Jessica Constant, a sophomore at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, CO, spent much of the last six months working on her science fair project entitled, Computer Modeling IV: A Particulate Dispersion Model Employing Real-Time Wind Calculation. CMMAP scientist David Randall was her mentor, helping her to learn about atmospheric modeling. Over the past four years, Jessica has been developing a complex computer model which predicts the dispersion of pollution particulates in the atmosphere over time. The goal of this year's project phase was to expand the model to a 3-dimensional atmospheric space, add real-time wind prediction, vertical advection, and vertical diffusion. This year's additions created a program capable of accurately modeling the dispersion of particulates in real-world scenarios. These additions allowed the model to behave realistically as wind patterns shift and as pollution disperses vertically. Jessica's model is now able to show an accurate representation of pollution dispersion in a 3-dimensional space. At the Longs Peak Science and Engineering Fair held in Northern Colorado on March 1, 2011, Jessica received 11 awards including a First Place in the Senior Division and qualified for both the 2011 Colorado State Science Fair and the 2011 International Science Fair. NOAA – Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award FSI Award for Outstanding Project 2nd Place West Greeley Conservation District for Excellence in Science Mu Alpha Theta for Excellence in the Application of Math Available to a HS Student Intel Award for Excellence in Computer Science UNC College of Natural & Health Science UNC Pioneer of Science Award Genius Olympiad – Exceptional Genius Award 1st Place United States Army 1st Place in Category – Math & Computer Science 1st Place Best in Fair Senior Division You can view her poster here (3MB). You can read more about Jessica's project from this Coloradoan news article. Congratulations, Jessica!