Mesoscale Meteorology

High-latitude meteorology has its own set of interesting mesoscale phenomena. The Mesoscale Meteorology group studies Arctic stratus cloud formation and dynamics, high-resolution numerical weather prediction, orographic precipitation and circulations, atmosphere-cryosphere interactions, and several other mesoscale phenomena resulting in part from the large density stratification and planetary vorticity typical of the high-latitude environment.

For more information on research opportunities in this group, contact one of the faculty listed below

 

Surface temperature is greatly influenced by the complex topography in Alaska. Click on graphic to see larger version.

 

Dr. Nicole Mölders Investigates the impact of land-use changes on cloud and precipitation formation, water availability as well as  runoff. Numerical modeling techniques are applied for these studies. Herein hydrological and meteorological models are coupled. Simulated results are evaluated by various observations. The sensitivity and uncertainty in predicted water cycle quantities is examined by variational methods.  e-mail: molders 'at' gi.alaska.edu

Mesoscale Modeling and Applications Group Dr. J. Zhang and J. Krieger Mesoscale meteorological studies within the group span a wide variety of topics including air quality dispersion regimes, atmosphere-surface interactions (including orographically generated circulations), the structure and evolution of cloud and precipitation systems and improving numerical weather forecasts. State of the art numerical models, observations and remote sensing are routinely used tools.