Rallied by its faculty, staff, family and friends, the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center presented another highly successful exhibit at the 2015 University of Maryland open house event, Maryland Day.
Although not the glorious spring day that often punctuates the annual event, this year’s campaign was ultimately very well attended.
As in previous years, the ESSIC exhibit featured its entertaining rain gauge game, which allows participants to simulate the measurement of precipitation, and the Center’s mainstay science on a sphere display, the Magic Planet, which animates weather and climate data.
Perhaps the most noteworthy component to ESSIC’s presentation however –visits from UMD President Wallace D. Loh and Provost Maryann Rankin notwithstanding, was the outpouring of support from the Center’s Faculty and staff.
Center Director Antonio Busalacchi was particularly impressed by the ESSIC turnout this year. In his post event thank you to the Center, Busalacchi praised the strong representation from across the whole of ESSIC, including both academic and research faculty, as well as administrative and support staffs.
“There are few units on campus that can claim this depth and breadth of support,” said Busalacchi.
ESSIC Assistant Director and event co-organizer Andy Negri also called this year’s Maryland Day a success, similarly noting Center faculty and staff participation.
According to Negri, 30 ESSIC volunteers manned activities, distributed posters and pamphlets, and conversed with passersby.
Although NOAA was unable to participate this year, Negri said that one of ESSIC’s partner departments, AOSC, offered hands-on activities with greater interaction, something Negri and Maureen Cribb–ESSIC event co-organizer–hope to incorporate in the future.
Negri said a tentative possibility for 2016 is the inclusion of the Lightning Mapper Array, which detects lightning, to show viewers real-time data measurements.
