Now & Then: From Manager to Meteorologist From Heavenly Bodies to Barometers

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-129
Author(s):  
Sue Barnes ◽  
Karen Dee Michalowicz ◽  
Melanie A. Womack
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Severe Weather ◽  
Television Station ◽  
Large Town ◽  
Southern Louisiana

Now… Shreveport is a large town in Northwest Louisiana. A state that is classified as a severe-weather area. Northern Louisiana is often hit by thunderstorms and tornadoes. Southern Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico, is susceptible to hurricanes during late summer. When the manager of television station KSLA in Shreveport began looking for a person to fill the weather-news slot a few years ago, he did not want someone who could just point to a weather map. He wanted a good meteorologist. In regions that have invariant weather, those people who give the weather are usually actors or actresses who read the predictions prepared by someone else. The study of weather, however, is called meteorology, and a professional meteorologist is someone who has a degree in weather study. Even in area with severeweather conditions, some television stations do not hire a professional meteorologist but hire a broadcast meteorologist instead. A broadcast meteorologist is a journalist who has taken general courses in meteorology while studying for a communications or journalism degree.

scholarly journals Hurricane Gustav (2008) Waves and Storm Surge: Hindcast, Synoptic Analysis, and Validation in Southern Louisiana

2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (8) ◽  
pp. 2488-2522 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Dietrich ◽  
J. J. Westerink ◽  
A. B. Kennedy ◽  
J. M. Smith ◽  
R. E. Jensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
Unstructured Mesh ◽  
Wind Waves ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Research Division ◽  
Time Histories ◽  
Southern Louisiana

AbstractHurricane Gustav (2008) made landfall in southern Louisiana on 1 September 2008 with its eye never closer than 75 km to New Orleans, but its waves and storm surge threatened to flood the city. Easterly tropical-storm-strength winds impacted the region east of the Mississippi River for 12–15 h, allowing for early surge to develop up to 3.5 m there and enter the river and the city’s navigation canals. During landfall, winds shifted from easterly to southerly, resulting in late surge development and propagation over more than 70 km of marshes on the river’s west bank, over more than 40 km of Caernarvon marsh on the east bank, and into Lake Pontchartrain to the north. Wind waves with estimated significant heights of 15 m developed in the deep Gulf of Mexico but were reduced in size once they reached the continental shelf. The barrier islands further dissipated the waves, and locally generated seas existed behind these effective breaking zones.The hardening and innovative deployment of gauges since Hurricane Katrina (2005) resulted in a wealth of measured data for Gustav. A total of 39 wind wave time histories, 362 water level time histories, and 82 high water marks were available to describe the event. Computational models—including a structured-mesh deepwater wave model (WAM) and a nearshore steady-state wave (STWAVE) model, as well as an unstructured-mesh “simulating waves nearshore” (SWAN) wave model and an advanced circulation (ADCIRC) model—resolve the region with unprecedented levels of detail, with an unstructured mesh spacing of 100–200 m in the wave-breaking zones and 20–50 m in the small-scale channels. Data-assimilated winds were applied using NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division Wind Analysis System (H*Wind) and Interactive Objective Kinematic Analysis (IOKA) procedures. Wave and surge computations from these models are validated comprehensively at the measurement locations ranging from the deep Gulf of Mexico and along the coast to the rivers and floodplains of southern Louisiana and are described and quantified within the context of the evolution of the storm.

Southern Louisiana salt dome xenoliths: First glimpse of Jurassic (ca. 160 Ma) Gulf of Mexico crust

Geology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Stern ◽  
E. Y. Anthony ◽  
M. Ren ◽  
B. E. Lock ◽  
I. Norton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Salt Dome ◽  
Southern Louisiana

scholarly journals Cell carbon content and biomass assessments of dinoflagellates and diatoms in the oceanic ecosystem of the Southern Gulf of Mexico

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247071
Author(s):  
Lorena Linacre ◽  
Citlalli Sánchez-Robles ◽  
Uriel Mirabal-Gómez ◽  
J. Rubén Lara-Lara ◽  
Carmen Bazán-Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Carbon Content ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Euphotic Zone ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Centric Diatoms ◽  
Southern Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oceanic Ecosystem ◽  
Cell Carbon

