The Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) performs research in air-sea interaction, ocean and coupled air-sea modeling, climate prediction, statistical studies, and predictions of social/economic consequences due to ocean-atmospheric variations. Students in COAPS come from a wide variety of departments including meteorology, mathematics, computer science, and physical oceanography. COAPS is funded by several federal agencies, producing original published papers that advance our understanding of the ocean and the atmosphere.
La Niña's Abrupt Return Could Mean Winter Drought in Florida
by David F. Zierden and James O'Brien
January 2009: The Southeast Climate Consortium is now predicting a warm and dry winter and spring from mid January until May 2009 for Florida with the return of La Niña in the Pacific Ocean.
La Niña refers to a state of the tropical Pacific Ocean where surface temperatures along the equator from South America to the central Pacific turn colder than normal. La Niña can be thought of as the opposite of El Niño, where the same area of the Pacific is much warmer than normal. It is unusual for La Niña to raise its signal so late in the winter.
La Niña affected Florida's climate patterns last winter as well before dissipating in April of 2008. From that time until mid-December of 2009, surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean had been near normal, or the neutral phase. Driven by stronger than normal trade winds in the central Pacific since October, colder water has recently broken through to the surface over a large area and has taken on La Niña characteristics. This La Niña is expected to last through the remainder of the winter and into spring.
COAPS Student Nominated for Goldwater Scholarship
January 2009: Josh Cossuth, an undergraduate student in meteorology at COAPS, has recently been nominated for the esteemed Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. This national award is presented annually to undergraduate students who have outstanding potential and intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. Four-year institutions such as Florida State are eligible to nominate a maximum of four students each year for this award, and Josh was chosen based on his past and ongoing undergraduate research and high GPA, as well as a recommendation from COAPS Research Associate Shawn Smith. Josh has also received a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Award, which enabled him to conduct research on stratospheric circulation last summer at the University of California at Irvine, and a Hollings Scholarship from NOAA.
About the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship
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