Welcome to Kyle Griffin's webpage. I am currently a graduate student at the Univesity at Albany/SUNY. My undergraduate work was completed here at the University at Albany as well, where I received my degree in May 2010 and am now continuing into the department's graduate program.
My undergraduate research focused on the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones in the Southwest Indian Ocean, from a climatological and a case-by-case point of view. With some further refinement of this work, a publication is likely to be prepared and submitted by the end of the year.
My master's thesis focuses on the development of the disturbance that became Tropical Cyclone Karl in September 2010. Pre-Karl began to organize 9-10 September near the southern Leeward Islands, but was not declared a TC for an additional 4 days. This work with pre-Karl examines both the synoptic conditions surrounding the disturbance as well as connections to equatorial wave modes and mid-latitude influences. A combination of these features allowed for the rapid development of a circulation and quasi-persistent convection with the disturbance. Emphasis is placed on the collective effects of an eastward-propagating convectively coupled Kelvin wave and a weakening cold surge driving northward in the lee of the Andes. For further information, please visit the research tab above.
Future research is likely to be aimed at identifying and quantifying tropical-extratropical interactions, with a focus on equatorial wave modes and energetics. This project would also allow NWP forecasts to be analyzed for potential errors in their propagation of waves and wave trains at all latitudes. Such work will also be useful to the operational forecaster, specifically aiding in identifying regions where model skill could be reduced before the potential "dropout" occurs. Additional effort will be placed on transitioning the recent research on equatorial convective modes into products that can be used for real-time forecasting by professional and casual forecasters alike.
The "Global Maps" link above links to my real-time GFS analysis and forecast page. 20 products are currently produced in real-time, with emphasis on a broad selection of standard synoptic-style maps as well as a selection of standardized anomaly maps for temperature and height. All of these 20 products are presented in loops encompassing the previous 14 days of analyses and the first 180 hours of the most recent GFS forecast. Mid-latitude meridional winds are also presented via Hovmoller diagrams. In addition, six of the products are available in D(prog)/dt loops, showing model trends over time. If you have any suggestions or requests, feel free to let me know (either via email on the Global Maps page or contact info in my CV).
Additional links of meteorological interest can be found on the "Links" page, while a link to the complete version of my CV can also be found above. I hope you can find something of interest to you today, and thanks for stopping by!