Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC)
High Performance Computing at the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) is an essential part of research for the faculty, students, and scientists in ATM. The world-class supercomputers at IDSC provide the infrastructure necessary to perform cutting-edge research in weather and climate processes and prediction.
Faculty Specialists: Amy Clement, Mohamed Iskandarani, Igor Kamenkovich, Ben Kirtman, Sharan Majumdar, Brian Mapes, David Nolan, Brian Soden
Cloud-Aerosol-Rain Observatory
South Florida's Cloud-Aerosol Rain Observatory (CAROb) is an instrument suite at the Rosenstiel School aimed at improving our understanding of low cloud processes, cloud-aerosol interactions, and the radiative impacts of clouds and aerosols. The sun photometers contribute to the global AERONET network. A particular aerosol focus is Saharan dust, which dominates the annual aerosol loading at Miami. Daily imagery keeps you in touch with today's weather.
Faculty Specialist: Paquita Zuidema
Infrared Remote Sensing Laboratory
Researchers in the Infrared Remote Sensing Laboratory deploy ship-based Marine-Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometers (M-AERIs) and Infrared SST Autonomous Radiometers (ISARs) to assess uncertainties in the skin sea-surface temperature retrievals from a number of radiometers on earth-observation satellites. The laboratory has an infrared radiometric calibration facility and also maintains a large selection of meteorological sensors that are deployed at sea, including a microwave radiometer to measure atmospheric moisture, radiosondes to profile atmospheric temperature and humidity, and all-sky cameras.
Faculty Specialists: Peter Minnett
Ocean Technology Group
Collecting scientific measurements from ships at sea is a combination of heavy-duty deck operations - using cranes, winches, cables, and flotation - and precision instrumentation and computation. The Ocean Technolofy Group (OTECH) comprises skilled technical staff, an inventory of instrumentation, and a mooring workshop to support OCE scientists and students’ sea-going experimental research worldwide. Equipment includes acoustic current meters, acoustic current profilers, profiling and moored CTDs (measuring salinity, temperature, and pressure), deep pressure gauges, and inverted echo-sounders.
Faculty Specialists: Lisa Beal, Bill Johns
Research Vessel F.G. Walton Smith and the UNOLS fleet
Our Research Vessel Walton Smith is part of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet. She is a 96-foot-long catamaran accommodating 20 people with 1600 square feet of laboratory and stern space for scientific operations. We use this vessel to collect water samples and to test and deploy many types of instrumentation, including drifters, CTDs, current meters and moorings across the Straits of Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. OCE scientists use other UNOLS vessels to make scientific observations throughout the world’s oceans, for instance in the Arctic, North Atlantic, and subtropical Indian Ocean.
Faculty Specialists: Lisa Beal, Bill Johns, Arthur Mariano, Tamay Ozgokmen
Surge Structure Atmosphere Interaction (SUSTAIN) Facility
SUSTAIN, housed at the Rosenstiel School, is a brand new facility that addresses a significant gap in the existing research infrastructure available to support the development of disaster-resistant and resilient coastal communities. SUSTAIN has the capability to test three-dimensional coupled wind-waves and surge and their combined impacts on structures in conditions as extreme as a land-falling Category 5 hurricane. The laboratory exists as a unique resource for fundamental studies on air-sea interactions, wave dynamics, and boundary layer turbulence while providing an experimental test-bed for model development. ATM faculty, staff, and students have the opportunity to collaborate with the SUSTAIN team.
Faculty Specialists: Brian Haus (Department of Ocean Sciences)
Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory
The Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory conducts experimental studies of coastal circulation processes and ocean-atmosphere interactions using a combination of satellite, aircraft, and in situ measurement and analysis techniques. Faculty and students in the laboratory specialize in deploying oceanographic and atmospheric sensors from research aircraft during hurricane passage. The laboratory also operates three high frequency radars that map real-time surface currents, winds, and waves around the coasts of South Florida.
Faculty Specialists: L. Nick Shay
