Prescott, Arizona CampusDepartment

overview

Some pictures …Some pictures …

New faculty complex under construction – future home of Weather Center by Fall 2004

Present Department of Meteorology Building with Honeywell radar on roof

More pictures …More pictures …

Display from Department’s rooftop Honeywell Primus 400 airborne radar

Meteorological screen for instrumentsRadar

More pictures …More pictures …

Classroom instruction

Courses taughtCourses taught Four full-time faculty, expanding A total of 13 sections of WX courses taught

– Two core aviation meteorology courses– Other courses in climatology, aircrew weather, thunderstorms,

radar/satellite, advanced meteorology

Average class size is 24 students 300 students take courses in the Department of

Meteorology– 200 in core WX courses for aviation– Over 100 in weather minor classes each semester

Applied Meteorology Degree starting Fall 2004

Meteorology Minor at PrescottMeteorology Minor at Prescott

Statistics reflect growing demand for WX courses

Fall 97 24

Fall 98 49

Fall 99 53

Fall 00 74

Spr 02 105

Fall 03 12020

40

60

80

# students

100

120

97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

Faculty profiles

Dr Curtis James

ERAU since 1999

Randy TomkinsERAU since 2001

Dr Ken ParsonsERAU since 2001

Dr Mark Sinclair Dept Chair

ERAU since 1998

Curtis James

Research interests in mountain meteorology, radar, thunderstorm dynamics

Author of several articlesHas worked for National Weather ServiceField experience in the European Alps Several teaching awardsManages Department equipment and computing

facilities

Kenneth Parsons Ph.D. in atmospheric science in 2001 from Purdue

University in West Lafayette, IN. Areas of expertise in synoptic meteorology,

extratropical cyclones, dynamic meteorology, and air pollution meteorology.

Industry experience – 20 years as a forecaster in the U.S. Air Force with duty

stations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East – Five years with a leading environmental engineering firm

as an air quality meteorologist performing dispersion modeling and air emission inventories.

Mark Sinclair

Ph.D. meteorology, Naval Postgraduate School, 1985 Department Chair Research interests in midlatitude storms, mountain

precipitation, Southern Hemisphere meteorology Author of over 50 research papers & technical reports Weather forecaster & researcher in New Zealand Field experience - Antarctica & New Zealand Alps Teaching awards Research grants in extratropical cyclone research

(completed) and in storm track climatology (pending)

Randy TomkinsMS in Meteorology and Oceanography Naval

Postgraduate School in Monterey, Ca. Research emphasis on weather systems affecting the

southern portions of AfricaTwenty years in the Navy as a meteorologist and

oceanographer. – Forecasting weather on location in Antarctica, the

Northwest pacific Ocean and hurricane forecasting for the Gulf of Mexico

– Forecasting for navy fleet operations and for aircraft carrier flight operations

Scholarly activityScholarly activityA total of 13 full-length peer-reviewed

journal articles by our three research-capable faculty

Nine conference presentations and seminarsOne grant submittedNext slides

Journal articles published by Dept. of Journal articles published by Dept. of Meteorology faculty last 5 yearsMeteorology faculty last 5 years

1. Chong, M., J.-F. Georgis, O. Bousquet, S. R. Brodzik, C. Burghart, S. Cosma, U. Germann, V. Gouget, R. A. Houze, Jr., C. N. James, S. Prieur, R. Rotunno, F. Roux, J. Vivekanandan, and Z.-X. Zeng, 2000: Real-time wind synthesis from Doppler radar observations during the Mesoscale Alpine Programme. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 81, 2953-2962.

2. James, C. N., S. R. Brodzik, H. Edmon, R. A. Houze, Jr., and S. E. Yuter, 2000: Radar data processing and visualization over complex terrain. Wea. Forecasting, 15, 327-338.

3. Houze, R. A., Jr., C. N. James, and S. Medina, 2001: Radar observations of precipitation and airflow on the Mediterranean side of the Alps: Autumn 1998 and 1999. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 127, 2537-2558.

4. James, C. N., and R. A. Houze, Jr., 2001: A real-time four-dimensional Doppler dealiasing scheme. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 18, 1674-1683.

5. James, C. N., and R. A. Houze, Jr., 2004: Radar Observations of Precipitation Enhancement by the Coastal Terrain of Northern California: October 1995 – March 1998. Mon. Wea. Rev. (in preparation)

Journal articles (cont.)Journal articles (cont.)6. Jones, S, Harr, P, Abraham, Bosart, L.F., Bowyer, Evans, J.L., Hanley, D.E.,

Hanstrum, B.N., Hart, R.E., Lalaurette, F., Sinclair, M.R., Smith, R. and Thorncroft, C., 2003: The extratropical transition of tropical cyclones: forecast challenges, current understanding and future directions. Weather and Forecasting. 18, 16-56

7. Parsons, K.E., 2003: Book review of “The winds of flight”. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 84, 1837-1840.

