidly. When the reading isn’t fluid it’s difficult for me to form substantial questions. It’s why I like to re-read the material but it takes a bit to get there. Thankfully, I am happy to have grad students and researchers, including my mentor David, who are willing to help. One success I recently had was visiting and having helped upgrade a multi-sensor station (Network: AK, Station: K24K) with two members from our infrasound research team (Kenneth and Juliann) and researchers from the Alaska Earthquake Center. This particular station is located in a windy area and adding a wind diffuser could help improve the sensitive infrasound recordings with very little wind interference. The next day I was able to generate some of the station’s upgraded data thanks to the help and script provided by Kenneth MacPherson. You can definitely tell when our shoveling interrupted the sensors on the infrasound spectrogram and waveform plots.

I also worked with PyGMT to help generate an elevation relief map of the Hunga, Tonga region. It is a little pixelated however, improvements on the script will be made very soon.

July 4th, 2022

The advantage of being a former waitress was developing clear communication skills that would help upsell menu items in a short amount of time. The goal of an elevator speech for me is to concisely verbalize the skills you have developed throughout your time in academia/research in a short amount of time. This is critical in limited-time settings, such as a run-in with that graduate advisor you’ve always wanted to work with, or at a conference where hundreds of people gather but where you can stand out and make an impression on potential employers. I personally enjoy meeting new people and have grown accustomed to getting to know a wide range of personalities and people from all walks of life. This is why an elevator speech is not too difficult. Truly understanding your research, approaching people with a warm smile, and for some, getting over the fear of public speaking for even one minute can create a lasting impression on a person who may take you to the next step in your academic/career journey.

With that said, here is the Geophysical Institute where I’m currently working at. A friend of mine told me it reminded her of the Stanger Things research lab where ‘011’ was created. Kind of true. Cue Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill.

July 4th, 2022

Much of the data I will be working with is collected thorough IRIS’ Data Management Center (IRIS-DMC) using ObsPy, an open-source project dedicated to providing a Python framework for processing seismological data. The main source of the data is recorded via the U.S. Earth Scope Transportable Array (US-TA) which is part of a dense network of seismic/infrasound stations across Alaska. In Alaska, the US-TA was originally comprised of 280 stations, spaced 85km apart, of which only 72 are now operating under Alaska’s Earthquake Center (AOC). The strength of the data lies in the dense quantity of seismic/infrasound stations that recorded the events of the Hunga, Tonga eruption from which an abundant amount of atmospheric acoustic data will help generate good quality information about the events that took place. The weakness of working with infrasound data, however, is wind noise. Infrasound is sound waves with a frequency below the lower limit of human audibility (< 20Hz). Many of the sensor stations are located in remote areas where wind may interfere with the sensitive infrasound instruments needed to record essential geophysical information. To help improve the quality of the data, some stations will undergo upgrades by adding wind noise diffusers which will help generate better quality infrasound data. This means I may be working with newly generated infrasound recordings from a few of the stations but for the most part, I will be working with already recorded data from the January 15^th Hunga, Tonga event.

July 4th, 2022

After several hours of flying from Los Angeles, I finally landed in Fairbanks. It was surreal to look outside the plane’s window and see the sun shining down brightly at 9 pm. Hello Northern Hemisphere! Once outside the airport, I waited for a taxi and received the warmest welcome from the Alaska State Bird, the mosquito. The scenery here was breathtaking. I was immersed in clear skies and thousands of pine trees. I always hoped to visit Alaska but to visit for the purpose of doing actual scientific research here, involving a volcano, is the cherry on top. Best of all, I will be meeting other scientists who share a passion for their research and I will be developing my scientific computing skills via Python tools which is an important skill for an aspiring geophysicist to possess and sadly, one which I currently lack as an undergrad. However, that does not discourage me in fact, it’s motivating. My goal is to better familiarize myself with the research of low-frequency (infrasound) activity that takes place during and after a volcanic eruption and to be able to write code on a terminal that will generate plots essential for visualizing volcanic and seismological events. I hope that by the second third of the internship I will be able to more easily generate these plots via ObsPy. I’m sure by the final third I may not be an expert but a great improvement will be made and I’d be more specific about details in the data I’d use. Developing these computing skills will help better prepare me for graduate studies and possibly better my job prospects.