Research Highlights
Research Interests
Air-sea interaction processes in extreme wind environments, such as Tropical cyclones, using Earth system models.
Hyun-Sook Kim, Ph.D.
Oceanographer, Physical Oceanography Division
301.789.6806
Hyun-Sook.Kim@noaa.gov
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149
“Category 5 hurricane Dorian (2019) who shut down the Florida current transport by almost a half while stalling over the Bahama once again demonstrates the power of Mother Nature. My love for discovery and marriage to science has drawn me to study extreme events that push the limit of our understanding of nature. “
Dr. Hyun-Sook Kim is a research scientist at the Physical Oceanography Division of NOAA-AOML. She is trained as an observational oceanographer and numerical modeler. Her research interest is the air-sea interaction processes in extreme wind environments, such as Tropical cyclones, using Earth system models. Dr. Hyun-Sook Kim works closely with NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center to transition coupled hurricane modeling systems (e.g., HWRF, HMON and HAFS) to operations. Her recent work contributes to the advancement to a 3-way coupling hurricane-ocean-wave model that can better characterize and predict the air-sea interactions and physical processes. She also works with data assimilation, to improve prediction skills.
Current Work
1994, Ph.D. Physical Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
1991, M.S. Physical Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
- Alaka, G.J. Jr., J.A. Sippel, Z. Zhang, H.-S Kim, F. Marks, V. Tallapragada, A. Mehra, X. Zhang, A. Poyer, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. Lifetime performance of the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model for North Atlantic tropical cyclones. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0139.1 2024
Ref. 4396 - Aristizábal Vargas, M.F., H.-S. Kim, M. Le Henaff, T. Miles, S. Glenn, and G. Goni. Evaluation of the ocean component on different coupled hurricane forecasting models using upper-ocean metrics relevant to air-sea heat fluxes during Hurricane Dorian (2019). Frontiers in Marine Science, 12:1342390, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2024.1342390 2024
Ref. 4400 - Chiodi, A.M., H. Hristova, G.R. Foltz, J.A. Zhang, C.W. Mordy, C.R. Edwards, C. Zhang, C. Meinig, D. Zhang, E. Mazza, E.D. Cokelet, E.F. Burger, F. Bringas, G. Goni, H.-S. Kim, S. Chen, J. Trinanes, K. Bailey, K.M. O’Brien, M. Morales-Caez, N. Lawrence-Slavas, S.S. Chen, and X. Chen. Surface ocean warming near the core of Hurricane Sam and its representation in forecast models. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10:1297974, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1297974 2024
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