University of Colorado

Graduate Student, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

Other Affiliations: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Atmospheric Chemistry Division

Research Assistant

College of Arts and Sciences

About

First, please note that I have recently married, thus my last name has changed from Phillips to Peevey. All of my publications are under Peevey but I do have some conference presentations from earlier in my career that are under Phillips.

Short Version:
  Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere Dynamics and Air Mass Mixing
  Analysis of Large Datasets

  Study how the UTLS region is influence by and influences other systems such as synoptic meteorology, jet streams, polar vortex and planetary wave activity.  This is mostly done through the analysis of various data sets: satellite, reanalysis and/or model.

  Have taught Atmospheric Science Labs at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).  Signed up for Graduate Teacher Program at CU to get certificate due to interest in improving teaching skills.

  Other interests include Science Policy, the intersection of science and politics.

Long Version:
  I received a Bachelors of Science in Physics in 2006 from the University of Texas at Dallas.  At the time I was interested in physics in general.  My attention turned to atmospheric science because of an REU program at the MIT Haystack Observatory is Westford, MA.  There I compared two ionosphere/thermosphere models, the MSIS global model and the Haystack in-house model.  I used that work for my senior thesis, expanding upon it by comparing the model output with observations from their Incoherent Scatter Radar.

  Currently I am working on my dissertation at the University of Colorado at Boulder which focuses on the analysis of the double tropopause.  This work is being done using the HIRDLS instrument in collaboration with John Gille, the PI on the instrument.  HIRDLS provides three years of data with approximate 5500 profiles per day with a vertical resolution of ~1 km and horizontal (along track) resolution of ~100 km.  The double tropopause is found by applying the WMO Thermal definition to a vertical temperature profile.  Thus far I have focused on the climatology of this feature to understand how it behaves annually and seasonally.
  Why study the double tropopause at all?  The tropopause is a key region in the Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS), separating layers with fundamentally different characteristics in static stability, chemical constituents and potential vorticity.  Past studies have shown that the tropopause height is an indicator for climate change and is linked to tropopause folds which occur in the vicinity of the Subtropical Jet.  During the winter, an active season for weather systems, the lapse rate definition of the tropopause can show a tropopause break which can result in multiple tropopauses.  This break has been connected to an increase in ozone concentration, thus indicating air mass exchange.  This exchange, Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange (STE), plays an important role in the redistribution of chemical constituents, thus has potential to significantly adjust the radiation budget and corresponding circulations.  Examining the climatology of the double tropopause is important for understanding how the definition, location and strength of this feature changes STE in the UTLS region.  Recent studies have characterized the spatial distribution of double tropopauses along with their connection to potential vorticity and ozone concentration through analysis of radiosonde data and examination of case studies.  Thus far none have quantified the area and duration of double tropopauses.  An analysis of these features, along with showing agreement with previous studies, is important for an increased understanding of STE at mid-latitudes and the corresponding implications for the current understanding of weather and climate.
  At the moment most of my research is focused on the UTLS.  This is an important boundary to understand since air mass mixing does occur across this surface, thus altering the chemical constituents in each region.  Additionally, how much exchange occurs is dependent upon the definition of the boundry itself, of which there are three, thermal, chemical and dynamical.  Understanding the relationship between these definitions along with their seasonal and latitudinal behaviour is still under investigation.  Another issue includes knowing how various structures in this region, Tropopause Inversion Layer (TIL), Double Tropopause (DT) and the Extratropical UTLS (ExUTLS), connect to synoptic meterological variability.

  My other interest includes Science Policy, the intersection of science and politics.  I have taken some class on this subject and will integrate it into my future work.  However, at this point it is a hobby of mine.

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