Mask, A. (2002). An open boundary condition for layer to level ocean model interaction . Ph.D. thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Mask, A. C. (1996). Wind driven effects on the yellow sea warm current . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Mask, A. C., O'Brien, J. J., & Preller, R. (1998). Wind-driven effects on the Yellow Sea Warm Current. J. Geophys. Res. , 103 (C13), 30713–30729.
Maue, R. (2010). Warm Seclusion Extratropical Cyclones . Ph.D. thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: The warm seclusion or mature stage of the extratropical cyclone lifecycle often has structural characteristics reminiscent of major tropical cyclones including eye-like moats of calm air at the barotropic warm-core center surrounded by hurricane force winds along the bent-back warm front. Many extratropical cyclones experience periods of explosive intensification or deepening (bomb) as a result of nonlinear dynamical feedbacks associated with latent heat release. Considerable dynamical structure changes occur during short time periods of several hours in which lower stratospheric and upper-tropospheric origin potential vorticity combines with ephemeral lower-tropospheric, diabatically generated potential vorticity to form a coherent, upright tower circulation. At the center, anomalously warm and moist air relative to the surrounding environment is secluded and may exist for days into the future. Even with the considerable body of research conducted during the last century, many questions remain concerning the warm seclusion process. The focus of this work is on the diagnosis, climatology, and synoptic-dynamic development of the warm seclusion and surrounding flank of intense winds. To develop a climatology of warm seclusion and explosive extratropical cyclones, current long-period reanalysis datasets are utilized along with storm tracking procedures and cyclone phase space diagnostics. Limitations of the reanalysis products are discussed with special focus on tropical cyclone diagnosis and the recent dramatic decrease in global accumulated tropical cyclone energy. A large selection of case studies is simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model using full-physics and “fake dry” adiabatic runs in order to capture the very fast warm seclusion development. Results are presented concerning the critical role of latent heat release and the combination of advective and diabatically generated potential vorticity in the generation of the coherent tower circulation characteristic of the warm seclusion. To motivate future research, issues related to predictability are discussed with focus on medium-range forecasts of varying extratropical cyclone lifecycles. Additional work is presented relating tropical cyclones and large-scale climate variability with special emphasis on the abrupt and dramatic decline in recent global tropical cyclone accumulated cyclone energy.
Maue, R. N. (2004). Evolution of Frontal Structure Associated with Extratropical Transitioning Hurricanes . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: Many tropical cyclones move poleward, encounter vertical shear associated with the midlatitude circulation, and undergo a process called extratropical transition (ET). One of the many factors affecting the post-transition extratropical storm in terms of reintensification, frontal structure, and overall evolution is the upper-level flow pattern. Schultz et al. (1998) categorized extratropical cyclones according to two of the many possible cyclone paradigms in terms of the upper-level trough configuration: The Norwegian cyclone model (Bjerknes and Solberg 1922) associated with high-amplitude diffluent trough flow and the Shapiro-Keyser cyclone lifecycle (1990) with low-amplitude confluent troughs. Broadly speaking, the former category is associated with a strong, meridionally oriented cold front with a weak warm front while the latter lifecycle usually entails a prominent, zonally oriented warm front. However, as will be shown, simple antipode lifecycle definitions fail to capture hybrid or cross-lifecycle evolution of transitioned tropical cyclones. To exemplify the importance upper-level features such as jet streaks and troughs, a potential vorticity framework is coupled with vector frontogenesis functions to diagnose the interaction between the poleward transitioning cyclone and the midlatitude circulation. Particular focus is concentrated upon the evolution and strength of frontal fracture from both a PV and frontogenesis viewpoint. The final outcome of extratropical transition is highly variable depending on characteristics of the tropical cyclone, SSTs, and environmental factors such as strength of vertical shear. Here, three storms (Irene 1999, Fabian 2003, and Kate 2003) typify the inherent variability of one such ET outcome, warm seclusion. Very strong winds are often observed in excess of 50 ms-1 along the southwestern flank of the storm down the bent-back warm front. The low-level wind field kinematics are examined using vector frontogenesis functions and QuikSCAT winds. A complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) technique is adapted to temporally interpolate ECMWF model fields (T, MSLP) to overpass times of the scatterometer, an improvement over simple linear interpolation. Overall, the above diagnosis is used to support a hypothesis concerning the prevalence of hurricane-force winds surrounding secluded systems.
