Erik Smith

I am a weather enthusiast who loves to research unanswered questions concerning the changing climate. I use tools such as statistics, machine learning, and timeseries models to better understand how climate change will alter weather extremes so that we can pinpoint future vulnerabilities and limit impacts on the environment and human health. I enjoy creating interactive tools and data visualizations to make complex data more easily interpretable.

I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with research groups from NOAA and NASA to create a timeseries model of Great Lakes Water Clarity, develop extreme event climate change indicators relating to human thermal comfort, and assess predictability of anomalous coastal sea-levels from atmospheric patterns. My research focuses on atmospheric and oceanic circulations and how they affect winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere. My dissertation examines cold air outbreaks (CAOs) across the globe, how they’ve changed over time, the atmospheric precursors to these extremes, and the ability of climate models to predict CAOs on a subseasonal-to-seasonal scale.

Experience

Education

Skills

• Data Analysis and Statistics
• Machine Learing
• Timeseries Modeling
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Writing
• Research
• Organization and Planning
• Creativity

• MATLAB
• Python
• R
• ArcGIS
• IDV and Bufkit
• HTML/CSS/SASS

Publications

Accepted

1.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2020). “Where do Cold Air Outbreaks occur and how have they changed?” Geophysical Research Letters: doi.org/10.1029/2020GL086983.

2.) Smith, Erik, Obarein, O., Sheridan, S. C., & Lee, C. C. (2020). “A new method to assess trends in atmospheric circulation patterns across North America.” International Journal of Climatology.

3.) Lee, C. C., Adams, R., Smith, E. T., Obarein, O., Sheridan, S. C. (2020). “Examining trends in multiple parameters of seasonally-relative extreme temperature and dew point events across North America.” International Journal of Climatology: doi/abs/10.1002/joc.6852.

4.) Sheridan, S. C., Lee, C. C., & Smith, E. T. (2020). "A comparison between station observations and reanalysis data in the identification of extreme temperature events." Geophysical Research Letters: doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10502708.1.

5.) Adams, R., Lee, C. C., Smith, E. T., & Sheridan, S. C. (2020). “The relationship between atmospheric circulation patterns and extreme temperature events in North America.” International Journal of Climatology: doi.org/10.1002/joc.6610.

6.) Smith, Erik, Lee, C. C., Pirhalla, D., Ransibrahmanakul, V. Chuanmin, H., Barnes, B. B., & Sheridan, S. C. (2019). “A synoptic climatological analysis of the atmospheric drivers of water clarity variability in the Great Lakes.” Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology: doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0156.1.

7.) Sheridan, S. C., Lee, C. C., Adams, R., Smith, E. T., Pirhalla, D., & Ransibrahmanakul, V. (2019). “Temporal modeling of anomalous coastal sea‐level values using synoptic climatological patterns.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.: doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015421.

8.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2019). “The Influence of Extreme Cold Events on Mortality in the United States.” Science of the Total Environment: doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.466.

9.) Lee, C. C., Barnes, B. B., Sheridan, S. C., Smith, E. T., Chuanmin, H. Pirhalla, D., Ransibrahmanakul, V., Adams, R. (2019). “Using Machine Learning to Model and Predict Water Clarity in the Great Lakes.” Journal of Great Lakes Research: doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2020.07.022.

10.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2018). “The Influence of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns on Cold Air Outbreaks in the Eastern United States.” International Journal of Climatology: doi.org/10.1002/joc.5935.

11.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2018). “The Characteristics of Extreme Cold Events and Cold Air Outbreaks in the Eastern United States.” International Journal of Climatology: doi.org/10.1002/joc.5408.

Submitted

12.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2020). “ The Relationship Between Teleconnections and Cold Air Outbreaks” International Journal of Climatology.

13.) Smith, Erik, and Sheridan, S. C. (2020). “Projections of Cold Air Outbreaks from Shared Socioeconomic Pathways in CMIP6 Earth System Models” Geophysical Research Letters.

14.) Smith, Erik, and Cromley, G. (2020). “The Role of Weather on Airborne Parachute Operations during the French Indochina War.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Presentations

Conferences

Other Public Speaking

Awards

Activites

Leadership