NSSL Staff Profiles

Sean is a Research Scientist with a focus on in situ observations in challenging environments throughout our environment. His research primarily focuses on designing and deploying cutting edge observational equipment to push the limits of how we view and observe the atmosphere around us. This often means creating equipment to sample some of the most hostile conditions on our planet. This work generally falls into three main categories.

1). Tornadoes/Severe Wind: a large focal point of NSSL continues to be understanding tornadoes and severe wind events. These events are highly local and require precise skill in forecasting and logistics to safely and effectively collect observations. The main body of work here focuses on tornadoes, creating equipment to sample the low level flow structure of these events and better understand how and why tornadoes form. This also includes hurricane deployments as they can often be prolific tornado producers. Sean has been doing this work for nearly 2 decades and has sampled over 100 tornadoes and numerous hurricanes.

2). Hail: one of the more costly severe weather hazards (more so than tornadoes), hail has become a primary focus of research to explore how we can better observe, and therefore predict, the hazards of large hail. This comes with unique challenges that required specialized equipment to be created, resulting in the one-of-a-kind HailCam vehicle that is capable of observing hail in complete free-fall. The data collected by this system has implications in the warning process, radar meteorology, forecasting, and building resiliency to protect from future events.

3). Outside of tornadoes and hail, other observational work falls into the category of sampling the general atmosphere in a variety of conditions. This has spanned everything from lake effect snow events to monsoonal rains, using a variety of equipment and tools.

Sean is well versed in a number of observational tools including mobile mesonets, disdrometers, mobile weather balloon soundings, in situ particle observations with balloon-borne instruments, and high speed camera systems to name a few. Much of the work that Sean does is a interdisciplinary blend of meteorology and engineering, as well as a significant amount of logistics and project support for a variety of field project efforts.

Selected Publications

Alford, A. A., M. I. Biggerstaff, G. D. Carrie, J. L. Schroeder, B. D. Hirth, S. M. Waugh, 2019: Near-surface maximum winds during the landfall of Hurricane Harvey. Journal of Geophysical Research, 46, 1–10, doi:10.1029/2018GL080013

Barbieri, L., S. T. Kral, S. C. Bailey, A. E. Frazier, J. D. Jacob, J. Reuder, D. Brus, P. B. Chilson, C. Crick, C. Detweiler, A. Doddi, J. Elston, H. Foroutan, J. Gonzalez-Rocha, B. R. Greene, M. I. Guzman, A. L. Houston, A. Islam, O. Kemppinen, D. Lawrence, E. A. Pillar-Little, S. D. Ross, M. P. Sama, D. G. Schmale, T. J. Schuyler, A. Shankar, S. W. Smith, S. Waugh, C. Dixon, S. Borenstein, G. Boer, 2019: Intercomparison of Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Measurements for Atmospheric Science during the LAPSE-RATE Campaign. Sensors, 19, 1–32, doi:10.3390/s19092179.

Bell, T. M., P. M. Klein, J. K. Lundquist, S. M. Waugh, 2021: Remote-sensing and radiosonde datasets collected in the San Luis Valley during the LAPSE-RATE campaign. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1041–1051.

Brauer, N. S., A. A. Alford, S. M. Waugh, M. I. Biggerstaff, G. D. Carrie, P. E. Kirstetter, J. B. Basara, D. T. Dawson, K. L. Elmore, J. Stevenson, R. W. Moore, 2022: Hurricane Laura (2020): A Comparison of Drop Size Distribution Moments Using Ground and Radar Remote Sensing Retrieval Methods. Journal of Geophysical Research, 127, 16, 1–23, doi:10.1029/2021JD035845.

Brune, W. H., P. J. McFarland, E. Bruning, S. Waugh, D. MacGorman, D. O. Miller, J. M. Jenkins, X. Ren, J. Mao, J. Peischl, 2021: Extreme oxidant amounts produced by lightning in storm clouds. Science, 372, 6543, 711–715, doi:10.1126/science.abg0492.

de Boer, G., C. Diehl, J. Jacob, A. Houston, S. Smith, P. Chilson, D. G. Schmale III, J. Intrieri, J. Pinto, J. Elston, D. Brus, O. Kemppinen, A. Clark, D. Lawrence, S. C. Baily, M. P. Sama, A. Frazier, C. Crick, V. Natalie, E. Pillar-Little, P. Klein, S. Waugh, J. K. Lundquist, L. Barbieri, S. T. Kral, A. A. Jensen, C. Dixon, S. Borenstein, D. Hesselius, K. Human, P. Hall, B. Argrow, T. Thornberry, R. Wright, J. T. Kelly, 2020: Development of Community, Capabilities, and Understanding through Unmanned Aircraft-Based Atmospheric Research: The LAPSE-RATE Campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, E684–E699, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0050.1.

de Boer, G., A. Houston, J. Jacob, P. B. Chilson, S. W. Smith, B. Argrow, D. Lawrence, J. Elston, D. Brus, O. Kemppinen, P. Klein, J. K. Lundquist, S. Waugh, S. C. Bailey, A. Frazier, M. P. Sama, C. Crick, D. Schmale, J. Pinto, E. A. Pillar-Little, V. Natalie, A. Jensen, 2020: Data generated during the 2018 LAPSE-RATE campaign: an introduction and overview. Earth System Science Data, 12, 3357–3366, doi:10.5194/essd-12-3357-2020.