Keywords: Extratropical Transition, Frontogenesis, Fronts, Quikscat, Cyclone Lifecycles, Warm Seclusion, Frontal Fracture, Potential Vorticity, Hurricane Kate, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Fabian, Tropical Cyclones
Maue, R. N. (2009). Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclone activity. Geophys. Res. Lett. , 36 (5).
Maue, R. N., & Hart, R. E. (2007). Comment on “Low frequency variability in globally integrated tropical cyclone power dissipation” by Ryan Sriver and Matthew Huber. Geophys. Res. Lett. , 34 (11).
May, J. (2010). Quantifying Variance Due to Temporal and Spatial Difference Between Ship and Satellite Winds . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: Ocean vector winds measured by the SeaWinds scatterometer onboard the QuikSCAT satellite can be validated with in situ data. Ideally the comparison in situ data would be collocated in both time and space to the satellite overpass; however, this is rarely the case because of the time sampling interval of the in situ data and the sparseness of data. To compensate for the lack of ideal collocations, in situ data that are within a certain time and space range of the satellite overpass are used for comparisons. To determine the total amount of random observational error, additional uncertainty from the temporal and spatial difference must be considered along with the uncertainty associated with the data sets. The purpose of this study is to quantify the amount of error associated with the two data sets, as well as the amount of error associated with the temporal and/or spatial difference between two observations. The variance associated with a temporal difference between two observations is initially examined in an idealized case that includes only Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS) one-minute data. Temporal differences can be translated into spatial differences by using Taylor's hypothesis. The results show that as the time difference increases, the amount of variance increases. Higher wind speeds are also associated with a larger amount of variance. Collocated SeaWinds and SAMOS observations are used to determine the total variance associated with a temporal (equivalent) difference from 0 to 60 minutes. If the combined temporal and spatial difference is less than 25 minutes (equivalent), the variance associated with the temporal and spatial difference is offset by the observational errors, which are approximately 1.0 m2s-2 for wind speeds between 4 and 7 ms-1 and approximately 1.5 m2s-2 for wind speeds between 7 and 12 ms-1. If the combined temporal and spatial difference is greater than 25 minutes (equivalent), then the variance associated with the temporal and spatial difference is no longer offset by the variance associated with observational error in the data sets; therefore, the total variance gradually increases as the time difference increases.
McDonald, E. M. (2007). Designing Reliable Large-Scale Storage Arrays . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: Large-scale storage arrays are always in high demand by universities, government agencies, web search engines, and research laboratories. This unvarying need for more data storage has begun to push storage array magnitudes into an unknown stratum. As storage systems continue to outgrow the terabyte class and move into the petabyte range, these colossal arrays begin to show design limitations. This thesis focuses primarily on disk drives as the building blocks of reliable large-scale storage arrays. As a feasibility baseline, the overall reliability of large-scale storage arrays should be greater than that of a single disk. However, petabyte- and exabyte-sized systems, requiring thousands to millions of disk drives, present a serious challenge in terms of reliability. Therefore, multi-level redundancy schemes must be used in order to slow these dwindling reliabilities. This work, based upon the previous research of redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID) by Patterson et al., introduces the reliability analysis of dual- and tri-level Grouped RAID (GRAID) configurations. As storage arrays rapidly increase in size, the use of multi-level redundancy is essential. Design recommendations for various large-scale storage arrays, ranging from 100 Tebibytes (TiB) to 100 Exbibytes (EiB), can be generated using the custom reliability calculator tool written in MATLAB. The analysis of these design recommendations shows that dual-level GRAID configurations are only recommended for array magnitudes up to 5 PiB. Beyond this threshold, tri-level GRAID demonstrates feasibility for storage magnitudes up to 100 EiB and beyond.
Melsom, A., Meyers, S. D., O'Brien, J. J., Hurlburt, H. E., & Metzger, J. E. (1999). ENSO Effects on Gulf of Alaska Eddies. Earth Interact. , 3 (1), 1–30.
