About me

Hi! I am an ocean and atmospheric scientist at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) headquarters in Virginia, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. I manage scientific studies related to physical oceanography and atmospheric science on the outer continental shelf of the U.S.; studies I am involved with include the impacts of offshore wind development on coastal oceanography; air quality impacts from oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico; and oceanographic observations and modeling off of Alaska.

Prior to BOEM, I was a postdoc and project scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, U.C. San Diego; I studied regional-scale atmosphere-ocean interactions, which have a strong influence on the climate variability that is felt by communities, including the impacts of climate change. I was advised by Prof. Shang-Ping Xie, with funding from the NASA physical oceanography program. I worked heavily with satellite observations of oceanic variables such as sea surface temperature, sea level, and ocean color; and atmospheric variables such as surface winds, rainfall, and clouds. We supplemented satellite data where appropriate with in situ observations from buoys, ships, and gliders.

I run computer simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), and utilize gridded reanalyses such as ERA5 and NCEP. I have found that combining satellite observations with numerical modeling is a powerful approach for developing robust explanations about processes in our environment.

Specific problems I worked on at Scripps include:

• orographic wind forcing of ocean circulation and upwelling in the Southern California Bight
• coupling between surface winds and rainfall
• satellite wind retrieval errors near coastal mountains

Check out my publications and research highlights for more information.

I am interested in the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods in earth science, and have worked with Will Chapman at Scripps to utilize convolutional neural networks (deep learning) for the improvement of satellite wind retrievals.

I received a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the University of Hawaii in 2013, working on air-sea interaction around SST fronts; and a S.B. in mathematics from MIT in 2006.

AMS Air-Sea Interaction Committee

From 2017–2021, I served on the American Meteorological Society Air-Sea Interaction Committee. As part of this responsibility, I helped organize the Air-Sea Interaction Conference at the 2021 AMS Annual Meeting.

Other interests

Aside from my broader interests in the Blue Economy, I like spending time outdoors (beaches, hiking, etc.) and indulging my passion for college football. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or just want to say hello (tomk at alum.mit.edu).