Rebecca Morss

	The six members of the Workshop Writing Team from the August 2006 North American THORPEX Societal and Economic Research and Applications Workshop. Rebecca is at right.

During FY2006, Dr. Rebecca Morss continued research and community service activities on societal aspects of weather forecasts, meteorological observing network design, and atmospheric predictability.

Research highlights:

Dr. Morss completed research projects on uncertainty in flood risk management, with several NCAR colleagues, and on the use of information by weather forecasters and emergency managers during the CALJET and PACJET field programs, with F. Martin Ralph (NOAA). She continued research on an ethical analysis of weather and climate forecasting, with Eugene Wahl (Alfred University), and on analyzing flood vulnerability by combining hydrometeorological and societal data using Geographical Information Systems, with Olga Wilhelmi (NCAR) and Braxton Edwards (SOARS protégé). With Fuqing Zhang ( Texas A&M University ), she developed and implemented a semester-long undergraduate research project at Texas A&M examining societal aspects of Hurricane Rita forecasts along the Texas Gulf Coast . And, with Jeff Lazo and Julie Demuth (NCAR), she is currently developing a survey to investigate how to improve communication of weather forecast uncertainty.

Publications:

Zhang, F., R. E. Morss , J. A. Sippel, T. K. Beckman, N. C. Clements, N. L. Hampshire, J. N. Harvey, J. M. Hernandez, Z. C. Morgan, R. M. Mosier, S. Wang, and S. D. Winkley, 2006: Public response to Hurricane Rita forecasts along the Texas Coast: An undergraduate research study linking classroom to reality. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., submitted.

Morss, R. E. , and F. M. Ralph, 2006: Use of information by National Weather Service forecasters and emergency managers during CALJET and PACJET-2001. Wea. Forecasting, in press.

Downton, M. W., R. E. Morss , O. V. Wilhelmi, E. C. Gruntfest, and M. L. Higgins, 2005: Interactions between scientific uncertainty and flood management decisions: Two case studies in Colorado. Env. Hazards, 6, 134-146.

Hacker, J., J. Hansen, J. Berner, Y. Chen, G. Eshel, G. Hakim, S. Lazarus, S. Majumdar, R. Morss , A. Poje, V. Sheremet, Y. Tang, and C. Webb, 2005: Future scientific directions: Predictability. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 86, 1733-1737.

Morss, R. E. , O. V. Wilhelmi, M. W. Downton, and E. Gruntfest, 2005: Flood risk, uncertainty, and scientific information for decision-making: Lessons from an interdisciplinary project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 86, 1593-1601.

Workshop and community service highlights:

Dr. Morss completed her service on the National Research Council Committee on Estimating and Communicating Uncertainty in Weather and Climate Forecasts, with the committee report published in summer 2006. She traveled to Agra , India in spring 2006 to co-chair a session on Disaster Simulation and Mitigation, co-organized with an Indian colleague, at the National Academies of Engineering First Indo-U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. She attended and contributed to the Weather and Society * Integrated Studies workshops in Boulder , CO and Norman , OK , and she served on the program committee for the NCAR ASP / Inter-American Institute Colloquium in September 2006. In addition, she and Jeff Lazo co-organized an interdisciplinary community workshop, hosted at NCAR in August 2006, to develop research priorities for the Societal and Economic Research and Applications component of the North American THORPEX program.

Funding sources:

These activities were supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the U.S. Weather Research Program.