Henson, J. I., Muller-Karger, F., Wilson, D., Morey, S. L., Maul, G. A., Luther, M., et al. (2006). Strategic geographic positioning of sea level gauges to aid in early detection of tsunamis in the Intra-Americas Sea. Science of Tsunami Hazards , 25 (3), 173–207.
Hilburn, K. A. (2003). Development of scatterometer-derived surface pressures for the Southern Ocean. J. Geophys. Res. , 108 (C7).
Hilburn, K. A., Bourassa, M. A., & O'Brien, J. J. (2002). Development of scatterometer-derived research-quality surface pressure fields for the Southern Ocean . Orlando, FL: AMS.
Hite, M., Bourassa, M. A., & O'Brien, J. J. (2006). Objective detection of Atlantic tropical disturbances. In 14th Conference on Interactions of the Sea and Atmosphere, AMS, Monterey, CA, USA (cdrom).
Hite, M. M., Bourassa, M. A., & O'Brien, J. J. (2006). Vorticity-Based Detection Of Tropical Cyclones. In 14th Conference on Interactions of the Sea and Atmosphere, American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, Ga, USA (cdrom).
Hoffman, R. N., Privé, N., & Bourassa, M. (2017). Comments on “Reanalyses and Observations: What's the Difference?”. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. , 98 (11), 2455–2459.
Abstract: Are there important differences between reanalysis data and familiar observations and measurements? If so, what are they? This essay evaluates four possible answers that relate to: the role of inference, reliance on forecasts, the need to solve an ill-posed inverse problem, and understanding of errors and uncertainties. The last of these is argued to be most significant. The importance of characterizing uncertainties associated with results—whether those results are observations or measurements, analyses or reanalyses, or forecasts—is emphasized.
Holbach, H. M., Uhlhorn, E. W., & Bourassa, M. A. (2018). Off-Nadir SFMR Brightness Temperature Measurements in High-Wind Conditions. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. , 35 (9), 1865–1879.
Abstract: Wind and wave-breaking directions are investigated as potential sources of an asymmetry identified in off-nadir remotely sensed measurements of ocean surface brightness temperatures obtained by the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) in high-wind conditions, including in tropical cyclones. Surface wind speed, which dynamically couples the atmosphere and ocean, can be inferred from SFMR ocean surface brightness temperature measurements using a radiative transfer model and an inversion algorithm. The accuracy of the ocean surface brightness temperature to wind speed calibration relies on accurate knowledge of the surface variables that are influencing the ocean surface brightness temperature. Previous studies have identified wind direction signals in horizontally polarized radiometer measurements in low to moderate (0�20 m s−1) wind conditions over a wide range of incidence angles. This study finds that the azimuthal asymmetry in the off-nadir SFMR brightness temperature measurements is also likely a function of wind direction and extends the results of these previous studies to high-wind conditions. The off-nadir measurements from the SFMR provide critical data for improving the understanding of the relationships between brightness temperature, surface wave�breaking direction, and surface wind vectors at various incidence angles, which is extremely useful for the development of geophysical model functions for instruments like the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD).
Hu, X., Cai, M., Yang, S., & Wu, Z. (2018). Delineation of thermodynamic and dynamic responses to sea surface temperature forcing associated with El Niño. Clim Dyn , 51 (11-12), 4329–4344.
Abstract: A new framework is proposed to gain a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere over the tropical Pacific to the radiative heating anomaly associated with the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in canonical El Niño winters. The new framework is based on the equilibrium balance between thermal radiative cooling anomalies associated with air temperature response to SST anomalies and other thermodynamic and dynamic processes. The air temperature anomalies in the lower troposphere are mainly in response to radiative heating anomalies associated with SST, atmospheric water vapor, and cloud anomalies that all exhibit similar spatial patterns. As a result, air temperature induced thermal radiative cooling anomalies would balance out most of the radiative heating anomalies in the lower troposphere. The remaining part of the radiative heating anomalies is then taken away by an enhancement (a reduction) of upward energy transport in the central-eastern (western) Pacific basin, a secondary contribution to the air temperature anomalies in the lower troposphere. Above the middle troposphere, radiative effect due to water vapor feedback is weak. Thermal radiative cooling anomalies are mainly in balance with the sum of latent heating anomalies, vertical and horizontal energy transport anomalies associated with atmospheric dynamic response and the radiative heating anomalies due to changes in cloud. The pattern of Gill-type response is attributed mainly to the non-radiative heating anomalies associated with convective and large-scale energy transport. The radiative heating anomalies associated with the anomalies of high clouds also contribute positively to the Gill-type response. This sheds some light on why the Gill-type atmospheric response can be easily identifiable in the upper atmosphere.
Huang, T., Armstrong, E. M., Bourassa, M. A., Cram, T. A., Elya, J., Greguska, F., et al. (2019). An Integrated Data Analytics Platform. Mar. Sci. , 6 .
Abstract: An Integrated Science Data Analytics Platform is an environment that enables the confluence of resources for scientific investigation. It harmonizes data, tools and computational resources to enable the research community to focus on the investigation rather than spending time on security, data preparation, management, etc. OceanWorks is a NASA technology integration project to establish a cloud-based Integrated Ocean Science Data Analytics Platform for big ocean science at NASA�s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) for big ocean science. It focuses on advancement and maturity by bringing together several NASA open-source, big data projects for parallel analytics, anomaly detection, in situ to satellite data matchup, quality-screened data subsetting, search relevancy, and data discovery.
Our communities are relying on data available through distributed data centers to conduct their research. In typical investigations, scientists would (1) search for data, (2) evaluate the relevance of that data, (3) download it, and (4) then apply algorithms to identify trends, anomalies, or other attributes of the data. Such a workflow cannot scale if the research involves a massive amount of data or multi-variate measurements. With the upcoming NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission expected to produce over 20PB of observational data during its 3-year nominal mission, the volume of data will challenge all existing Earth Science data archival, distribution and analysis paradigms. This paper discusses how OceanWorks enhances the analysis of physical ocean data where the computation is done on an elastic cloud platform next to the archive to deliver fast, web-accessible services for working with oceanographic measurements.
Hughes, P. J. (2006). North Atlantic Decadal Variability of Ocean Surface Fluxes . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: The spatial and temporal variability of the surface turbulent heat fluxes over the North Atlantic is examined using the new objectively produced FSU3 monthly mean 1°x1° gridded wind and surface flux product for 1978-2003. The FSU3 product is constructed from in situ ship and buoy observations via a variational technique. A cost function based on weighted constraints is minimized in the process of determining the surface fluxes. The analysis focuses on a low frequency (basin wide) mode of variability where the latent and sensible heat flux anomalies transition from mainly positive to negative values around 1998. It is hypothesized that the longer time scale variability is linked to changes in the large scale circulation patterns possibly associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO; Schlesinger and Ramankutty 1994, Kerr 2000). The changes in the surface heat fluxes are forced by fluctuations in the mean wind speed. Zonal averages show a clear dissimilarity between the turbulent heat fluxes and wind speed for 1982-1997 and 1998-2003 over the region extending from the equator to roughly 40°N. Larger values are associated with the earlier time period, coinciding with a cool phase of the AMO. The separation between the two time periods is much less evident for the humidity and air/sea temperature differences. The largest differences in the latent heat fluxes, between the two time periods, occur over the tropical, Gulf Stream, and higher latitude regions of the North Atlantic, with magnitudes exceeding 15 Wm-2. The largest sensible heat flux differences are limited to areas along the New England coast and poleward of 40°N.