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Daran Rife

Project Scientist II
National Security Applications Program (NSAP)
303-497-8398
drifeucar.edu

Current Projects

• NASA Wind Energy Resource Assessment (PI)
• DTRA Climatography Project (PI)
• NYC Coastal-urban met (Lead Scientist)
• 4DWX

Research Interests

My research interests are simple: If a phenomenon is mesoscale, I am interested. My work began in modeling individual clouds or clusters of clouds. That work has evolved into numerical weather forecasting of medium scale phenomena, and now extends to regional climate. Working closely with other scientists and post docs, I study the atmosphere on local to regional scales via quantitative analysis, and have recently begun exploring the interplay between what is observed locally and the atmospheric processes that occur on global scales. This often involves developing novel statistical techniques to tease out the signals we are after. The end goal for all my research is a deeper physical understanding of the Earth's atmosphere.

Education

B.S. (cum laude), Meteorology, University of North Dakota, 1993
M.S., Meteorology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 1995

Publications

• Rife, D. L., T. T. Warner, F. Chen, and E. G. Astling, 2002: Mechanisms for diurnal boundary layer circulations in the Great Basin Desert. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 921-938. [ Link to abstract]
• Rife, D. L., C. A. Davis, Y. Liu, and T. T. Warner, 2004: Predictability of low-level winds by mesoscale meteorological models. Mon. Wea. Rev., 132, 2553-2569. [ Link to abstract]
• Rife, D. L., and C. A. Davis, 2005: Verification of temporal variations in mesoscale numerical wind forecasts. Mon. Wea. Rev., 133, 3368-3381. [ Link to abstract]
• Hacker, J. P., and D. L. Rife, 2007: A pratical approach to sequential estimation of systematic error on near-surface mesoscale grids. Wea. Forecasting, 22, 1257-1273. [ Link to abstract].
• Liu, Y., T. T. Warner, J. F. Bowers, L. P. Carson, F. Chen, C. A. Clough, C. A. Davis, C. H. Egeland, S. F. Halvorson, T. W. Huck, L. Lachapelle, R. E. Malone, D. L. Rife, R.-S. Sheu, S. P. Swerdlin, and D. S. Weingarten, 2008: The operational mesogamma-scale analysis and forecast system of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. Part I: Overview of the modeling system, the forecast products and how the products are used. Journ. Appl. Meteor. Climatol.. 47, 1077-1092. [ Link to abstract]
• Liu, Y., T. T. Warner, E. G. Astling, J. F. Bowers, C. A. Davis, S. F. Halvorson, D. L. Rife, R.-S. Sheu, S. P. Swerdlin, and M. Xu, 2008: The operational mesogamma-scale analysis and forecast system of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. Part II: Inter-range comparison of the accuracy of model analyses and forecasts. Journ. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 47 , 1093-1104. [ Link to abstract]
• Sharman, R. D., Y. Liu, R.-S. Sheu, D. L. Rife, T. T. Warner, J. F. Bowers, C. A. Clough, and E. E. Ellison, 2008: The operational mesogamma-scale analysis and forecast system of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. Part III: Coupling of special applications models with the meteorological model. Journ. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 47, 1105-1122. [ Link to abstract]
• Rife, D. L., C. A. Davis, and J. C. Knievel, 2009: Temporal changes in wind as objects for evaluating mesoscale numerical weather prediction. Wea. Forecasting, 24, 1374-1389. [ Link to abstract]
• Knievel, J. C., D. L. Rife, J. A. Grim, A. N. Hahmann, J. P. Hacker, and H. H. Fisher, 2009: A simple technique for creating composite lake- and sea-surface temperatures from MODIS for operational NWP. Submitted to Journ. Appl. Meteor. Clim. [ PDF]
• Rife, D. L., J. O. Pinto, A. J. Monaghan, C. A. Davis, and J. R. Hannan, 2009: Global distribution and characteristics of diurnally varying low-level jets. Submitted to J. Climate. [ PDF]
• Monaghan, A. J., D. L. Rife, J. O. Pinto, C. A. Davis, and J. R. Hannan, 2009: Global precipitation extremes associated with diurnally-varying LLJs. Submitted to J. Climate. [ PDF]

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/staff/drife/publications.html