| John Cassano |
 Meteorology and climate of polar regions using regional climate models and numerical weather prediction models, in-situ and remotely sensed observations, and various data analysis techniques |
Post docs |
Mimi Hughes
|
 Mimi's research involves investigating aspects of the climate system that are unresolvable by traditional climate models. Previous climate studies have involved global models with spatial resolutions on the order of hundreds of kilometers. This prevents them from resolving critical aspects of important climate variables, such as surface temperature and precipitation, especially in areas of complex topography such as California and coastal Greenland. Meanwhile, the few studies that involve a higher spatial resolution generally do so by sacrificing the temporal coverage of the data, providing them with a 'case study' point of view of a particular weather event, rather than robust statistics required for an understanding of climate. Her current research efforts investigate the dynamics of the Sierra Barrier Jet and Santa Ana winds of California, but in the near future her efforts will expand to investigate dynamically similar processes in the Arctic. |
| Dave Porter (PorterDF@Colorado.EDU) |
|
 Dave is interested in the energy budget of the Arctic polar cap and
how it is affected by climate indices and changes in storm tracks, sea-
ice extent, and cloud cover. The storage of moist-static energy over
the polar cap, which is defined after Mark Serreze as the region north
of the 70 deg N latitude circle, is the summation of three terms.
These are the radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere, the
surface heat flux, and the convergence of energy through atmospheric
motions.
He is currently comparing the energy budget of the Arctic as
represented in the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, the ECMWF's ERA-40
reanalysis, and the new Japan Meteorological Agency's JRA-25
reanalysis. These reanalyses are particularly useful tools for
scientists interested in the polar regions. The hindcasting nature of
the reanalysis presents an opportunity for better quality control and
the inclusion of many data assimilation products that are not
available in real-time. One important area of his work is to
determine how well the reanalyses capture the variability of the
surface heat flux over the Arctic cap, a source error in previous
energy budget work.
|
Associate Scientists |
| Elizabeth Cassano |
 Liz's main focus of research over the past few years has been studying
cyclones which affect the North Slope of Alaska, if and how they are changing and formation mechanisms of these cyclones. Liz's current work is data analysis in support of the FWI and SNACS projects. Future work
will be to expand to sea ice studies (i.e. what are the mechanisms resonsible for a sea ice parcel melting or surviving the summer
melt season?) and extend the cyclone work to determine a cyclone climatology of formation mechanisms for cyclones in the North Slope
area. |
Associate Scientists/Graduate Students |
| Shelley Knuth (shelley.knuth@colorado.edu) |
|
 Shelley's research is focused on atmospheric changes in the system state in
and around the Terra Nova Bay region as examined through the use of in-situ
observations (both ground based and aloft), polar and geostationary
satellite data, and model analyses. Specifically, Shelley is interested in
changes in katabatic wind flow, synoptic and mesoscale cyclones,
precipitation, temperature fluctuations, and other variabilities in the
local weather of this region. A field campaign during September 2009 in
which an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will be flown over Terra Nova Bay
will provide the first ever measurements of these events and provide a
better understanding of their forcing on the large-scale system, the effects
on the local polynya, and influences on the local weather.
|
Graduate Students |
Melissa Nigro (melissa.nigro@colorado.edu) |
|
 Melissa's research focuses on the driving forces of the low-level wind field over the Ross Ice Shelf. She uses observational data and numerical weather prediction systems to understand the mechanisms that drive the wind flow in the transitional area between the Transantarctic Mountains and the Ross Ice Shelf. The project focuses on the influence of synoptic scale and mesoscale systems on the wind field in this region. As well as the impact of the topographic forcing from the Transantarctic Mountains.
|
| Alice DuVivier (alice.duvivier@colorado.edu) |
|
 Alice's research involves atmosphere and ocean interactions around Greenland. Relatively small scale high speed wind events cause large air-sea fluxes of heat and moisture, which lead to oceanic convection. This research involves using regional WRF to
understand atmospheric causes of the high wind events including
passing cyclones, strong barrier winds, or tip jets off the southern
tip of Greenland.
|
Past group members |
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