This study assessed the cell carbon content and biomass for genera of dinoflagellates and diatoms in the oceanic ecosystem of the Southern Gulf of Mexico. Carbon content estimates were based on biovolume calculations derived from linear dimension measurements of individual cells and the approximate geometric body shape of each genus. Then, biomass assessments were performed for both groups in two gulf regions (Perdido and Coatzacoalcos) using these carbon content factors and cell abundances. After four seasonal cruises, 11,817 cells of dinoflagellates and 3,412 cells of diatoms were analyzed. Diverse body shapes and cell sizes were observed among 46 dinoflagellate genera and 37 diatom genera. Nano-cells of dinoflagellates (68% <20 μm) and micro-cells of diatoms (77% 20–200 μm, mostly 50–75 μm) were predominant. According to this cell-size structure, on average, diatoms contained 40% more carbon per cell than dinoflagellates. Contrasting carbon content estimates were observed within the genera of both microalgae. Large carbon averages (>10,000 pg C cell-1) were attributed to Gonyaulacal and some occasional genera of dinoflagellates (e.g., Pyrocystis and Noctiluca) and centric diatoms. In contrast, values up to 3 orders of magnitude lower were found for Peridinial and Gymnodinial dinoflagellates and pennate diatoms. Based on these carbon content estimates, which can be considered representative for most of this oceanic ecosystem, seasonal and regional differences were found in the biomass assessments conducted for these functional groups. Overall, dinoflagellates (mostly low-carbon Gymnodinales) had larger depth-integrated biomass than diatoms (mainly rich-carbon centric forms) within the euphotic zone. An exception to it was the late-summer cruise at the Coatzacoalcos region when a surface bloom of centric diatoms was observed in stations influenced by river runoff. This work contributes useful reference information for future ecological studies and models for understanding the biogeochemical functioning of this open-ocean ecosystem.

Wetlands as principal zones of methylmercury production in southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico region

2008 ◽  
Vol 154 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.D. Hall ◽  
G.R. Aiken ◽  
D.P. Krabbenhoft ◽  
M. Marvin-DiPasquale ◽  
C.M. Swarzenski
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Methylmercury Production ◽  
Southern Louisiana

Statolith age validation and growth of Loligo plei (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) in the north-west Gulf of Mexico during spring/summer

2002 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.D. Jackson ◽  
J.W. Forsythe
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Growth Analysis ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Age And Growth ◽  
Age Validation ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Loliginid Squid

Statolith validation and age and growth analysis was undertaken for the loliginid squid Loligo plei in the north-west Gulf of Mexico off Galveston, Texas. Statolith increments were shown to be laid down daily based on tetracycline staining of 19 individuals maintained in captivity. Ageing of field-captured individuals from late summer revealed that this species has rapid growth rates and a life span of about five months at least during the warm period of the year in this region of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Central American Midsummer Drought: Regional Aspects and Large-Scale Forcing*

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (19) ◽  
pp. 4853-4873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Justin O. Small ◽  
Simon P. de Szoeke ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Central America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Heavy Precipitation ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific

Abstract The midsummer drought (MSD) is a diminution in rainfall experienced during the middle of the rainy season in southern Mexico and Central America, as well as in the adjacent Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific seas. The aim of this paper is to describe the regional characteristics of the MSD and to propose some possible forcing mechanisms. Satellite and in situ data are used to form a composite of the evolution of a typical MSD, which highlights its coincidence with a low-level anticyclone centered over the Gulf of Mexico and associated easterly flow across Central America. The diurnal cycle of precipitation over the region is reduced in amplitude during midsummer. The MSD is also coincident with heavy precipitation over the Sierra Madre Occidental (part of the North American monsoon). Reanalysis data are used to show that the divergence of the anomalous low-level flow during the MSD is the main factor governing the variations in precipitation. A linear baroclinic model is used to show that the seasonal progression of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), which moves northward following warm sea surface temperature (SST) during the early summer, and of the Atlantic subtropical high, which moves westward, are the most important remote factors that contribute toward the low-level easterly flow and divergence during the MSD. The circulation associated with the MSD precipitation deficit helps to maintain the deficit by reinforcing the low-level anticyclonic flow over the Gulf of Mexico. Surface heating over land also plays a role: a large thermal low over the northern United States in early summer is accompanied by enhanced subsidence over the North Atlantic. This thermal low is seen to decrease considerably in midsummer, allowing the high pressure anomalies in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to extend into the Gulf of Mexico. These anomalies are maintained until late summer, when an increase in rainfall from the surge in Atlantic tropical depressions induces anomalous surface cyclonic flow with westerlies fluxing moisture from the Pacific ITCZ toward Central America.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document