From The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric and Earth Science
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Robert C. Jones Jr.
rcjones@miami.edu
During its decade-long existence, Rosenstiel School’s 75-foot-long hurricane simulator has helped usher in a wave of international scientists and cutting-edge projects—from hybrid coral reefs to ocean-tracking devices.
The hurricane simulator SUSTAIN tank at the Rosenstiel School turned 10 years old this year.
It’s the dead of winter, and the only mention of a hurricane revolves around what the upcoming season might bring.
Yet, on an 863-acre barrier island in Miami, Florida, a Category 5 cyclone with 155-mile-per-hour winds rages, creating a menacing storm surge.
No hurricane warning is issued. Streets and roadways remain as dry as a desert, roofs intact, and trees and power poles upright.
The storm would last only a few hours. But over the next few months, more no-name cyclones form, then dissipate, in the same isolated area.
Even during the coldest times of the year, it is still hurricane season at the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. SUrge-STructure-Atmosphere INteraction (SUSTAIN) Laboratory on Virginia Key, where hurricanes created by a 1,400-horsepower turbine engine and 16 wave paddles unleash their fury inside a 75-foot-long acrylic chamber with walls as thick as the hull of an icebreaker.
Located at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, the tank marks a milestone this year: 10 years old—still just a youngling when it comes to the age of important research facilities.
During its decade-long existence, researchers have put it through its paces, cranking it up full blast to learn more about the complex air-sea interface of rapidly changing winds, waves, and currents that play an integral role in the way tropical cyclones intensify.
“Studying that interface in the natural environment is difficult. So, consequently, we don’t know all that we should about it, and that’s why SUSTAIN has been so important; it’s allowed us to monitor water and wind action in a 3D field of view,” said Brian Haus, a professor of ocean sciences who has directed the wind-wave tank since it became operational in 2014. “Over the past decade, we’ve learned a lot about how sea spray is generated in extreme winds, which is important for understanding hurricane rapid intensification. So, we’ve made tremendous strides in that area.”
Rare facility
There are few wind-wave tanks like it in the world.
“The number of facilities where there’s a controlled airflow over a water basin and in which either fresh or seawater can be used is relatively limited,” Haus explained. “We can generate the highest wind speeds in the world—Category 5 winds over water. And we’re doing that at a pretty large scale—23 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 2 meters high. That’s quite a bit larger than other wind-wave tanks. So, the tank’s size, its ability to generate intense winds, and its acrylic design that allows for incredible sightlines all combine to make it unique.”
Using the Rosenstiel School’s smaller Air-Sea Interaction Saltwater Tank (ASIST) as a guide, Haus and a team of researchers designed SUSTAIN in the late 2000s, hoping the project would be awarded a slice of the $55.5 million that the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was awarding to universities to support the construction of new scientific research facilities.
“ASIST had all the key elements, so we were able to do a lot of the initial design for SUSTAIN based on that smaller tank,” said Haus, noting that the 49-foot ASIST, which can generate hurricane conditions up to Category 3 intensity, is still used. “We just wanted to build bigger and with greater capabilities.”
SUSTAIN made it to the second round of projects for NIST funding but failed to make the final cut. Then, in an unlikely turn of events, renewed hope for the project came with the 2008 financial crisis. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the University received $15 million in 2009 to take SUSTAIN from concept to reality. Funding from the Glassell Family Foundation also supported the construction of the lab.
Varied uses
Today, the tank’s research footprint has expanded beyond simulating and studying the air-sea interface under a hurricane. Researchers have placed scale models of artificial coral reefs inside of it, testing the models’ ability to lessen the impacts of powerful waves and storm surge.
“SUSTAIN has been invaluable to our research on reef restoration and the development of hybrid artificial reefs,” said Diego Lirman, an associate professor of marine biology and ecology and lead investigator for ECoREEF (Engineering Coastal Resilience Through Hybrid Reef Restoration), a University of Miami Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge (U-LINK) project that last year deployed full-scale hybrid reef units 1,000 feet offshore of North Beach Oceanside Park in Miami Beach.
“For the first time, we were able to use scaled reef and coral models to test the role that corals play on wave mitigation when added to artificial structures,” he said. “By deploying coral models onto novel artificial reef modules and testing these together in SUSTAIN, we were able to show that adding corals to artificial reefs increases the reef’s wave mitigation potential by up to 15 percent through added friction. This knowledge is valuable not only for the design and deployment of hybrid reefs but also for the restoration of natural reefs.”
