MSU Economic Stimulus Funding: News and Impact

Recovery act drives MSU research

Awarded grant: Collaborative Research: Toward an Improved Understanding of the Characteristics, Processes, and Impacts of Northerly and Southerly Low-Level Jets in the Central United States

Winkler, Julie A., Professor, winkler@msu.edu; Web site

  • Department: Geography
  • Title: Collaborative Research: Toward an Improved Understanding of the Characteristics, Processes, and Impacts of Northerly and Southerly Low-Level Jets in the Central United States
  • Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
  • Amount of grant: $421,610
  • Duration of grant: 9/1/2009 - 2/28/2013
  • Summary: This collaborative project addresses substantial gaps in knowledge about northerly and southerly jet streams in the lower atmosphere over the central United States. Improved understanding of these jet streams is useful for short-range weather forecasting as well as seasonal and longer-term forecasting and for providing a baseline for evaluating potential future changes in a perturbed climate. The group’s earlier NSF-funded research showed that northerly low-level jets are more frequent and occur over a larger geographic area than previously thought. These jet streams are therefore likely to have a substantial influence on regional weather and climate, although the nature of that impact is poorly understood. The mechanisms responsible for jet formation have not been identified, and northerly jet streams are rarely considered in day-to-day weather forecasting. Research to better understand the southerly jet streams will focus on the relative contribution of boundary-layer versus synoptic-scale forcing. Results are expected to have a large impact; currently, considerable confusion in interpreting the characteristics and impacts of the southerly jet streams exists since much past and ongoing research does not distinguish boundary-layer versus synoptically forced jets. Results will also contribute to improving the simulation of low-level jets in regional and global climate models. The project will integrate science and society through education of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students, including underrepresented minorities, and involving them in the research. Outreach materials will be developed for high school classes and the weather forecasting community. Results of this research will also be useful for assessing wind energy potential.

 

 


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