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I am a marine meteorologist conducting interdisciplinary research that investigates how the atmosphere and ocean interact i.e., air-sea interactions. One way to think about the processes that drive these interactions is as follows: 1) the ocean acts as a huge fuel tank that stores the sun's energy as heat, 2) this energy is released to the atmosphere to drive atmospheric circulation, i.e., storms, and 3) the resulting exchange of momentum from the atmosphere to ocean drives waves and currents. This exchange of momentum and energy represents air-sea interaction in a nut-shell. Our challenge to design experiments to investigate the key processes responsible for this exchange, and then to translate these findings into results that can be incorporated into numerical models to improve atmosphere and ocean forecasts.
My specific research interests lie in boundary layer meteorology with a focus on the turbulent exchange (or flux) of momentum, heat, and water vapor to and form the ocean surface. I am particularly interested in how waves affect the transfer of momentum and heat across the air-sea interface. These investi- gations have led to the develop- ment of new measurement tech- niques, instrumentation, motion correction algorithms, flux parame- terizations, drag and transfer coefficients, and models of evaporating sea-spray.
 Over longer timescales, I am also involved with research aimed at improving our predictive capabilities of climate change. Specifically, we have designed a system that is capable of directly measuring the exchange of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere. The data from this system is being used to improve the way this exchange is simulated in climate models. I have also been actively involved in the development of new ocean observing systems such as the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO).
RECENT & ONGOING RESEARCH PROGRAMS
The focus of our research is on the observational component of these investigations. This getting out into the field, which in our case is the coastal or open ocean. These field programs have taken advantage of a number of platforms including the R/P FLIP (shown above), research vessels such as the R/V Brown (shown below), and most recently on the Air-Sea Interaction Tower (ASIT) at the MVCO. A brief description is provided below.
 GASEX 98 & 01: These experiments were designed to investigate the processes that control the exchange of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere. Two cruises were conducted; one in the North Altantic where a phytoplankton bloom drove an exchange of CO2 from the atmosphere to ocean (a sink of CO2) and another in the Equitorial Pacific where upwelling drives and exchange of CO2 from the ocean to the atmosphere (a source of CO2).  CBLAST LOW: This experiment took place in the coastal waters south of Martha's Vineyard during the summers of 2001-2003. My component of the experiment ultized the ASIT to make detailed measurements of the vertical exchange of momentum, heat and mass across the coupled boundary layer. Our investigations to date have focused on the interaction between the wind and swell and fog formation in low wind conditions.
 OHATS: This experiment also took advantage of the ASIT to investigate the effects of ocean waves on atmospheric turbulence. The study was jointly conducted with colleagues at NCAR and WHOI, and utilized a closely spaced array of 18 sonic anemometers (2 rows of 9 each) to investigate how wave induced fllows in the atmospheric surface layer affected the subgridscale parameterizations used in Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). The deployment lasted from early August to late October 2004 to capture the transition from predominantly stable to unstable atmospheric stratification.
CLIMODE: This project is designed to study the dynamics of Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), the subtropical mode water of the North Atlantic. How the EDW is formed and maintained involves a number of poorly understood process that have improtant implications in ocean climate models. Our objective of our component of the experiments is to accurately measure and model the air-sea exchange processes responsible for the formation of the EDW. The measurements will be made from 2-year mooring deployment, as well as from a drifting spar buoy and ship-based measurements during wintertime cruises in 2006 and 2007.
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Research Projects
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The Couple Boundary Layers/Air-Sea Transfer (CBLAST) DRI Program - Office of Naval Research, Optics and Biology
Collaborative Research: Ocean horizontal array turbulence study: An investigation of subfilter-scale fluxes in the marine surface layer - National Science Foundation
Air-sea interaction in the 18 degree C water formation area - A component of the collaborative research project CLIMODE - National Science Foundation
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Current Students
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| Alejandro Cifuentes - Ph.D. Student |
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Publications
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Edson, J. B., C. J. Zappa, J. A. Ware, W. R. McGillis, and J. E. Hare, 2004. Scalar flux profile relationships over the open ocean. J. Geophys. Res., 109, C08S09, doi:10.1029/2003JC001960.
McGillis, W. R., J. B. Edson, C. J. Zappa, J. D. Ware, S. P. McKenna, E. A. Terray, J. E. Hare, C. W. Fairall, W. Drennan, M. Donelan, M. D. DeGrandpre, R. Wanninkhof, and R. A. Feely, 2004. Air-sea CO2 exchange in the equatorial Pacific. J. Geophys. Res., 109, C08S08, doi:10.1029/2003JC001960.
Fairall, C. W., E. F. Bradley, J. E. Hare, A. A. Grachev, J. B. Edson, 2003. Bulk parameterization of air–sea fluxes: Updates and verification for the COARE algorithm. J. Climate, 16: 571–591.
Lentz, S., K. Shearman, S. Anderson, A. Plueddemann, and J. Edson, 2003. Evolution of stratification over the New England shelf during the Coastal Mixing and Optics study, August 1996 - June 1997. J. Geophys. Res., 108: 1-14.
Beardsley, R. C., S. J. Lentz, R. A. Weller, R. Limeburner, J. D. Irish, and J. B. Edson, 2003. Surface forcing on the southern flank of Georges Bank, February–August 1995, J. Geophys. Res., 108, C118007, doi:10.1029/2002JC001359.
Grachev, A. A., Fairall, C. W., Hare, J. E., Edson, J. B., Miller, S. D., 2003. Wind Stress Vector over Ocean Waves. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 33: 2408–2429.
Austin, T., J. Edson, W. McGillis, M. Purcell, R. Petitt, M. McElroy, J. Ware, C. Grant, and S. Hurst, 2002. A network-based telemetry architecture developed for the Martha’s Vineyard coastal observatory, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., 27: 228-234.
McGillis, W. R., J. B. Edson, J. E. Hare, and C. W. Fairall, 2001. Direct covariance air-sea CO2 fluxes. J. Geophys. Res., 106: 16729-16745.
Edson, J.B., A. A. Hinton, K. E. Prada, J.E. Hare, and C.W. Fairall, 1998. Direct covariance flux estimates from mobile platforms at sea. J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 15: 547-562.
Edson, J.B., and C.W. Fairall, 1998. Similarity relationships in the marine atmospheric surface layer for terms in the TKE and scalar variance budgets. J. Atmos. Sci., 55: 2311-2328.
Mahrt, L., D. Vickers, J. Edson, J. Sun, J. Højstrup, J. Hare, and J.M. Wilczak, 1998. Heat flux in the coastal zone. Bound.-Layer Meteorol., 86: 421-446.
Edson, J.B., S. Anquetin, P.G. Mestayer, and J.F. Sini, 1996. Spray droplet modeling II: An interactive Eulerian-Lagrangian model of evaporating spray droplets. J. Geophys. Res., 101: 1279-1294.
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James B. Edson |
| University of Connecticut Department of Marine Sciences |
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| 1080 Shennecossett Road Groton, CT 06340 |
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| Phone: (860) 405-9165 |
| Fax: (860) 405-9153 |
| email: james.edson@uconn.edu |
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