Fernandez‐Caban, P. L., A. A. Alford, M. J. Bell, M. I. Biggerstaff, B. Hirth, K. Kosiba, B. Phillips, J. L. Schroeder, S. M. Waugh, E. Williford, J. Wurman, F. J. Masters, 2019: Observing Hurricane Harvey’s Eyewall at Landfall. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100, 759–775, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0237.1.

Flournoy, M. D., A. W. Lyza, M. A. Satrio, M. R. Diedrichsen, M. C. Coniglio, S. Waugh, 2022: A climatology of cell mergers with supercells and their association with mesocyclone evolution. Monthly Weather Review, 150, 451–461, doi:10.1175/MWR-D-21-0204.1.

Greene, B. R., A. R. Segales, S. Waugh, S. Duthoit, P. B. Chilson, 2018: Considerations for temperature sensor placement on rotary-wing unmanned aircraft systems. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT), 11, 5519–5530, doi:10.5194/amt-11-5519-2018.

Houston, A. L., R. J. Laurence III, T. W. Nichols, S. M. Waugh, B. Argrow, C. Ziegler, 2016: Intercomparison of Unmanned Aircraftborne and Mobile Mesonet Atmospheric Sensors. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 33, 1569–1582, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-15-0178.1.

Jensen, A. A., J. O. Pinto, S. C. Bailey, R. A. Sobash, G. d. Boer, A. L. Houston, P. B. Chilson, T. Bell, G. Romine, S. W. Smith, D. A. Lawrence, C. Dixon, J. K. Lundquist, J. D. Jacob, J. Elston, S. Waugh, M. Steiner, 2021: Assimilation of a Coordinated Fleet of Uncrewed Aircraft System Observations in Complex Terrain: EnKF System Design and Preliminary Assessment. Monthly Weather Review, 149, 5, 1459–1480, doi:10.1175/MWR-D-20-0359.1.

Jensen, A. A., J. O. Pinto, S. C. Bailey, R. A. Sobash, G. Romine, G. de Boer, A. L. Houston, S. W. Smith, D. A. Lawrence, C. Dixon, J. K. Lundquist, J. D. Jacob, J. Elston, S. Waugh, D. Brus, M. Steiner, 2022: Assimilation of a coordinated fleet of uncrewed aircraft system observations in complex terrain: Observing System Experiments. Monthly Weather Review, EOR, 1–47, doi:10.1175/MWR-D-22-0090.1.

Kennedy, A., A. Scott, N. Loeb, A. Sczepanski, K. Lucke, J. Marquis, S. Waugh, 2021: Bringing Microphysics to the Masses: The Blowing Snow Observations at the University of North Dakota: Education through Research (BLOWN-UNDER) Campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, published online, 1–41, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0199.1.

MacGorman, D. R., M. I. Biggerstaff, S. Waugh, J. T. Pilkey, M. A. Uman, D. M. Jordan, T. Ngin, W. R. Gamerota, G. Carrie, P. Hyland, 2015: Coordinated lightning, balloon-borne electric field, and radar observations of triggered lightning flashes in North Florida. Geophysical Research Letters, 42, 5635–5643, doi:10.1002/2015GL064203.

McFarquhar, G. M., E. Smith, E. A. Pillar-Little, K. Brewster, P. B. Chilson, T. R. Lee, S. Waugh, N. Yussouf, X. Wang, M. Xue, G. de Boer, J. A. Gibbs, C. Fiebrich, B. Baker, J. Brotzge, F. Carr, H. Christophersen, M. Fengler, P. Hall, T. Hock, A. Houston, R. Huck, J. Jacob, R. Palmer, P. K. Quinn, M. Wagner, Y. Zhang, D. Hawk, 2020: Current and Future Uses of UAS for Improved Forecasts/Warnings and Scientific Studies. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, E1322–E1328, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0015.1.

Trapp, R. J., D. J. Stensrud, M. C. Coniglio, R. S. Schumacher, M. E. Baldwin, S. Waugh, D. T. Conlee, 2016: Mobile Radiosonde Deployments during the Mesoscale Predictability Experiment (MPEX): Rapid and Adaptive Sampling of Upscale Convective Feedbacks. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97, 329–336, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00258.1.

Waugh, S. M., C. L. Ziegler, D. R. MacGorman, S. E. Fredrickson, D. W. Kennedy, W. D. Rust, 2015: A Balloonborne Particle Size, Imaging, and Velocity Probe for in Situ Microphysical Measurements. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 32, 1562–1580, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-14-00216.1.

Waugh, S. M., 2016: A BALLOON-BORNE PARTICLE SIZE, IMAGING, AND VELOCITY PROBE FOR IN SITU MICROPHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 214 pp.

Waugh, S. M., T. J. Schuur, 2018: On the use of radiosondes in freezing precipitation. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 35, 459–472, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0074.1.

Waugh, S. M., C. L. Ziegler, D. R. MacGorman, 2018: In Situ Microphysical Observations of the 29–30 May 2012 Kingfisher, OK, Supercell With a Balloon-Borne Video Disdrometer. Journal of Geophysical Research, 123, 1–23, doi:10.1029/2017JD027623.

Waugh, S. M., C. L. Ziegler, D. R. MacGorman, 2020: In situ microphysical observations of a multicell storm using a balloon‐borne video disdrometer during Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry. Journal of Geophysical Research, 125, 1–27, doi:10.1029/2020JD032394.

Waugh, S. M., 2021: The “U-Tube”: An Improved Aspirated Temperature System for Mobile Meteorological Observations, Especially in Severe Weather. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 38, 9, 1477–1489, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-21-0008.1.