Address:  National Severe Storms Laboratory
1313 Halley Circle     
 Norman, OK 73069        

Phone: (405) 366-0586 
Fax:  (405) 366-0472

Current Research:

I am investigating the feasibility of assimilating WSR-88D retrieved winds into mesoscale model initial conditions. A feasibility study is needed because a complete network of WSR-88Ds now exists across the contiguous United States providing nearly continuous spatial coverage of reflectivity and radial winds. This recently deployed remote observing system will provide a data set of unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The possible incorporation of such a rich data set into mesoscale models warrants further study.

A Simple Adjoint (SA) single-Doppler wind retrieval technique (Qiu and Xu 1992) will be utilized to obtain the full 3-dimensional wind field. Using observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs), the potential strengths and weaknesses of the SA method will be explored. Output from the Penn State/National Center for Atmospheric Research mesoscale model (MM5) will serve as input into the SA technique for the OSSE study. Retrievals obtained from the SA code can then be matched against results from the MM5 simulation. OSSEs should address potential problems that may be encountered when determining the ability of the SA method to accurately retrieve wind-field information from a WSR-88D system.

Meteorological and scientifically-related links:

Heard of the Big Crunch Theory? Dr. David Goodstein (Caltech Vice Provost and Physics Professor) presents this theory with the underlying premise that modern science began 300 years ago and proceeded to grow exponentially. However, this rapid growth could not be maintained forever (else there would eventually be more scientists on this planet than there are humans!) and did stop around the year 1970. Dr. Goodstein refers to this stop in exponential growth as the onset of The Big Crunch (analogous to the Cosmological Big Crunch Theory). He goes on to say that unfortunately few scientists have taken notice of this new era or regime that we are in, and, even more so, the serious consequences thereof.

The current paradox of Scientific Elites and Scientific Illiterates.

How to define conduct and misconduct in Science. The Public Health Service (PHS) (parent of the National Institutes of Health or NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) define Scientific Misconduct as "...fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the scientific community for proposing, conducting and reporting research." Scary, isn't it?