Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

New Class Explores the Science of Snow at Syracuse University

Friday, March 22, 2019, By Alex Dunbar
Share
College of Engineering and Computer Science

When Professor David Chandler had the opportunity to develop a new elective course, he wanted to find a way for students to make the most of Syracuse’s famous winters.

“Then I can bring the research into the classroom and have them do interesting and surprising experiments right here on campus just walking out the front door. You can learn so much in an outdoor environment,” says Chandler, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The new Snow in the Natural and Built Environment course gives students a chance to study the science and physics of snowfall.

“There’s a lot of different sciences that come together to create the processes that go on. There’s the physics of the thermodynamics of the cooling, the meteorology of what is going on in the upper atmosphere and then the applied engineering of what happens once it hits the ground and what the effects are,” says SUNY-ESF student Evan Genay.

Chandler was able to combine his professional experience as a hydrologist and personal experience as a skier to explain how different conditions and environmental factors can lead to different types of snow.

“Syracuse is a great place to have this course, because we get all different kinds of snow. Yesterday, we had that wild snow on the surface with all those crystalline stars, like a wonderland. And then within a couple of days there has been metamorphism within the snow,” Chandler says. “It has changed quite a bit. the thermal profile and density of the snow has all changed since yesterday.”

“It’s interactive. We go outside almost every day, and if there is snowfall we are definitely going outside,” says Tara Bradley ’19.

From snow core samples to the exact conditions for perfectly packed snowballs, the University’s Shaw Quad is their lab.

“It is fun and easy to learn when you are going outside, and these are the conditions that are best for a snowball or these are the conditions that are best for skiing, and learn the science behind that,” says Bradley.

In the winter, there is no shortage of research material in Syracuse.

“This is the snow globe city here,” Genay says. “A hundred inches a year, plenty of it coming down.”

  • Author

Alex Dunbar

  • Recent
  • Syracuse Stage Presents ‘Annapurna’ March 17 Through April 4
    Monday, March 8, 2021, By Joanna Penalva
  • Graduate Student Works With Food Policy Council to Combat Rising Food Scarcity Due to COVID
    Monday, March 8, 2021, By Brandon Dyer
  • Online Master of Social Work Opens Doors to Career Changers, Working Professionals
    Monday, March 8, 2021, By Ellen de Graffenreid
  • Turning Gratitude Into Opportunity
    Friday, March 5, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • University Selected to Host Hult Prize Regional Competition
    Friday, March 5, 2021, By Cristina Hatem

More In STEM

Syracuse University/SUNY-ESF Team Wins ‘JUMP into STEM’ Competition

A team of graduate students representing Syracuse University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) has been named a winner in this year’s “JUMP into STEM” competition, an online building science program sponsored by the U.S. Department…

US Army Awards Meritorious Civilian Service Medal to Professor Mark Glauser

Mark Glauser, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a Meritorious Civilian Service Medal by the U.S. Army for his work with the Army Science Board. The board provides independent…

Honeywell and Syracuse University Establish Research Partnership to Develop Next-Generation Air Quality Technology

Honeywell and Syracuse University have established a research partnership to fund research on emerging indoor air quality technologies. The partnership will include the naming of a Honeywell Indoor Air Quality Laboratory at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, which…

Aerospace Engineering Alumni Profile: George Kirby ’92

Great technology requires an equally impressive business plan supporting it. The goal is to have a company led by someone who understands what makes the company innovative and also the business and analytical skill to grow it into an industry…

Keeping SARS2 Out of the Cell

As vaccines are distributed worldwide to fight the pandemic, important research at Syracuse University may uncover ways to block it and similar viruses in the future. Alison Patteson, assistant professor of physics, and Jennifer Schwarz, associate professor of physics, recently…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.