Kathryn Sellwood

Kathryn Sellwood’s research focuses on optimizing the assimilation of observations collected in and around tropical cyclones to improve numerical prediction of tropical cyclone intensity. Kathryn has been working in the Hurricane Research Division as an associate with the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies. Kathryn maintains an extensive archive of all dropwindsonde observations collected in and around tropical cyclones by NOAA, U.S. Airforce and other research aircraft. These data are made available to the scientific community via the HRD website and anonymous F.T.P. server and support is provided for their use. As a member of the data assimilation group at HRD she works towards optimizing the use of these and other reconnaissance data in the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), which will soon replace the HWRF model. This research includes experiments to determine which observing strategies are most beneficial to numerical forecast improvement, exploring new methods for data quality control, and improving the use of dropsonde data. 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.