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Dr. Weisberg is an experimental physical oceanographer engaged in ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere interaction studies in the tropics, on continental shelves, and in estuaries. His research presently emphasizes the West Florida Continental Shelf (WFS) circulation and the interactions occurring between the shelf and the deep-ocean and between the shelf and the estuaries. Through his Ocean Circulation Group he maintains a coordinated program of real-time, in-situ measurements, analyses, and numerical circulation models aimed at describing and understanding those processes that determine WFS water properties. Observations consist of surface moorings for real time surface meteorology, water column ocean currents, and temperature/salinity (T/S), some inclusive of waves; subsurface moorings for currents; HF-radar for surface currents; profilers for T/S (in collaboration with the CMS-COT); analyses of satellite data for SST, SSH, and geostrophic currents; and surface drifters. Models consist of WFS regional applications of ROMS nested in the 1/12th degree North Atlantic HYCOM (to study the WFS and deep-ocean interactions) and FVCOM (to study the WFS and estuary interactions) and sub-regional FVCOM applications to individual estuaries. Additional FVCOM applications, making use of the model’s high resolution and flooding/drying capabilities, are for coastal inundation by hurricane storm surge.

Selected Publications

Liu, Y., and R.H. Weisberg (2007). Ocean currents and sea surface heights estimated across the West Florida Shelf, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 37, 1697-1713.

Weisberg, R.H. and L. Zheng (2006). Hurricane storm surge simulations for Tampa Bay. Estuaries and Coasts, 29, 6A, 899-913.

Weisberg, R.H. and L. Zheng (2006). A simulation of the hurricane Charley storm surge and its breach of North Captiva Island, Florida Scientist, 69, 152-165.

Virmani, J. I., and R. H. Weisberg (2006), The 2005 hurricane season: An echo of the past or a harbinger of the future?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L05707, doi:10.1029/2005GL025517.

Weisberg, R.H. and L. Zheng (2006). Circulation of Tampa Bay driven by buoyancy, tides, and winds, as simulated using a finite volume coastal ocean model. J. Geophys. Res., 111, C01005, doi:10.1029/2005JC003067.

Weisberg, R.H., R. He, Y. Liu, and J.I. Virmani (2005). West Florida shelf circulation on synoptic, seasonal, and inter-annual time scales, in Circulation in the Gulf of Mexico, W. Sturges and A. Lugo-Fernandez, eds., AGU monograph series, Geophysical Monograph 161, 325-347.

Weisberg, R.H. and R. He (2003). Local and deep-ocean forcing contributions to anomalous water properties on the West Florida Shelf. J. Geophys. Res., 108, C6, 15, doi:10.1029/2002JC001407.