Associate Professor
Tel. 513-4367
5149 Jordan Hall

TEACHING AND RESEARCH AREAS

My group's current research focuses on the dynamics of convective storms, including tornadic supercells and mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). Such storms and systems have great impact upon our society owing to the hazardous weather they produce, and owing to their copious precipitation (which is critical to the water budget in large parts of the Americas). To advance our understanding of them, we combine numerical simulations, conventional observations, and high-resolution data from field campaigns such as the Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment ("BAMEX") and the Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 ("VORTEX2").

Some meteorological topics of ongoing interest to me include: impacts of low-level wind and thermodynamic profiles upon supercells and tornadogenesis (including in landfalling hurricanes); effects of gravity waves on the environments of supercells and MCSs; storms' sensitivities and interactions in the high-shear regime that spans the MCS-supercellular spectrum; relationships between large-scale balance and the mesoscale environment for storms; low-level kinematics and dynamics of elevated convection; severe convective winds; climatology of convective storms in the eastern U.S.; and, dynamics of non-traditional MCS modes.

My teaching interests and experience include dynamic meteorology, the dynamics of clouds and storms, mesoscale meteorology, and numerical atmospheric modeling.

Parker, M.D., 2008: Response of simulated squall lines to low-level cooling. J. Atmos. Sci., 65, 1323-1341.

Parker, M.D., 2007: Simulated convective lines with parallel stratiform precipitation. I: An archetype for convection in along-line shear. J. Atmos. Sci., 64, 267-288.

Kuchera, E. L., and M.D. Parker, 2006: Severe convective wind environments. Wea. Forecasting, 21, 595-612.

Parker, M.D., and R.H. Johnson, 2004: Simulated convective lines with leading precipitation. Part I: Governing dynamics. J. Atmos. Sci., 61, 1637-1655.

Parker, M.D., and R.H. Johnson, 2004: Structures and dynamics of quasi-2D mesoscale convective systems. J. Atmos. Sci., 61, 545-567.

Parker, M.D., and R.H. Johnson, 2000: Organizational modes of midlatitude mesoscale convective systems. Mon. Wea. Rev., 128, 3413-3436.