Each of these images is
used courtesy of N.O.A.A.
The images have their own links to the corresponding
NOAA federal agency.
| Mailing Address |
Paul Stuart Wichansky
Center for Environmental Prediction Department of Environmental Sciences Rutgers University Environmental & Natural Resources Building 14 College Farm Road New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8551 |
 Education 2005 Ph.D Candidate, Environmental Sciences, Option in Meteorology.
1999 Master of Science, Meteorology.
1993 Bachelor of Science, Meteorology.
Cooperative Education at Cook College One of the most valuable programs that has provided me with professional guidance has been the cooperative education program at Cook College. The co-op program basically allows students the opportunity to be employed in their respective majors prior to graduation, while earning a salary and credits toward their undergraduate degree. I was employed as a cooperative education student at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, involved with numerical simulations of the future climate. A few years later, I secured several consecutive experiences with the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), focusing on satellite-based applications designed to improve operational National Weather Service forecasts. As the former vice-president of the cooperative education honor society at Cook College, I have authored an article which appeared in the college's newspaper in late 1997. Please click here to read this article which describes the benefits of a cooperative education experience. As our primary prediction tool to anticipate climate changes, general circulation models continue to be used extensively by meteorologists and climatologists. These are state-of-the-art numerical models that simulate the dynamics and thermodynamics associated with the global circulation of the Earth's atmosphere. These models generally have grid resolutions on the order of hundreds of kilometers. This means that each grid cell within the model can only resolve processes that occur within a minimum of two adjacent grid cells. As a result, there are smaller-scale atmospheric and land-surface processes, such as turbulence or convection, that occur within the spacing of a single grid cell, making these kinds of processes unresolved in the model. To account for these mesoscale processes which can have very important influences upon dynamics at the global scale, parameterizations must therefore be developed and incorporated into the simulations. These parameterizations are not direct representations of smaller-scale processes, but simply account for the horizontal and vertical transports of energy, moisture, and momentum that have significant influences upon the simulated circulation patterns. The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System, or RAMS, is a complex numerical model that is used primarily to simulate the atmosphere on a regional scale. The domain used in RAMS can have grid resolutions as fine as 5 kilometers, making the numerical model ideal for examining sea-breeze circulations and other atmospheric processes that can occur at this scale. RAMS was originally developed at Colorado State University, and continues to be continually upgraded with the latest parameterizations which were not yet incorporated into previous versions.
Research Interests The basis of my proposed research is as follows: as residential and commercial developments continue to encroach upon vegetated land, many empirical and numerical studies have shown that this urbanization has a profound influence upon mean thermal profiles, particularly within the nocturnal atmospheric boundary layer in urban locales. Few studies, however, have diagnosed the effects of urbanization upon boundary-layer thermal and moisture profiles using a regional mesoscale numerical model. Thus, the evaluation of the effects of regional land-use changes upon temperature and precipitation would provide additional confidence in anticipating important long-term environmental changes that can occur within a metropolitan area. Because the northeastern United States is among those regions of the world that has witnessed dramatic changes in land-use patterns resulting from extensive agricultural, urban, and industrial development during the last century, this would be a particularly interesting domain in which to examine both maritime influences and distinct land-use variations upon the regional climate. Since early November, I am presently in the process of learning how to use this mesoscale model, and also understanding the many types of parameterizations available. A postdoctoral student in the department, Chris Weaver, has become my mentor and has provided valuable assistance and insights into the variety of applications available with RAMS. Please click here to visit his own web site. Since early March 2000, I have successfully executed the RAMS model. My objective has been to simulate the sea-breeze phenomenon along the coastal sections of New Jersey, using a 5-kilometer grid resolution. Investigating the various parameterizations available, in addition to reading the scientific literature on the topic, will facilitate my understanding of RAM during the next few months. | |