Dr. Shirer's convection studies concentrates on the development and evolution of cloud streets, stratocumulus decks, and three-dimensional convective cells as functions of larger-scale atmospheric forcing; he also has focused on identifying their signatures in synthetic aperture radar imagery of the sea surface. He has developed algorithms for quantifying the chaotic behavior of hydrodynamic systems and used these algorithms to aid identification of coherent structures within the boundary layer.  Most recently, he has worked on improving algorithms for locating cloud-ground lightning from a single receiving station.