Marc Parlange Gives NWC Seminar

Marc Parlange, Ph.D., presented a seminar - "Flows over Complex Terrain" - at the National Weather Center (NWC) on September 19. Dr. Parlange, Professor and Dean at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, was here at OU in conjunction with the 2012 WaTER Symposium. He and five other international experts in the fields of water and sanitation, nominated and selected the next International Water Prize winner and then gave talks and answered questions as part of the Symposium.

Dr. Marc Parlange

 
The NWC seminar presented field micrometeorological observations that were collected in the Swiss alps over steep terrain to understand the patterns of the wind fields which have an important impact on the melting of snow and glaciers in the generation of stream flows.  The talk then focused on ongoing work with colleagues Charles Meneveau and Marc Calaf on the impact of large scale wind turbine farms on these surface fluxes using new generation Large Eddy Simulation.  There is an apparent impact of increasing the fluxes of scalars into the atmosphere of some 10 to 15 percent.

Marc and his students measure and simulate wind fields over the Swiss Alps.

 
Previously, Parlange served as professor at Johns Hopkins University and UC Davis. He is Editor-in-Chief of Water Resources Research and member of the Division 2 (Engineering and Physical Sciences) of the Swiss National Science Foundation. His research concerns the measurement of and simulation in hydrology, water resources, and the lower atmosphere. In 1997 he was awarded the Macelwane Medal and was made Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and in 2006 he was awarded the Dalton Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. at Cornell University.