Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mathematics

First Advisor

Tang, Dr. Guoqing

Abstract

This study examines the association of tropical cyclogenesis and tropical wave activities such as African Easterly Waves (AEWs) in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The impact of Central and Mexico Mountains on hurricane genesis, intensification and track is also studied in this paper. Eight numerical simulations using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model are conducted to investigate the genesis, track and intensification of Hurricane Jimena (2009) a category 4 (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) hurricane during the 2009 eastern Pacific hurricane season. In addition, this study also analyzes the impact of three dimensional variational data assimilation of (3DVAR) of NCEP FNL data on WRF simulations. Based on satellite imagery and WRF analysis of Hurricane Jimena (2009), we find that the formation of Jimena on August 28, 2009 was trigged by a tropical wave from off the coast of Africa and propagated west-ward, across the Atlantic, Caribbean and into eastern Pacific on August 25. The study also reveals that initial time (or initial conditions) and microphysics scheme along with data assimilation play an important role on WRF-ARW model simulation.

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