| Home | Research | Vitae |
|
My research is in dynamic meteorology and its intersection with atmospheric electricity. I strive to understand what physical processes are key to the atmospheric phenomena and their evolution: Such understanding is fundamental in the guidance of tool development for forecasting purposes. I also use my time to think about how the unpresendented progress atmospheric sciences are undergoing can result in benefits to our society. |
| Tropical cyclones | |
|
My tropical cyclone (TC) research focuses on their structure and intensity change.
During the last few decades numerical weather prediction
has advanced impressively. The forecast of TC track has improved
accordingly; the forecast of TC intensity has seen no progress.
Increasing vulnerability to intense TCs, combined with the likelihood of more intense TCs in a warmer climate, makes it urgent to develop more reliable forecasting tools. Such developments are precluded by the lack of understanding of many of the relevant physical processes involved in TC intensification. |
|
|
The mechanisms of TC intensification are either related to environmental factors, to internal dynamics of the storm or to some mixture of these two. Most of the intensification research has focused on environmental aspects. The internal structure of the storm has been very difficult to observe or simulate and only a few years ago technological developments brought some light to this obscure area. With the resulting new datasets, the body of knowledge of thermodynamics and geophysical fluid dynamics is solid ground on which elucidation of the relevant physical mechanisms could be built. |
| Observations of hurricane structure have shown that these storms can exhibit more than one eyewall. Theory suggests (and observations and numerical simulations have confirmed) that presence of two concentric eyewalls leads to an eyewall replacement cycle . In such a cycle, understood intensity fluctuations occur. This phenomena could in principle be exploited as a resource to improve intensity forecast. However, secondary eyewall formation is still an enigma. This specific problem is occupying my research thoughts. |
|
Lightning Despite of its long history, the study of atmospheric electricity has seen little progress. This lack of advancement lays in stark contrast with evolutionary stage of the rest of the atmospheric sciences: young and developing fast.On this front I use lightning location data ( WWLLN and NLDN ) to, for example, characterize convective asymmetries of tropical cyclones and to understand the relationships between flash density and TC intensification, linking two areas of knowledge only recently associated with each other: atmospheric electricity and mesoscale meteorology. |
|