The Meteorological Buoy and Coastal Marine Automated Network for the United States (1998) / Chapter Skim
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4 Importance of Buoy/C-MAN Observations to Research and Operational Services
4 Importance of Buoy/C-MAN Observations to Research and Operational Services
Pages 40-55
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From page 40... ...
This section presents an overview of some of the significant contributions of buoy/C-MAN data in supporting research and in extending the range of warning and forecast services. The United States arguably faces the world's greatest weather challenges with the most formidable array of weather extremes and the highest economic stakes.
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From page 41... ...
One of the most valuable operational uses of buoy/C-MAN observations is that they permit forecasters to monitor pressure, wind, wave, and temperature conditions continuously in the coastal and immediate offshore waters. These reports allow forecasters to fine tune model-generated forecast storm tracks and to evaluate critical derived information (such as the strength ofthe coastal barocTinic zone)
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From page 42... ...
Coastal fronts possess operational significance because the frontal position often coincides with the rain/snow line and the axis of heaviest precipitation in advance of a coastal cyclone. Coastal marine observations (including buoy and C-MAN 42 Meteorological Buoy and Coastal Marine Automated Network
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From page 43... ...
The availability of NWS NWS88D Doppler radar observations in conjunction with buoy/C-MAN reports and other conventional data sources has enabled researchers to better understand how differential diabetic heating across near-shore and offshore oceanic thermal gradients has contributed to in situ coastal frontogenesis and cyclogenesis (e.g., Davis and Dolan, 1992; Clone et al., 1993; Davis et al., 1993~. The results from research on coastal storms and related phenomena have been used in turn by operational meteorologists to make improved weather forecasts (e.g., Gurka et al., 1995; Keeter et al., 1995~.
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(1996) investigated the recent trend for observed wave heights to increase over the North Atlantic Ocean.
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From page 45... ...
Given the importance of the timing of the return now of moisture to episodic storm and precipitation events, sometimes severe, over the Plains and Tower Mississippi Valley, it is crucial that offshore marine observations be readily available to forecasters charged with multiple public safety responsibilities (e.g., the evacuation of personnel from offshore oil platforms before hazardous weather arrives) and to researchers trying to document and understand the life cycles of the often complex convective systems that form in this region (e.g., Fritsch et al., 1986; Johns and Do swell, 1992; Hagemeyer, 1997; Laing and Fritsch, 1997~.
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(1994) have used moored buoy measurements to compute significant wave heights (3-8 m)
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From page 47... ...
across coastal and interior California (e.g., Monteverdi and Johnson, 1996) might be easier to forecast if more information were available on wind, temperature, and moisture conditions from moored buoys on air masses approaching coastal California.
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(e.g., GulfofMexico Hurricane Eloise, 1975 at Environmental Buoy #71; EB71; East Coast Hurricane Belle, 1976 at EB04~. These data sets and the many additional data from hurricanes that followed have greatly improved our understanding of the structure of the marine surface wind fields in intense TC wind fields and have had a significant impact on TC forecasts and warnings, TC boundary layer research, diagnostic studies, three-dimensional dynamic models, ocean response modeling, and specification of design criteria for offshore and coastal structure.
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From page 49... ...
In situ sensors are needed to correctly resolve the intensity of storms of greater intensity. Ocean Response Modeling The enhanced ability enabled by the NDBC buoy measurements to specify surface wind and stress fields in TCs through synoptic analysis and Importance of BuoylC-MAN Observations 49
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From page 50... ...
The NDBC buoys and their Canadian cousins moored on the Scotian Shelf and Grand Banks have measured record high sea states (significant wave heights up to 17 m and maximum wave heights up to 30 m) in recent severe hurricanes, as well as in severe extratropical storms such as the Storm of the Century (1993)
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(1997a) show regional differences in annual alongshore wind and SST at selected buoys off the west coast.
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Model in which the original RFE surface temperature analysis was replaced by a new objective analysis in which ah available temperature observations from buoys and ships of opportunity over the Gulf of Mexico were included. A comparison of the RFE runs using the original and modified objective analyses suggested that forecasts of the incipient cyclogenesis were significantly improved with the better surface tem 52 Meteorological Buoy and Coastal Marine Automated Network
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In addition to direct studies of the coastal ocean, buoy data have been applied to studies of coastal meteorological processes, such as the structure of the marine boundary layer (BeardsTey et al., 1987) and coastal gravity currents (Dorman, 1987~.
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During the late fall through early spring, strong horizontal temperature contrasts often arise due to the offshore presence of the Gulf Stream and cold dry air over the adjacent land. Many times, the average distance to the Gulf Stream from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina is less than 60 km, with typical air temperature above the Gulf Stream front ranging between 22°C and 24°C, while nearby land based air temperatures range between -20°C and 10°C.
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From page 55... ...
Collaborating researchers from North Carolina State University and the NWS operational forecasters in Raleigh use a 1 km resolution version of the Princeton Coastal Ocean Model. Predicted storm tracks with marine buoy and C-MAN winds are used to direct inputs in both forecasting and, following storm passage, post-analysis assessment.
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