Stan Gedzelman's Meteorological Research Page
This Web Page includes Powerpoint Presentations and pdf files of meteorological research. Several programs that simulate and animate are included and can be downloaded.

TOPIC 1. O-18 IN TROPICAL RAIN AND WATER VAPOR
 Stable isotopes of water such as oxygen-18 are rare species that provide a strong
 climate signal because they condense more rapidly than the more common form of water.
 As a result, for example, the oxygen-18 content decreases as air ascends a warm front.
 This manifests itself as a poleward decrease of oxygen-18 that is then correlated with
 temperature. The connection between meteorological and chemical processes that underlie
 the strong climate signal has been the focus of my research in this area.

 My research linking stable isotope content of precipitation and water vapor to storm
 structure and water sources has been done over the past 25 years in collaboration with
 Professor James R. Lawrence of the University of Houston. Jim, who got me into this area,
 has been a great colleague and friend over the years.


TOPIC 2. ANOMALOUS INTENSIFICATION OF TS ALLISON (2001) OVER LAND
 Tropical Storm Allison is one of a small number of storms that intensified over land.
 A number of factors contributed to the strengthening inculding the formation of intense,
 organized convection near the core of the storm, and the fact that the storm remained near
 the coast so it could tap the large vapor supply coming off the warm Gulf waters.

 This study was done in collaboration with Kwan-Yin Kong of CCNY, who made the initial
 analyses and ran the MM5 simulations. Kwan took the lead on this project.

TOPIC 3. OBSERVING AND SIMULATING THE NY-NJ SEA BREEZE
 For years I had wanted to study the strong sea breezes and sharp temperature changes that I
 had experienced from childhood living in Far Rockaway along the south shore of Long Island.
 That opportunity became a reality as the result of the convergence of several factors. First,
 MM5 can be used to simulate mesoscale weather phenomena in considerable detail and accuracy.
 Second, Shermane Austin, PI of NASA's MUSPIN project, installed several weather stations in NYC
 schools and organized the mesoscale weather project. Third, we hooked up with several weather
 afficiandoes who formed Weather Access and established a mesoscale network of weather stations
 in New Jersey, and made their data available.
 
 This collaborative study involved the efforts of many people. Professor Shermane Austin
 of Medgar Evers College was leader and PI of the project. Kwan-Yin Kong of CCNY ran the
 MM5 simulations. The New Jersey network of weather stations was run by Nick Stefano,
 Steve Partridge, and Bob Cermack (who processed all the data) of Weather Access, and
 Steve Quesenberry of SJRCDC. Professor David Robinson of Rutgers University contributed
 to the analyses and data processing.

TOPIC 4. A SIMPLE, CHAOTIC THUNDERSTORM MODEL WITH RAIN GUSHES
 Most dynamic models of atmospheric circulations are extremely involved and take many man-years
 to construct. After watching a video produced by Robert Wilhelmson and colleagues showing air
 particles, I determined to create a simple thunderstorm model consisting of particles rather than
 a fluid. The model turned out to produce rain gushes and exhibit irregular variations and chaotic
 properties.

COMPUTER PROGRAMS
 Included here are a few of the computer programs that illustrate or animate various phenomena in
 meteorology and geology. The early programs were written in qbasic, which is no longer available.
 Newer programs are written in visual basic. You can upload the executable files and the codes.