Seasonal prediction of storminess and coastal flooding
by Jesse Marshall
Part of the EPSRC Vacation Bursaries Scheme 2015
Student name: Jesse Marshall
Student degree course: MSci Oceanography
Year of study: 4
Supervisors: Dr Ivan Haigh (NOCS) and Dr Jeremy Grist (NERC)
Vacation Bursary Research project title: Seasonal prediction of storminess and coastal flooding
Tell us a bit about you and your chosen research field:
My interest in the ocean, and how it affects human populations through severe weather events, stems from growing up on the small island of Bermuda and its susceptibility to hurricanes. This project gives me the unique opportunity to invest half of my master’s year into an area of research that fascinates and holds much personal significance to me. With the observed trends in rising sea levels coupled with increasing global temperatures and greater occurrence of storm surge events, the importance of more analysis of storm surge events has never been greater.
Tell us about your specific research project:
The second step comprises identifying any sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in ocean properties databases that correspond to heightened storm surge activity and determining whether they persist until the following winter to influence atmospheric conditions (Dr Jeremy Grist). The final step of my research project is to combine these two areas of research in order to find a link and predict the severity of subsequent storm surge seasons.
My project revolves around linking the research of my two supervisors starting with identifying patterns in the storm season using statistics compiled by Dr Ivan Haigh as part of his SurgeWatch database in order to gain an understanding of trends in storminess.
Describe any future plans regarding on-going study/postgraduate research connected to your Vacation Bursary project:
I am looking forward to use this bursary and the time available throughout my master’s year to try to get this project published. I also hope to bring the knowledge gained over the course of this project back to Bermuda and continue my work in this or a related field.
Categories: Blog. Tags: Blog, coastal flooding, epsrc, flooding, interdisciplinary, interdisciplinary research, ivan haigh, jesse marshall, SMMI, University of Southampton, USRG, vacation bursaries, and vacation bursary.