Miguel Nogueira
Miguel Nogueira
Duke University, Civil and Environmental Department
160 Hudson Hall, Box 90287
Durham, NC 27708
Work phone: (919) 660-5557
E-mail: mdn9@duke.edu
Education
- PhD student (University of Lisbon) – Visiting Scholar (Duke University)
- MSc in Geophysical Sciences (University of Lisbon, 2009)
- BSc in Meteorology, Oceanography and Geophysics (University of Lisbon, 2007).
Research interests: orographic precipitation, atmospheric convection, fluid dynamics
My current research focuses on the dynamics of embedded convection in orographic clouds, particularly on banded structures (convective rolls).
It is often observed a situation where a stratiform orographic cloud develops shallow embedded convective structures, which change the rainfall pattern and amounts considerably and can lead to localized extreme values of rainfall. These localized extremes are responsible for mountain hazards including landslides, debris flows and flash floods.
The triggering and dynamics of these embedded convective structures are still poorly understood and there is no consensus on the governing physics. An interesting idea is that the development of these cloud embedded convective structures results from the unstable growth of small scale disturbances inside the cloud, with upstream lee wave generation by small scale topography being a very important source of such disturbances. Following this idea, linear stability analysis and statistical multiscaling are used to gain insight on the dominant spatial scales of the convective structures and the relationships among the spatial scaling behavior of cloud embedded convective structures and associated precipitation patterns, small scale terrain features, and dynamical regimes described by atmospheric parameters such as moist stability, advective time scale, mean wind intensity and mean wind shear.
These issues are assessed using idealized cloud resolving high resolution simulations performed with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF).
Conference Oral Communications
Miguel O. V. Nogueira, Miguel A. C. Teixeira, Pedro M. A. Miranda, 2009: Study of breezes and thermal lows: application to the Iberian Peninsula. 6th symposium of Meteorology and Geophysics of the Portuguese Association of Meteorology and Geophysics, (Almada, Portugal)
Thesis/ Dissertations
Nogueira, M., 2009: Study of breezes and thermal lows: application to the Iberian Peninsula (MSc Dissertation)
Recent Activities
- October 2009 – present: PhD student in a joint program between University of Lisbon and Duke University, funded by FCT (Portuguese National Science Foundation).
- January 2008 - September 2009: Researcher and team member of project AWARE - Amplification of Wind And Rain in coastal and topographic Environments, Geophysical Centre of the University of Lisbon, funded by FCT (Portuguese National Science Foundation).F
Field Work
- February 2008 – March 2008: Participation as a student in an international field campaign, under project IPY-Thorpex-Norway, in Andoya (Norway).
- August 2008: Participation as a student in scientific research cruise in the Gulf of Cadiz, aboard the Italian Oceanographic Ship N/O URANIA, under European Project NEAREST.