Anthony Cosio joined CMMAP from Florida International University where he is
a senior majoring in Atmospheric Science. Coming from Florida, it was no
suprise that he was interested in tropical cyclones. In particular, Tony
studied how in some cases, these tropical cyclones can have large temperature
anomalies occuring on the inner edge of the eyewall. His mentors were
Professor Wayne Schubert and graduate student Chris Slocum.
In general, tropical cyclones have been thought to have a warm-core structure;
that is, the largest temperature anomalies occur at the center. It has been
observed on more than one occasion however, that large temperature anomalies can
occur on the inner edge of the eyewall. This warm-ring structure is observed in
the lower troposphere of strong tropical cyclones. The presence of a warm-ring
structure has been linked to the existence of a hub-cloud in the center of the
eye, cascading pileus in the upper troposphere at the edge of the eye and a
clear inner moat in the lower troposphere of the outer edge of the eye, all of
which are associated with strong inertial stability in an eye of relatively
large radius.
Anthony found that by modifying equations and variables in thermal wind balance,
a plot showing warm-rings was obtained. It was obtained for a reasonably strong
tropical cyclone, indicating that modeling the warm-ring structure is possible,
and with reasonable parameters.
Tony says there is much work to be done in refining the model and showing more
warm ring plots for different parameters. Once these phenomena can be
replicated more regularly within the model, they may begin to speculate more on
the implications a warm-ring structure has on a tropical cyclone and what brings
them about. There will also be an effort to find more documented examples of a
warm-ring structure through flight-data.
Tony's summer research poster,
The Balanced Wind, Mass, and Potential Vorticity Structure of Warm-Ring Tropical
Cyclones, may be found here.
Tony's hometown is Miami, FL. His research interests include hurricanes,
supercells and tornadoes, remote sensing and the effects of climate change on
mesoscale and synoptic weather systems. Basically anything meteorology or
climate related. In his spare time, he enjoys watching education television
like the National Geographic, History and Weather channels. He enjoys play
sports (especially soccer) and watching sports, playing video games, exercising,
cooking & eating and anything to do with cars.
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