Polar lows are mesoscale cyclonic weather systems and are ubiquitous over the maritime high latitudes. Their strong winds and associated weather can be a hazard for shipping, while their relatively small scale makes them difficult to forecast. I have just finished an encyclopedia article on polar lows for the Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Sciences recently published by Academic Press. The article is aimed at science graduate level and attempts to provide a pedagogical overview of polar lows. I have some reprints so please contact me if you'd like one.
I have a COAPEC-funded PhD project, co-supervised with Dr Grant Bigg, on the oceanic impacts of mesoscale cyclones in the north east North Atlantic. Our student should be starting in the autumn of 2003.
I had a paper in Tellus in 1997 on interactions between polar lows in the Norwegian Sea. In the cases discussed binary interactions appear to cause a cyclonic co-rotation of the two polar lows. This movie of three satellite images show this co-rotation beautifully. The paper references is:
Renfrew, I. A., G. W. K. Moore, and A. A. Clerk, 1997:
Binary interactions between polar lows, Tellus,
49A, 577-594.
I've put the abstract here.
Please contact me for a reprint, the satellite images are stunning!
My PhD work was on the development of secondary frontal cyclones, these are cyclones growing on the trailing fronts of primary mid-latitude cyclones. They are mesoscale weather systems that affect the day-to-day weather over (for example) western Europe and can have the potential to grow rapidly into major cyclonic systems. My PhD work examined the role the environmental flow can play in suppressing or allowing their growth. I completed my PhD thesis in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, and was fortunate to have a great project superviser in Prof. Alan Thorpe. The abstract from my thesis is available, if you would like a copy of the whole work of art itself (205 pages of wisdom) then please contact me, or if you like buy it from the British Library then I will get about 10 pence in royalties! There are two papers which discuss this work:
Renfrew, I.A., Thorpe, A.J. and Bishop, C.H. (1997): The
Role of the Environmental Flow in the Development of Secondary Frontal
Cyclones. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 123,
1653-1675.
I've put the abstract here.
Please download a
reprint, or contact me for one.
Rivals, H., J.-P. Cammas, and I. A. Renfrew, 1998: Secondary cyclogenesis:
The initiation phase of a frontal wave observed over the eastern Atlantic,
Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 124, 243-267.
Please download a
reprint, or contact me for one.
