news
Support for Satellite Research
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded a $3.75 million grant to support satellite based research studies on internal waves and typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean. As chairman of the University of Miami's (UM's) Division of Applied Marine Physics, and co-director of the Center of Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), Dr. Hans Graber will lead this effort and help to make substantial headway toward a better understanding of upper ocean dynamics, coastal processes, and electromagnetic and acoustic remote sensing of the ocean. "We have a great deal of knowledge and data regarding hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Basin, so we're trying to translate that knowledge to typhoon prediction and observation," said Graber. "By looking into how typhoons react when they encounter major ocean currents, larger waves, topography of islands and archipelagos in the Western Pacific Ocean, and how these factors influence the strengthening of typhoons, we hope to be able to provide the support and resources necessary to advance current methods of storm modeling and disaster mitigation." Administered over a period of three years, the ONR grant is helping to fund greater utilization of satellite data for a wide variety of projects; a factor in understanding the generation mechanism and evolution of internal waves. Several experiments in southeast Asia are being conducted by scientists at UM's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, in collaboration with Taiwanese universities, to help to develop algorithms to more accurately specify the wind and wave fields in typhoons, and better characterize the morphology of super typhoons. The project, entitled: Satellite SAR Exploitation and Imaging and Measurement of Oceanic Phenomena complements several projects within the Rosenstiel School involving Graber and co-investigators, including Drs. Michael Caruso, William Drennan, Roland Romeiser and Neil Williams, who are studying different aspects of cyclogenesis, air-sea interactions and internal wave properties. One goal of the new ONR project is to use CSTARS' unique capabilities to acquire global satellite data from a variety of satellite sensors and apply it to
Dynamic Flow Patters: Gap winds show the strong variability of winds patterns over the Philippines caused by the blockage of mountains and openings through valleys.
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Envisat/UM CSTARS)
10 MTR
March 2009
You don't have Macromedia Flash Player installed.
This content requires the Macromedia Flash Player.
Get Flash
www.marinelink.com