Without conducting critical testing in SUSTAIN, it would have proved extremely difficult for professor of ocean sciences Tamay M. Özgökmen and his team to design an effective floating GPS-equipped drifter that helps determine the fate of oil spilled in a marine environment, he admitted.
“We simulated everything from calm waters to breaking waves and turbulent seas, then observed how our drifter performed under those conditions. It was a much easier and time-efficient process than having to go out on a vessel multiple times to test the drifters at sea, where we couldn’t control oceanic conditions,” said Özgökmen, director of the Rosenstiel School’s Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE), an initiative created shortly after the Deepwater Horizon explosion to study the oil spill and its impact on the Gulf of Mexico’s delicate ecosystem.
After hundreds of tests in SUSTAIN, thousands of the drifters, which were initially made of plastic but then redesigned with biodegradable materials, were released into the Northern Gulf over a 10-year period, gathering valuable information that has helped researchers learn where oil will end up when future spills occur.
The CARTHE drifter is now patented and in high demand. “People see how effective it is, but what they don’t see are the thousands of hours that went into designing and testing it,” Özgökmen said. “SUSTAIN really made it possible.”
On one occasion, the 38,000-gallon tank even served as a giant aquarium. With Hurricane Irma bearing down on South Florida in 2017, researchers at the University’s Experimental Fish Hatchery needed a place to temporarily house and protect some of the valuable and endangered marine life they study. And ironically, the safest place for them turned out to be the Rosenstiel School’s hurricane simulator. Cobia, hogfish, and endangered Nassau grouper all rode out the storm in the safety of a saltwater-filled SUSTAIN.
And in May of this year, a company tested its floating solar panels in the tank, measuring how they withstood high winds and waves.
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Versatile facility
Such varied research projects are indicative of SUSTAIN’s versatility, Haus said. “For researchers from around the world who want to answer certain questions, whether it’s those that deal with the processes of air-sea interaction, or how winds and waves act on structures, or the global carbon cycle, we offer a unique measurement capability that no one else can,” he said.
“It pushes boundaries,” said Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, associate professor of civil and architectural engineering in the College of Engineering, who has conducted experiments in the tank for a hybrid reef research project in which he is involved. “It allows us to go from an idea, a theory, to analytical modeling and testing, to actually deploying full-scale versions of our research endeavors.”
The ability to conduct studies that are fundamental to addressing sustainability is arguably SUSTAIN’s strongest attribute, according to Antonio Nanni, a professor of civil and architectural engineering in the College of Engineering and one of the initial co-principal investigators for the project. “It’s located in the right place because Miami is ground zero for issues related to hurricanes and sea level rise,” he said. “It’s put us on the map in that regard.”
Scientists from Australia, France, Germany, and Japan have all traveled to Virginia Key to conduct experiments in the tank. And it has even garnered celebrity status of sorts. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, NBC Today weather anchor Al Roker, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and Bill Nye, the Science Guy, have all visited and seen the tank in action.
Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will help expand SUSTAIN’s capabilities in the coming year, according to Haus.
“It’s gone beyond what I ever imagined,” he said of the tank.
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The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric and Earth Science is an academic and research institution for the study of oceanography and the atmospheric sciences within the University of Miami. It is located on a 16-acre (65,000 m^2) campus on Virginia Key in Miami, Florida. It is the only subtropical applied and basic marine and atmospheric research institute in the continental United States.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science receives over $50 million in annual external research funding. Their laboratories include a salt-water wave tank, a five-tank Conditioning and Spawning System, multi-tank Aplysia Culture Laboratory, Controlled Corals Climate Tanks, and DNA analysis equipment. The campus also houses an invertebrate museum with 400,000 specimens and operates the Bimini Biological Field Station, an array of oceanographic high-frequency radar along the US east coast, and the Bermuda aerosol observatory. The University of Miami also owns the Little Salt Spring, a site on the National Register of Historic Places, in North Port, Florida, where RSMAS performs archaeological and paleontological research.
Up until 2008, RSMAS was solely a graduate school within the University of Miami, while it jointly administrated an undergraduate program with UM’s College of Arts and Sciences. In 2008, the Rosenstiel School has taken over administrative responsibilities for the undergraduate program, granting Bachelor of Science in Marine and Atmospheric Science (BSMAS) and Bachelor of Arts in Marine Affairs (BAMA) baccalaureate degree. Master’s, including a Master of Professional Science degree, and doctorates are also awarded to RSMAS students by the UM Graduate School.
