In-Situ Wave Observations in the High Resolution Air-Sea Interaction DRI

LONG-TERM GOALS: Ocean wave prediction models, based on a spectral energy balance, are widely used to obtain windwave forecasts and hindcasts on global and regional scales (e.g., Komen et al., 1994). However, these inherently stochastic models assume a Gaussian and homogeneous sea state and thus do not describe the nonlinear instability processes that can dramatically alter the structure of wave groups and produce anomalously large waves, also known as ‘freak’ or ‘rogue’ waves (e.g., Janssen, 2003). Fully deterministic modeling capabilities are now becoming available that incorporate these nonlinear effects and provide the detailed phase-resolved sea surface predictions needed in many applications. Concurrent with the development of new models, advances in radar remote sensing techniques are enabling the detailed observation of the sea surface on the scales of wave groups and individual waves. The long-term goal of this research is to test these emerging new models and measurement technologies in realistic sea states and use them to better understand and predict the wave group structure and occurrence of extreme waves in the ocean.Award Number: N0001407WR2016

In-Situ Wave Observations in the High Resolution Air-Sea Interaction DRI

LONG-TERM GOALS: Ocean wave prediction models, based on a spectral energy balance, are widely used to obtain windwave forecasts and hindcasts on global and regional scales (e.g., Komen et al., 1994). However, these inherently stochastic models assume a Gaussian and homogeneous sea state and thus do not describe the nonlinear instability processes that can dramatically alter the structure of wave groups and produce anomalously large waves, also known as ‘freak’ or ‘rogue’ waves. Fully deterministic modeling capabilities are now becoming available that incorporate these nonlinear effects and provide the detailed phase-resolved sea surface predictions needed in many applications. Concurrent with the development of new models, advances in radar remote sensing techniques are enabling the detailed observation of the sea surface on the scales of wave groups and individual waves. The long-term goal of this research is to test these emerging new models and measurement technologies in realistic sea states and use them to better understand and predict the wave group structure and occurrence of extreme waves in the ocean.Award Numbers: N0001412WX20004, N00014091034

Surface Wave Processes on the Continental Shelf and Beach

LONG-TERM GOALS: Wind waves and swell dominate the hydrodynamic and sediment transport processes on many continental shelves and beaches, affect underwater acoustics, and play an important role in remote sensing applications. Wave prediction in coastal environments is a challenging task because waves are affected by many processes, including scattering by seafloor topography, strong nonlinear interactions, wave breaking, and friction in the bottom boundary layer. Several of these processes are poorly understood and existing wave prediction models rely on parameterizations and empirical calibration to represent them. The long term goals of this research are to obtain a better understanding of the physical processes that affect ocean surface waves in the coastal environment and develop improved wave prediction capability.Award Numbers: N0001408WR20154, N0001408WR20003, N00014-07-1-0365, N00014-07-1-040

Monsoon Disturbances over Southeast and East Asia and the Adjacent Seas

Long-term goals: To study weather disturbances over the East Asian – Western Pacific monsoon region and vicinity using Navy and NCEP data and forecast models. The primary goal is to advance the understanding of the weather-producing systems in the region, in order to improve forecast capabilities

Kaon photoproduction: background contributions, form factors and missing resonances

The photoproduction p(gamma, K+)Lambda process is studied within a field-theoretic approach. It is shown that the background contributions constitute an important part of the reaction dynamics. We compare predictions obtained with three plausible techniques for dealing with these background contributions. It appears that the extracted resonance parameters drastically depend on the applied technique. We investigate the implications of the corrections to the functional form of the hadronic form factor in the contact term, recently suggested by Davidson and Workman (Phys. Rev. C 63, 025210). The role of background contributions and hadronic form factors for the identification of the quantum numbers of ``missing'' resonances is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Psychometric properties of the Actively Open-minded Thinking scale

The Actively Open-minded Thinking scale (AOT; Stanovich & West, 2007) is a questionnaire that is used to measure the disposition towards rational thinking as a single psychological trait. Yet, despite its frequent use, also in abbreviated form, it is still unclear whether sumscores of the AOT can actually be used to order individuals on their disposition towards actively open-minded thinking and whether the questionnaire can be validly shortened. The present study aimed to obtain a valid and shorter AOT. We conducted Mokken scale analyses on the (Dutch) AOT using two samples of higher education students (N = 930; N = 509). Our analyses showed that none of the 41 items could discriminate sufficiently between respondents with varying latent trait levels. Furthermore, no item-set of the AOT could be obtained to validly order individuals on the assumed latent trait, which is a crucial assumption when using it in research. Consequently, it is questionable whether scores on the AOT provide insights into the concept it aims to measure