Upper Ocean Dynamics
Team
- Lead Scientist:
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Lynn “Nick” Shay, Ph.D.Dr. Lynn “Nick” Shay's interests include: experimental and theoretical investigations of the ocean response and coupled air-sea interactions during strong atmospheric forcing events (tropical and extratropical cyclones, atmospheric jets, fronts), coastal oceanographic process studies, radar oceanography using HF radar and satellite altimetry, aircraft-based measurement systems.
Phone: 305.421.4075
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Web Page - Research Associate Professor:
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Brian Haus, Ph.D.Dr. Brian Haus studies estuarine-shelf interactions, coastal buoyancy currents, Florida Current eddies, wave-current interaction and fluxes across the air-sea interface. His research includes small-scale laboratory measurements of air-sea fluxes of momentum, heat and gases as well as C and Ku band radar scattering from surface waves in the School’s state-of-the-art Air-Sea Interaction Saltwater Tank (ASIST) facility. Haus has also been involved for more than a decade in the observation of km-scale coastal processes with High Frequency (HF) radars. Currently there are two Wellen Radar (WERA) phased array HF radar sites providing real time current measurements over the Florida Straits. This project should provide significant insight into physical processes in this region, which can have an important effect on fisheries, ecosystem health, water quality, local geomorphology and sediment transport.
Phone: 305.421.4932
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Web Page - Research Associates:
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Jodi BrewsterJodi Brewster is a Research Associate working in Dr. Nick Shay's Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory (UOD). In conjunction with Dr. Shay, she helped to develop the Eastern Pacific ocean heat content that is used in the SHIPS model for hurricane intensity forecasting. Currently, she is preparing for the beginning of hurricane season, in both the Eastern Pacific and Atlantic basin, when members of the UOD will be deploying AXBT, AXCTD, and AXCP probes from P3 Hurricane Hunter aircrafts over the Gulf of Mexico to study the upper ocean before, during, and after intense storms.
Brewster received her B.S. in Marine Science with minors in Mathematics and Computer Science at Coastal Carolina University. Subsequently, she moved to CA to earn her M.S. in Marine Science-Physical Oceanography at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Her thesis investigated the evolution of an iron-enriched patch of water in the Southern Ocean as a part of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFEX). While in CA, she studied the oceanography impacts on bioluminescence at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and temperature forecasting in Monterey Bay.
Phone: 305.421.4746
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Web Page
Jorge J. Martinez-PedrajaJorge J. Martinez-Pedraja works as a research associate in the Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory. He shares responsibility for the full operation of the High-Frequency WERA radars, working on the diagnosis and correction of a range of problems including software; hardware; logistics; maintaining the data archives; processing surface current data and working on information analysis. Martinez-Pedraja received his M.Sc. in Metal Physics from the School of Physics at the University of Havana, Cuba. He worked at the same time in a thesis related to Physical Oceanography, "Statistical correlation between meteorological variables and the regime of waves in the North Coast of the City of Havana.”
Jorge J. Martinez-Pedraja works as a research associate in the Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory. He shares responsibility for the full operation of the High-Frequency WERA radars, working on the diagnosis and correction of a range of problems including software; hardware; logistics; maintaining the data archives; processing surface current data and working on information analysis. Martinez-Pedraja received his M.Sc. in Metal Physics from the School of Physics at the University of Havana, Cuba. He worked at the same time in a thesis related to Physical Oceanography, "Statistical correlation between meteorological variables and the regime of waves in the North Coast of the City of Havana.”
Phone: 305.421.4739
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Web Page - Post Doctoral:
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Benjamin Jaimes, Ph.D.Currently in a post doctoral appointment in the Rosenstiel School’s division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Benjamin Jaimes holds interests that include hurricane-ocean interactions; eddy-mean flow interaction in the ocean; the dynamics of the enigmatic Gulf of Mexico's Loop Current and the role of Loop Current eddies in maintaining the western boundary current along the Mexican and Texas shelves. Jaimes earned his M.Sc. (1995) in Computer Science (numerical modeling) from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and a M.Sc. (2005) and a Ph.D. (2009) in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Miami.
Phone: 305.421.4109
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Web Page - Graduate Students:
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Matthew ArcherMatthew Archer arrived at RSMAS in August 2010 as a student on the MPO graduate program. He is working with Professor Nick Shay, Jorge J. Martinez-Pedraja and the Upper Ocean Dynamics team on the WERA HF radar. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Ocean Science from the University of Plymouth in the UK. His previous research experience, through internships at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, involved the use of WERA HF radar to study surface current and wind direction.
Phone: 305.421.4734
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Web Page
Claire McCaskillClaire McCaskill is meteorology major from Arlington, Texas, but more importantly she is the loudest and proudest member of the fighting Texas Aggie class of 2010. Whoop! Currently, she is a graduate student of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School pursuing a degree in tropical meteorology and air-sea interactions. Her research will explore the impact of the upper ocean on air-sea fluxes and tropical cyclone intensity change.
While at Texas A&M University, Claire researched the summer diurnal cycle in southeast Texas. She was also part of a team that forecasted, launched soundings, and operated Doppler radar for the College Station area. Claire is currently employed by the National Weather Service as a SCEP.
Phone: 305.421.4734
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Ryan SchusterRyan Schuster is a graduate student in the MPO division of RSMAS researching air-sea interactions and upper ocean dynamics under Dr. Shay. She earned her BSc (High Honor) in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech and studied her last undergraduate year at University College London. Previous experience includes working at the Georgia Tech Research Institute on an infrasonic microphone array to predict tornado formation, assisting air quality consultants in testing factories for EPA compliance, adjusting parameters on the ECMWF forecast model to achieve more accurate hurricane forecast tracks, studying ozone transport during the REU program at Stony Brook University, and examining how vehicle emissions move about in tree-lined urban street canyons.
Phone: 305.421.4736
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Johna RudzinJohna Elizabeth Rudzin was born and raised in the Florida Keys, where the ocean was her backyard and her fascination for it developed. She graduated from Marathon High School in Marathon, FL in 2008, entered into Florida State University the following fall, and then graduated with B.S. in Meteorology with Honors in the spring of 2012. While at FSU, she was a part of many extracurricular activities such as the student organization Lady Spirithunters, the Honors in the Major Program, the FSU chapter of Chi Epsilon Pi Meteorology Honors Society, the NW Florida Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and was an undergraduate research assistant at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS). In addition, she completed her undergraduate honors thesis at COAPS under the advisement of Dr. Steven Morey, Dr. Mark Bourassa and Mr. Shawn Smith. The thesis is titled " The influence of cold air outbreaks on the upper ocean thermal variability of the Florida Straits". She presented her research as a poster at both the 2012 AMS Annual Meeting and the 2012 Ocean Science Meeting. She became interested in meteorology while living in the Keys after experiencing a number of hurricanes. Her father, a fisherman, helped foster her interest in how different weather and ocean phenomena affect the fisheries and furthermore how the fisheries can help us understand processes that occur in the ocean and the air-sea interface.
Phone: 305.421.4736
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