Professional Interests

Kathryn Sellwood has scientific interests in the collection, evaluation and assimilation of observations obtained using NOAA aircraft and remote sensing platforms in the inner core region of tropical cyclones. Her research focuses on optimizing the use of these observations for the application of ensemble data assimilation to the problem of numerical prediction of tropical cyclone intensity. Kathryn has been working in the Hurricane Research Division as a contractor with the University of Miami's Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies since shortly after her completion of a Master of Science degree in Meteorology and Physical Oceanogragphy from U.M. in 2007.

Kathryn maintains an extensive archive of all dropwindsonde observations collected within tropical cyclones by NOAA, U.S. Airforce and other research aircraft. These data are made available to the scientific community via the H.R.D. website and anonymous F.T.P. server and support is provided for their use. As a member of the data assimilation group at H.R.D. she prepares these and other data such as aircraft flight level and Tail Doppler Radar observations, and satellite wind and temperature retrievals for use in the Hurricane Ensemble Data Assimlation System (H.E.D.A.S.), which was developed at H.R.D. for use with the Hurricane Research and Forcasting Model (H.W.R.F.). She is currently working on a project with a goal of optimizing the assimilation of full resolution dropsonde observations into HWRF. Kathryn is also conducting research to evaluate observations collected using innovative instrumentation which can be mounted on un-crewed aircraft or low orbiting satellites. In the course of her research using hurricane observations, Kathryn has developed tools for reading and quality control of multiple data types. She is applying these tools to create a comprehensive data set of tropical cyclone observations centered on individual storm locations and times. The resulting product is intended to be shared publicly so that it might be used for research, reanalysis or model verification.

Current Research Projects

• Meso- and Miso-scale structures in the eye and eyewall of major hurricanes
• Observing System Experiments with aircraft data
• Services to Support the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project
• Storm-Relative Data Assimilation
• Using NOAA UAS Assets and OSSE/DA Capabilities to Improve Sampling Strategies and Numerical Prediction of Tropical Cyclone Track, Intensity, and Structure
• Vortex-Scale Data Assimilation With HEDAS

Manuscripts in Review

1. Wick, G.A.,Dunion,J.P.,Black,P.G., Walker,J.R., Torn, R.D., Kren,A.C., Aksoy, A.,Christophersen, H., Cucurull,L.,Dahl,B.,English, J.M.,Friedman,K.,Peevey,T.R.,Sellwood, K.,Sippel,J.A.,Tallapragada, V.,Taylor, J., Hood,R.E., and Hall,P.. NOAA's Sensing Hazards with Unmanned Aircraft Techonology (SHOUT )Experiment: Observations and Forecast Impact. Submitted to Bulletin of American Meteorology Society. 2019

Recently Published Peer-Reviewed Papers

1. Aberson, S.D., J.A. Zhang, J. Zawislak, K. Sellwood, R. Rogers, and J.J. Cione. The NCAR GPS dropwindsonde and its impact on hurricane operations and research. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 104(11):E2134-E2154, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0119.1 2023
2. Sellwood, K.J., J.A. Sippel, and A. Aksoy. Assimilation of Coyote small uncrewed aircraft system observations in Hurricane Maria (2017) using operational HWRF. Weather and Forecasting, 38(6):901-919, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-22-0214.1 2023
3. Zawislak, J., R.F. Rogers, S.D. Aberson, G.J. Alaka, G. Alvey, A. Aksoy, L. Bucci, J. Cione, N. Dorst, J. Dunion, M. Fischer, J. Gamache, S. Gopalakrishnan, A. Hazelton, H.M. Holbach, J. Kaplan, H. Leighton, F. Marks, S.T. Murillo, P. Reasor, K. Ryan, K. Sellwood, J.A. Sippel, and J.A. Zhang. Accomplishments of NOAA’S airborne hurricane field program and a broader future approach to forecast improvement. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(2):E311-E338, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0174.1 2022

Recent Presentations

1. Sellwood, K., Aksoy, A., Dunion, J.P. and Cecil, D.J.. 2018: An Observing System Experiment (OSE) Study of the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) instrument. Presented at the 33rd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Ponte Vedra, Fl. Program number 5A.6
2. Sellwood, K..2019: Dropsonde Behaviour in High Wind and Turbulence Regimes. Presented at the 2019 Airborne Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS) users meeting at NCAR, Boulder, Co.