Dr. Richard L. Pfeffer, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(850) 644-5594
Carl-Gustaf Rossby Professor of Meteorology and
Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute. Dynamic Meteorology. Diagnostic studies and computer laboratory modeling of atmospheric processes pertaining to the global atmospheric circulation and hurricane formation.
Pfeffer, R. L., R. Kung, S. Applequist, C. Long and G. Buzyna,
1998: Progress in characterizing the route to geostrophic turbulence
and redesigning thermally-driven rotating annulus
experiments. (INVITED PAPER) Theoretical and Computational Fluid
Dynamics, 9, 253- 57. [A new paradigm is presented for thermally
driven rotating fluid experiments in which external heating is applied
from the top and bottom to produce (i) an internal PV gradient on
which large-scale waves can propagate radially and vertically, and
(ii) a critical surface along which such waves are at least partially
absorbed, as they are in the tropics, thereby making the experiments a
much closer analog to the atmosphere than they have been in the past.]
Challa, M. and R. L. Pfeffer, 1998: Can eddy fluxes serve as a
catalyst for hurricane and typhoon formation? J. Atmos. Sci., 55,
2201-2219. [Going beyond the use of composite data to define the
initial conditions for numerical simulations of tropical storm
evolution, we present t he results of new simulations with initial
conditions derived from an individual tropical disturbance that
developed into a hurricane and one that did not, and we show that the
key difference between the two is the presence of a positive eddy
torque in the developing case and a negative eddy torque in the
non-developing case.]
Cubukco, N., R. Pfeffer and D.E. Dietrich, 2000: A study of the ocean
influences on a hurricane using a coupled ocean model with bathymetry
and land-sea contrasts. J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 481-492.
[This paper gives
evidence that bathymetry and land sea contrasts can have significant
influences on the intensity changes of hurricanes traveling over bodies
of water such as the Gulf of Mexico, even when such disturbances are far
from land]
Mao, Q., S. Chang and R. Pfeffer, 2000: Influence of large-scale
initial ocean mixed layer depth on tropical cyclones. Mo Wea
Rev., 128, 4058-4070. [This paper gives evidence that
background variations of the oceanic mixed layer depth can have
significant influences on the intensity changes in hurricanes as they
move over the tropical ocean]
Pfeffer, R.L., 2003: Laboratory Fluid Dynamics. Encyclopedia of
Atmospheric Sciences, Ed by Holton, Pyle and Curry, publ. Elsevier
Science Ltd. [This article describes a variety of laboratory experiments
that have been applied to an understanding of atmospheric, oceanic and
earth interior convective and rotating flows]
Applequist, S., G.E. Gahrs, R.L. Pfeffer & X.F. Niu, 2002: Comparison of
Methodologies for Probabilistic Quantitative Precipitation
Forecasting. Wea. and Forecasting, 17, 783-799, 2002 [This paper
demonstrates that nonlinear statistical methods give significantly
better probabilistic precipitation forecasts than linear regression,
which is the standard method used by the NWS in MOS guidance]
G.E. Gahrs, Applequist, S., R.L. Pfeffer & X.F. Niu, 2003: Improved
Methodologies for Probabilistic Quantitative Precipitation
Forecasting. Wea. and Forecasting, 18, 879-890,
2003. [This paper shows that probabilistic quantitative precipitation
forecasting can be improved by the use of optimization procedures for
selecting variables and weights to be applied to those variables]
