Email: pps@ucar.edu
Phone: 303-497-8953
Postal Address: P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307-3000
Shipping Address: 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO, 80307-3000

Professional Interests

Dr. Sullivan's research interests are: simulations and measurements of turbulence in geophysical settings, subgrid-scale modeling, air-sea interaction, effects of surface gravity (water) waves on marine boundary layers, impacts of stratification, turbulent flow over hills, and numerical methods. He uses large-eddy and direct numerical simulations to investigate turbulent processes in both the atmospheric boundary layer and the ocean mixed layer. These turbulence simulation codes run on large parallel supercomputers. Dr. Sullivan has participated in and planned field campaigns, Horizontal Array Turbulence Study , Ocean Horizontal Array Turbulence Study, and Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study focused on the measurement of subgrid scale variables in the atmosphere.

Recent Publications

To search my complete list of publications, please see The ESSL Publications Search.

Sullivan, P.P. & E.G. Patton, 2008: A highly parallel algorithm for turbulence simulations in planetary boundary layers: Results with meshes up to 10243. 18th Conference on Boundary Layer and Turbulence , Stockholm, Sweden. pdf

Sullivan, P.P., J.B. Edson, T. Hristov, & J.C. McWilliams, 2008: Large eddy simulations and observations of atmospheric marine boundary layers above non-equilibrium surface waves. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. , 65, 1225-1245.

Sullivan, P.P., J.C. McWilliams, & W.K. Melville, 2007: Catalyzing Craik-Leibovich instabilites by breaking waves. Fifth International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics , Tempe, AZ. pdf

Sullivan, P.P., J.C. McWilliams, & W.K. Melville, 2007: Surface gravity wave effects in the oceanic boundary layer: Large-eddy simulation with vortex force and stochastic breakers. J. Fluid Mechanics, 593, 405-452.

Sullivan, P.P., J.C. McWilliams, & W.K. Melville, 2005: Surface waves and ocean mixing: Insights from numerical simulations with stochastic surface forcing. 14th Aha Hulikoa on Rogue Waves , 147-155.

Sullivan, P.P., J.C. McWilliams, & W.K. Melville, 2004: The oceanic boundary layer driven by wave breaking with stochastic variability. I: Direct numerical simulations. J. Fluid Mechanics, 507, 143-174.

Sullivan, P.P, T.W. Horst, D.H. Lenschow, C-H. Moeng, & J.C. Weil, 2003: Structure of subfilter-scale fluxes in the atmospheric surface layer with application to large-eddy simulation modeling. J. Fluid Mech., 482, 101-139.

Sullivan, P.P and J.C. McWilliams, 2002: Turbulent flow over water waves in the presence of stratification. Physics of Fluids, 14, 1182--1195.

Sullivan, P. P., J. C. McWilliams, and C-H. Moeng, 2000: Simulation of turbulent flow over idealized water waves. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 404, 47-85.

Sullivan, P. P., C.-H. Moeng, B. Stevens, D. H. Lenschow, and S. D. Mayor, 1998: Structure of the entrainment zone capping the convective atmospheric boundary layer. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 55, 3042-3064.

McWilliams, J. C., P. P. Sullivan, and C.-H. Moeng, 1997: Langmuir turbulence in the ocean. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 334, 1-30.

Sullivan, P. P., J. C. McWilliams, and C.-H. Moeng, 1996: A grid nesting method for large-eddy simulation of planetary boundary layer flows. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 80, 167-202.

Sullivan, P. P., J. C. McWilliams, and C.-H. Moeng, 1994: A subgrid-scale model for large-eddy simulation of planetary boundary-layer flows. Boundary-Layer Meteorology , 71, 247-276.

Moeng, C.-H., and P. P. Sullivan, 1994: A comparison of shear and buoyancy driven planetary-boundary-layer flows. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 51,999-1022.


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Modeling and Observations

Selected Presentations