SBARG Research Areas

SBARG research interests concentrate on Climate Dynamics, Dynamic Meteorology, Regional atmospheric circulations and Wildfires in California.

Other Research Projects are found in www.icess.ucsb.edu/gem

Current SBARG Research Projects:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

An Investigation of Intraseasonal Oscillations in the Atmosphere and their Interannual Variations

One of the major goals of the CLIVAR Pacific program is to investigate intraseasonal-to-decadal climate variability in the coupled oceanatmosphere system, especially processes that can lead to improvements in the simulations and predictions of ENSO and ENSO-like decadal variations. This project contributes to this effort by investigating the relationships between intraseasonal variations associated with the Madden−Julian oscillation (MJO), non−MJO variability and airsea interaction processes that are relevant to the theory of stochastic forcing of ENSO. The research is based on a comprehensive observational analysis and focuses on the influence of intraseasonal oscillations on synoptictointraseasonal anomalies in surface wind stress and heat fluxes, their coupled and uncoupled (stochastic) structures.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Understanding the Mechanisms of Onset and Demise of the South American Monsoon System

Intense convective activity and heavy precipitation begins in northwestern South America in late August and marches progressively southeastward until it reaches the Brazilian highland. The wet season peaks in the core of the Amazon in austral summer, while deep convection begins to weaken over the Amazon in early March and the dry season persists throughout most of the austral winter. It has been increasingly common to refer to this strong summertime convective activity, intense precipitation, and large-scale atmospheric circulation features as the South American monsoon system (SAMS). One of the main goals of the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas (CPPA) is “to improve operational monitoring and prediction of intraseasonal to interannual climate and hydrologic variations in the Americas through improved physical process understanding and modeling”. SAMS has been extensively investigated over the years and its variability is recognized to play a major role in the climate of tropical and subtropical South America. While some mechanisms for the onset and demise of SAMS have been proposed, a thorough understanding of the dominant dynamical processes determining the migration of SAMS still elude the research community. This project will develop extensive observational and diagnostic analyses to improve and unify our current understanding and monitoring of the onset and demise of SAMS.

US Department of Agriculture (US Forest Service), 02-JV-1272169-0045
High-Resolution Real-Time Forecasts for Southern California: Applications to Wildfire Management

In southern California, climate, hydrology, soils, topography and vegetation community composition are closely linked. The climate in the region is typical of most Mediterranean regions, including moderate to high seasonal temperatures, winter precipitation and summer drought. The most abundant type of vegetation in the region is chaparral, which includes a suite of vegetation communities adapted to extended periods of little to no precipitation, high summer temperatures and, most importantly, frequent wildfires. Catastrophic wildfires attest to the destructive potential and high social cost of wildfire along the wildland/urban interface. This project focuses on building diagnostic and forecast tools to assess the potential of wildfires in California.

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Last modified: 11/22/04