8. Parsons, K.E., and P.J. Smith, 2004: An investigation of extratropical cyclone development using a scale-separation technique. Monthly Weather Review, 132, 956-974.

9. Sinclair, M.R., 2004: Extratropical transition of southwest Pacific tropical cyclones. Part II: Midlatitude circulation characteristics. Monthly Weather Review, in press

10. Sinclair, M.R., 2002: Extratropical transition of southwest Pacific tropical cyclones. Part I: Climatology and mean structure changes. Monthly Weather Review, 130, 590-609.

Journal articles (cont.)Journal articles (cont.)

11. Sinclair, M.R., and M.J. Revell, 2000: Classification and Composite Diagnosis of Extratropical Cyclogenesis in the Southwest Pacific. Monthly Weather Review, 128, 1089-1105.

12. Sinclair, M.R., and I.G. Watterson, 1999: Objective assessment of extratropical weather systems in simulated climates. Journal of Climate, 12, 3467-3485.

13. Wratt, D.S., M.J. Revell, M.R. Sinclair, W. Gray, R. Henderson, and A.M. Chater, 2000: Relationships between airmass properties and mesoscale rainfall in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Atmospheric Research, 52, 261-282.

Conference proceedings and seminarsConference proceedings and seminars1. James, C., S. Brodzik, H. Edmon, R. A. Houze, Jr., and S. E. Yuter,

1999: MountainZebra: Real-time archival and 4-D visualization of radar volumes over complex terrain. Preprints, COST-75 Final International Seminar on "Advanced Weather Radar Systems," Locarno, Switzerland, 297-306. 

2. Parsons, K.E., and P.J. Smith, 2002: The role of subsynoptic processes in synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone development. Paper presented at the 19th Conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, San Antonio, TX, 12-16 August 2002.

3. Sinclair, M.R., 2003: Influence of midlatitude circulation characteristics on extratropical transition in the southwest Pacific Ocean. . Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography, Wellington, New Zealand. American Meteorological Society, Boston, 116-117. Session Chair. 

4. Sinclair, M.R., 2002: Secular trends in storm track activity from explicit tracking. Abstract Volume, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Spring meeting, Washington DC, 28-31 May, 2002. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 83(19), Spring Meet. Suppl, Abstract. A52E-03 p. S83. Session Chair.

Conferences (cont.)Conferences (cont.)5. Sinclair, M.R., 2003: Meteorological influences on Arizona

Precipitation. Title of a workshop presentation at the Tri-City Water Forum at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, November 15, 2003. 

6. Sinclair, M.R., 2003: Storm Track Activity and its Recent Trend as Deduced from Explicit Tracking. Title of a Research Seminar presented at University of Quebec at Montreal, 19 August, 2003.

7. Sinclair, M.R., 2001. Extratropical Transition of Southwest Pacific Tropical Cyclones. Title of a Research Seminar presented at Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona in February 2001.  

8. Sinclair, M.R., 2000: Extratropical transition in the southwest Pacific. Title of a workshop presentation for New Zealand weather forecasters, Wellington, NZ, July 2000.

9. Sinclair, M.R., 2000: Extratropical transition and transformation of tropical cyclones in the southwest Pacific – an overview. Paper presented at the 11th Extratropical Cyclone Workshop, Monterey, CA, August 2000.

GrantsGrants

Collaborative project: Storm track variations and cyclogenesis: Relationships between cyclone track statistics, eddy statistics, and wave packets. NSF Proposal Number 0405749 under ATM – Large Scale Dynamic Meteorology. (Jointly, Mark Sinclair with Professor Edmund Chang from the State University of New York at Stony Brook). $385,000 (pending)

New instrumentation– Digicora III Sounding system

GPS and UHF antennas (tracking the position and data signal from the radiosonde)

– Honeywell Primus 880 weather radar Upgrade current Primus 400 Digital readout

– MAWS 301 Automatic Weather Station Measures pressure, wind, humidity,

temperature, precipitation and solar radiation

– Graphical weather analysis overlays and calculations

– Real-time data streams from radar, satellite, surface weather observations, upper-air observations, computer models, etc.

– Local weather data from rooftop observations

Computer classrooms

Research directions

The Arizona Drought

Prescott winter precipitation (in) Trend is -0.47

in per decade

The recipe for winter precipitation in Arizona

Lifting and precipitation occurs in shaded region

Upper-level flow

Warm, moist low-level flow

Warm sea temperatures off coast

An active trough over S. California

Sinclair/James Preliminary statistical

analysis of AZ rainfall patterns completed

Incorporate radar and synoptic data

Cyclone dynamicsCyclone dynamics

Parsons Dynamics of

midlatitude cyclones

Midlatitude storm tracksMidlatitude storm tracks

Sinclair Collaborative project: Storm track

variations and cyclogenesis: Relationships between cyclone track statistics, eddy statistics, and wave packets (submitted). NSF Proposal Number 0405749

North Slope

Helsinki

Kansas

London

Rome

New YorkSan Francisco

Cyclones by month