Hurricane season began June 1 and experts from Florida State University and its world renowned meterology program are available to answer media questions and give perspective to news stories as the season unfolds. Among them:
* Paul Ruscher, associate professor of meteorology, is working with graduate student William Maxham and scientists from NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in Miami on issues related to hurricane intensification changes at landfall. During the past few years, many new high-frequency datasets have become available that allow scientists to study the transition as a hurricane makes landfall. Maxham and Ruscher are examining the small-scale motions that are present in these high-frequency datasets, in an effort to examine how boundary layer processes produce changes in hurricane intensity. In addition, Ruscher directs the K-12 activities of the department of meteorology. Through the EXPLORES! program, the department provides an up-to-date World Wide Web site for teachers and the general public on the status of storms in the Atlantic basin. Updates on the tropics can be found at the group's Web site, http://www.met.fsu.edu/explores/tropical.html.
* James Elsner, professor of geography, is an expert on hurricanes, chaos and predictability. He has written a well-received book on hurricane climatology published by Oxford University Press. He has recently developed a model with FSU statistics Associate Professor Xufeng Niu and FSU statistics alumnus Thomas Jagger that analyzes the probability of hurricane winds in coastal counties from Texas to North Carolina. In 2000, Elsner predicted an increased likelihood of major hurricanes striking the U.S. Gulf Coast in the next 10 to 20 years. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Risk Prediction Initiative, a consortium of reinsurance companies, and by Florida State University Cornerstone Program.
* Tiruvalam Krishnamurti, a meteorology professor, developed the Super Ensemble hurricane prediction technique in 1999 that yields more accurate long-range track and intensity forecasts than other techniques. Krishnamurti is an international expert in the computer modeling of tropical meteorology and numerical weather prediction and is the director of the FSU Cooperative Institute of Tropical Meteorology. In 1999, he became one of the few Americans ever to win the International Meteorological Organization Prize, the world's top meteorology award.
* Robert Deyle, associate professor of urban and regional planning. Principal areas of expertise include mitigation planning and disaster recovery planning. Helped develop a tax model in 1999 that spreads the costs of emergency planning, response and recovery efforts for hurricanes more equitably by requiring those at greatest risk to pay the biggest share. He and a colleague developed a gaming simulation in 2000 for training local officials about hurricane recovery planning, operations and decision making. Workshops using the gaming simulation are currently being offered by the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
* James J. O'Brien, a professor of meteorology and oceanography, is the director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies. An internationally known expert on El Nino and related weather phenomena, O'Brien also is the State Climatologist of Florida and is a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Letters and Science.
RSS