Smith, S. R., Briggs, K., Bourassa, M. A., Elya, J., & Paver, C. R. (2018). Shipboard automated meteorological and oceanographic system data archive: 2005-2017. Geosci Data J , 5 (2), 73–86.
Abstract: Since 2005, the Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS) initiative has been collecting, quality-evaluating, distributing, and archiving underway navigational, meteorological, and oceanographic observations from research vessels. Herein we describe the procedures for acquiring ship and instrumental metadata and the one-minute interval observations from 44 research vessels that have contributed to the SAMOS initiative from 2005 to 2017. The overall data processing workflow and quality control procedures are documented along with data file formats and version control procedures. The SAMOS data are disseminated to the user community via web, FTP, and Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services from both the Marine Data Center at the Florida State University and the National Centers for Environmental Information, which serves as the long-term archive for the SAMOS initiative. They have been used to address topics ranging from air-sea interaction studies, the calibration, evaluation, and development of satellite observational products, the evaluation of numerical atmospheric and ocean models, and the development of new tools and techniques for geospatial data analysis in the informatics community. Maps provide users the geospatial coverage within the SAMOS dataset, with a focus on the Essential Climate/Ocean Variables, and recommendations are made regarding which versions of the dataset should be accessed by different user communities.
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Stallard, A. (2017). Comparing SAMOS Document Search Performance Between Apache Solr and Neo4j . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Stauffer, C. L. (2018). Air-sea coupling dependency on sea surface temperature fronts as observed by research vessel data . Bachelor's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Steffen, J., & Bourassa, M. (2018). Barrier Layer Development Local to Tropical Cyclones based on Argo Float Observations. J. Phys. Oceanogr. , 48 (9), 1951–1968.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to quantify barrier layer development due to tropical cyclone (TC) passage using Argo float observations of temperature and salinity. To accomplish this objective, a climatology of Argo float measurements is developed from 2001 to 2014 for the Atlantic, eastern Pacific, and central Pacific basins. Each Argo float sample consists of a prestorm and poststorm temperature and salinity profile pair. In addition, a no-TC Argo pair dataset is derived for comparison to account for natural ocean state variability and instrument sensitivity. The Atlantic basin shows a statistically significant increase in barrier layer thickness (BLT) and barrier layer potential energy (BLPE) that is largely attributable to an increase of 2.6 m in the post-TC isothermal layer depth (ITLD). The eastern Pacific basin shows no significant changes to any barrier layer characteristic, likely due to a shallow and highly stratified pycnocline. However, the near-surface layer freshens in the upper 30 m after TC passage, which increases static stability. Finally, the central Pacific has a statistically significant freshening in the upper 20-30 m that increases upper-ocean stratification by similar to 35%. The mechanisms responsible for increases in BLPE vary between the Atlantic and both Pacific basins; the Atlantic is sensitive to ITLD deepening, while the Pacific basins show near-surface freshening to be more important in barrier layer development. In addition, Argo data subsets are used to investigate the physical relationships between the barrier layer and TC intensity, TC translation speed, radial distance from TC center, and time after TC passage.
Stewart, M. L. (2007). Cyclogenesis and Tropical Transition in Frontal Zones . Master's thesis, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Abstract: Tropical cyclones can form from many different precursors, including baroclinic systems. The process of an extratropical system evolving into a warm core tropical cyclone is defined by Davis and Bosart (2004) as a Tropical Transition (TT) with further classification of systems into Weak Extratropical Cylclones (WEC) and Strong Extratropical Cyclones (SEC). It is difficult to predict which systems will make the transition and which will not, but the description of a common type of TT occurring along a front will aid forecasters in identifying systems that might undergo TT. A wind speed and SST relationship thought to be necessary for this type of transition is discussed. QuikSCAT and other satellite data are used to locate TT cases forming along fronts and track their transformation into tropical systems. Frontal TT is identified as a subset of SEC TT and the evolution from a frontal wave to a tropical system is described in five stages. A frontal wave with stronger northerly wind and weaker southerly wind is the first stage in the frontal cyclogenesis. As the extratropical cyclogenesis continues in the next two stages, bent back warm front stage and instant occlusion stage, the warmer air of the bent back front becomes surrounded by cooler air . Next, in the subtropical stage the latent heat release energy from the ocean surface begins ascent and forms a shallow warm core. As the energy from surface heat fluxes translates to convection within the system, the warm core extends further into the upper levels of the atmosphere in the final, tropical stage of TT. Model data from MM5 simulations of three storms, Noel (2001), Peter (2003) and Gaston (2004) are analyzed to illustrate the five stages of frontal TT. Noel is found to have the most baroclinic origin of the three and Gaston the least.
