JANUS Participates in ICECHIP Field Campaign

05/29/2025

JANUS' Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) business unit kicked off a six-week mobile field research campaign recently in Boulder, Colorado. The In-Situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail in the Plains (ICECHIP) campaign is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is "the first comprehensive hail-focused field campaign in the U.S. in over 40 years," according to JANUS' Dr. Becky Adams-Selin. The campaign features involvement of more than 12 U.S. academic institutions, two U.S. research institutes, and four international partners in addition to JANUS.

As part of the field research campaign, JANUS' AER unit will deploy new instrumentation designed to collect hailstones and capture their fallspeeds; estimate hailstone in-storm trajectories by analyzing their layers; understand how hail melt can be observed by radar; and use custom-designed hail trajectory models to understand how hail is produced. Dr. Adams-Selin is one of four lead principal investigators for the campaign and leads a JANUS team who will spend a large part of the next four years analyzing the data collected over the next six weeks. "ICECHIP will help us understand how hailstones develop in storms and how to use new radar data to better predict hailstone size and speed at the surface. This campaign will not only create more accurate forecasts and warnings for the public, but also help us understand hail damage and improve hail-resilient designs, preventing billions of dollars of damage," she says.

Dr. Adams-Selin has been working to make this project a reality for the last six years, leading the effort to attain funding and persevering through an uncertain funding landscape. As part of an eight-person steering committee, Dr. Adams-Selin will lead the in-field research team until June 30, when she will return to her lab to begin processing all the collected data.

In addition to gathering critical, unprecedented field data that will transform our understanding of hail, the campaign offers practical experience for more than 60 graduate and undergraduate students. JANUS is specifically working with students from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Jackson State University. These students will have the opportunity to engage in field research and learn from some of the most knowledgeable scientists in their respective fields. This invaluable opportunity ensures that the next generation will continue to build on the discoveries that will be made as a result of this campaign.

The opportunity to participate isn't limited to students and scientists. ICECHIP encourages amateur scientists and anyone eager to be a part of cutting-edge research into hail to get involved by submitting hail reports to your local National Weather Service office. If you send in a photo of a hailstone, Dr. Adams-Selin and her team offer an expert tip: hold it next to a reference object like a ruler. Don't use your hand as hands come in all different sizes.

Another way you can participate in ongoing scientific research is to become a citizen science observer. You can sign up to become a CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow) citizen science observer by filling out a short application. Even the youngest scientists can participate (with parental approval).

JANUS is excited to support Dr. Adams-Selin and her team as they continue to work hard to provide the research that will shape the way we think about and deal with hail and its potentially devastating damage in the future.