Courtney Schumacher

Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington
Box 351640
Seattle, WA 98105-1640
(o) (206) 685-1851
(fax) (206) 543-0308
email: courtney@atmos.washington.edu


I began my work with the Mesoscale group under the direction of Professor Robert Houze in May 1996 with support from the Global Continental-scale International Project (GCIP). My studies focused on the statistical representation of precipitation processes of mid-latitude continental storms using radar and rain gauge data. My interests turned more tropical when I participated in a two month research cruise (TEPPS) studying tropical convection in the eastern Pacific during the summer of 1997 as part of the PanAmerican Climate Studies (PACS).

In December 1997, I began work with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Kwajalein ground validation site. I performed extensive analysis of the rain gauge and radar data at Kwajalein, along with comparing the Kwajalein radar to the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR). In the summer of 1999, I participated in the Kwajalein field campaign (KWAJEX). I received my M.S. from the University of Washington in May 2000.

My doctoral work utilized TRMM PR observations to characterize the tropics-wide distributions of convective and stratiform rainfall. I looked into the processes that control mesoscale organization in the tropics along with the importance of the vertical structure of latent heating implied by the convective-stratiform distributions. I received my Ph.D. in January 2003 and will assume an assistant professorship at Texas A&M in the fall of 2003.

The following publications are in pdf format and can be read with the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

  • Robert A. Houze, Jr., Stacy Brodzik, Courtney Schumacher, Sandra E. Yuter, and Christopher R. Williams, 2003: Uncertainties in oceanic radar rain maps at Kwajalein and implications for satellite validation. J. Appl. Meteor. (submitted).
  • Schumacher, Courtney, Robert A. Houze, Jr., and Ian Kraucunas, 2003: The tropical dynamical response to latent heating estimates derived from the TRMM Precipitation Radar. J. Atmos. Sci. (in press).
  • Schumacher, Courtney and Robert A. Houze, Jr., 2003: The TRMM Precipitation Radar's view of shallow, isolated rain. J. Appl. Meteor., 42, 1519-1524.
  • Schumacher, Courtney and Robert A. Houze, Jr., 2003: Stratiform rain in the tropics as seen by the TRMM Precipitation Radar. J. Climate, 16, 1739-1756.
  • Schumacher, Courtney and Robert A. Houze, Jr., 2000: Comparison of Radar Data from the TRMM Satellite and Kwajalein Oceanic Validation Site. J. Appl. Meteor., 39, 2151-2164.
  • Schumacher, Courtney and Robert A. Houze, Jr., 1998: Comparison of TRMM Precipitation Radar and Kwajalein Ground Validation 3-D Radar Reflectivity Fields. Proceedings, Symposium on Precipitation Observation from Non-Sun Synchronous Orbit, Dec. 14-16, Nagoya, Japan, 115-119.

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