New paper published in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) on the dynamics of megafire smoke plumes, click here for the full article. News stories on the research can be found here and here.
Graduate student Badrul Hasan successfully defends M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, click here for more details.
The paper, “The Effects of Numerical Dissipation on Hurricane Rapid Intensification with Observational Heating” is fully published at the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES). Dr. Guimond advised student Badrul Hasan on this project. This paper examines the computational fluid dynamics of the hurricane rapid intensification process using the dynamic cores of two numerical models. We show that the community atmospheric model used for extreme weather operations and research (WRF) has excessive numerical dissipation relative to research codes (element-based Galerkin methods). This computational aspect affects the physics of the intensification process through the development and evolution of convective perturbations and their interaction with the mean flow. We believe the operational low-bias or underprediction of hurricane rapid intensification cases is partly due to this computational effect.
Hasan, M.B., S.R. Guimond, M. Yu, S. Reddy and F.X. Giraldo, 2022. The effects of numerical dissipation on hurricane rapid intensification with observational heating. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 14 (8), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002897
The proposal “GEOS Visualization And Lagrangian dynamics Immersive eXtended Reality (VALIXR) tool for scientific discovery” (PI: Thomas Grubb, Co-Is: Tom Clune, Steve Guimond, Matthias Zwicker, Leslie Lait and Ruth West) was selected for funding from the NASA AIST program. This AIST project will develop a scientific exploration and analysis tool using augmented and virtual reality along with Lagrangian Dynamics (LD) to provide more in-depth science with the NASA GEOS climate/weather model. Dr. Guimond is responsible for portions of the LD software tool and understanding the value for wildfire smoke plume science.
The paper, “Contrasting Stratospheric Smoke Mass and Lifetime from 2017 Canadian and 2019/2020 Australian Megafires: Global Simulations and Satellite Observations” is fully published at the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. Megafire events are becoming more common in a warming world and studies are needed to examine the physical mechanisms for plume lofting and stratospheric residence time as these are key metrics for radiative forcing of the Earth. This paper examines two megafire events with two global climate models to understand the climate sensitivity from uncertain parameters in the plume representation. Stratospheric removal timescales and plume peak heights are most sensitive to injection height, black carbon mass loading and mixing state.
D’Angelo, G., S.R. Guimond, J. Reisner, D.A. Peterson and M. Dubey, 2021. Contrasting stratospheric smoke mass and lifetime from 2017 Canadian and 2019/2020 Australian megafires: Global simulations and satellite observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127 (10). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036249
The proposal “UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE AND ROLE OF THE TURBULENT BOUNDARY LAYER IN HURRICANE INTENSITY CHANGE” (Principal Investigator: Dr. Steve Guimond) was selected for funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Marine Meteorology and Space program. The Marine Meteorology and Space program sponsors innovative basic and applied research in the broad thrust areas of atmospheric prediction, atmospheric effects, air-sea interaction, marine boundary layer processes and space environment. Emphasis is placed on basic research aimed at improving the fundamental understanding of atmospheric processes, and applied research on the data, analysis and prediction systems for forecasting environmental parameters critical to Navy and Marine Corps operations in marine and littoral zones.
The proposal “UNDERSTANDING THE TURBULENT DYNAMICS OF CONVECTIVE BURSTS AND TROPICAL CYCLONE INTENSIFICATION USING LARGE EDDY SIMULATIONS AND HIGH-ORDER NUMERICS” (Principal Investigator: Dr. Steve Guimond in collaboration with Dr. Simone Marras at NJIT) was selected for funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Physical and Dynamic Meteorology Program. This project will study the fluid mechanics of turbulence, convection and hurricane intensification with advanced numerical models and remote sensing data.
https://news.umbc.edu/hurricanes-well-being-and-ai-start-awards-set-up-umbc-researchers-for-success/