The Rosenstiel School’s research includes the study of marine life, particularly Aplysia and coral; climate change; air-sea interactions; coastal ecology; and admiralty law. The school operates a marine research laboratory ship, and has a research site at an inland sinkhole. Research also includes the use of data from weather satellites and the school operates its own satellite downlink facility. The school is home to the world’s largest hurricane simulation tank.
The University of Miami is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. The university enrolls over 18,000 students in 12 separate colleges and schools, including the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine in Miami’s Health District, a law school on the main campus, and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science focused on the study of oceanography and atmospheric sciences on Virginia Key, with research facilities at the Richmond Facility in southern Miami-Dade County.
The University of Miami is now a member of The Association of American Universities
The university offers 132 undergraduate, 148 master’s, and 67 doctoral degree programs, of which 63 are research/scholarship and 4 are professional areas of study. Over the years, the university’s students have represented all 50 states and close to 150 foreign countries. With more than 16,000 full- and part-time faculty and staff, The University of Miami is a top 10 employer in Miami-Dade County. The University of Miami’s main campus in Coral Gables has 239 acres and over 5.7 million square feet of buildings.
The University of Miami is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. The University of Miami offers a large library system with over 3.9 million volumes and exceptional holdings in Cuban heritage and music.
The University of Miami also offers a wide range of student activities, including fraternities and sororities, and hundreds of student organizations. The Miami Hurricane, the student newspaper, and WVUM, the student-run radio station, have won multiple collegiate awards. The University of Miami’s intercollegiate athletic teams, collectively known as the Miami Hurricanes, compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The University of Miami’s football team has won five national championships since 1983 and its baseball team has won four national championships since 1982.
Research
The University of Miami is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. The University of Miami has received over $195 million in federal research funding, including $131.3 million from the Department of Health and Human Services and $14.1 million from the National Science Foundation. Of the $8.2 billion appropriated by Congress in 2009 as a part of the stimulus bill for research priorities of The National Institutes of Health, the Miller School received $40.5 million. In addition to research conducted in the individual academic schools and departments, Miami has the following university-wide research centers:
The Center for Computational Science
The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS)
Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy
The Miami European Union Center: This group is a consortium with Florida International University (FIU) established in fall 2001 with a grant from the European Commission through its delegation in Washington, D.C., intended to research economic, social, and political issues of interest to the European Union.
The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies
John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics – studies possible causes of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and macular degeneration.
Center on Research and Education for Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE)
Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research
The Miller School of Medicine receives more than $200 million per year in external grants and contracts to fund 1,500 ongoing projects. The medical campus includes more than 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m^2) of research space and the The University of Miami Life Science Park, which has an additional 2,000,000 sq ft (190,000 m^2) of space adjacent to the medical campus. The University of Miami’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute seeks to understand the biology of stem cells and translate basic research into new regenerative therapies.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science receives over $50 million in annual external research funding. Their laboratories include a salt-water wave tank, a five-tank Conditioning and Spawning System, multi-tank Aplysia Culture Laboratory, Controlled Corals Climate Tanks, and DNA analysis equipment. The campus also houses an invertebrate museum with over 400,000 specimens and operates the Bimini Biological Field Station, an array of oceanographic high-frequency radar along the US east coast, and the Bermuda aerosol observatory. The University of Miami also owns the Little Salt Spring, a site on the National Register of Historic Places, in North Port, Florida, where RSMAS performs archaeological and paleontological research.
The University of Miami built a brain imaging annex to the James M. Cox Jr. Science Center within the College of Arts and Sciences. The building includes a human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) laboratory, where scientists, clinicians, and engineers can study fundamental aspects of brain function. Construction of the lab was funded in part by a $14.8 million in stimulus money grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The university receives over $161 million in science and engineering funding from the U.S. federal government, the largest Hispanic-serving recipient. $117 million of the funding was through the Department of Health and Human Services and was used largely for the medical campus.
The University of Miami maintains one of the largest centralized academic cyber infrastructures in the country with numerous assets. The Center for Computational Science High Performance Computing group has been in continuous operation since 2007. Over that time the core has grown from a zero HPC cyberinfrastructure to a regional high-performance computing environment that currently supports more than 1,200 users, 220 TFlops of computational power, and more than 3 Petabytes of disk storage.