Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Improving Ensemble Streamflow Prediction Using Interdecadal/Interannual Climate Variability, Kenneth W. Lamb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) river forecast centers provide long-term water resource forecasts for the main river basins in the U.S. The NWS creates seasonal streamflow forecasts using an ensemble prediction model called the Extended Streamflow Prediction (ESP) software. ESP creates runoff volume forecasts by taking the current observed soil moisture and snowpack conditions in the basin and applying them to historical temperature and precipitation scenarios. The ESP treats every historic input year as a likely scenario of future basin conditions. Therefore improving the knowledge about how long-term climate cycles impact streamflow can extend the forecast lead time and improve …

Urban Heat Island Expansion In The Greater Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, Alex Remar

Earth and Soil Sciences

The growth of human settlements into vast urban metropolitan areas is often accompanied by relatively higher temperatures in comparison with surrounding rural countrysides, a phenomenon known as the “urban heat island effect.” The city of Las Vegas has been selected as an examination of this trend because of its unprecedented urban growth in the last 50 years, which has been mapped by satellite imagery for several decades. Studying the growth of Las Vegas’ relatively new heat island can provide valuable insight into the causes and magnitude of all urban heat islands in general.

In this investigation, a series of temperature …

Measurement And Interpolation Of Sea Surface Temperature And Salinity In The Tropical Pacific: A 9,000 Nautical Mile Research Odyssey, Amber Brooks

Earth and Soil Sciences

The purpose of this project was to compare spline and inverse distance weighting interpolation tools on data collected in the tropical Pacific Ocean by ship and data from a global network of CTD floats, known as Argo floats (fig.1), to provide evidence that technological advancement and integration is aiding our understanding of the ocean-atmosphere system of planet Earth. Thirty-one sea surface temperature and salinity samples were manually taken across a 9,000 nautical mile trek of the Pacific Ocean for the months of April, May and June 2008. Argo ASCII globally gridded monthly averaged sea surface temperature and salinity data, from …

Fire And Climate In A Lodgepole Forest Of Central Idaho: Annual, Decadal, Centennial, And Millennial Perspectives, Lar Osvard Svenson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Fire history of the high-elevation forest of the Sawtooth Valley in central Idaho was reconstructed using tree rings (providing annual to decadal resolution over the past ~400 years) and radiocarbon dating of charcoal (providing centennial to millennial resolution over the past ~8000 years). Fourteen annually resolved fires were reconstructed between 1632 and 1933 AD from fire-scarred Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var latifolia). Stand ages of lodgepole pine indicate that at least five annually resolved fires in the ~28,000 ha study area were stand-replacing(SR). Multi-watershed SR fires burned in 1632 and 1842, and …

Assessment Of Impacts To Hydroclimatology And River Operations Due To Climate Change Over The Colorado River Basin, William Paul Miller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigated the impacts of climate change to the hydroclimatology and river and reservoir management operations within the Colorado River Basin. Preliminary research indicated observed warming trends throughout the Colorado River Basin and corresponding seasonal trends to the magnitude and timing of runoff in the Colorado River Basin. Subsequent research investigated the changing character of precipitation and corresponding impacts to streamflow over the Colorado River Basin. Analysis of snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) stations over the American West and Colorado River Basin indicated decreasing trends in annual snowpack, often at least at the 95% confidence interval. A shorter snowpack season was …

United States Land Cover Land Use Change, Albedo And Radiative Forcing: Past And Potential Climate Implications, Christopher A. Barnes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change affects Earth surface properties including albedo that impose a radiative forcing on the climate. Recent spatially explicit satellite derived contemporary LCLU, albedo, and projected LCLU data are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2050, on albedo and surface radiative forcing for the conterminous United States. Four research hypotheses concerned with past and potential future climate implications of LCLU change are addressed. The research described in this dissertation makes an important contribution to advancing understanding of the role of LCLU change on the climate system, …

Assessing Replicated Coral Trace Element (Sr/Ca And Mg/Ca) Variability And Skeletal Growth Records From The Tropical Pacific, Henry Chun-Yi Wu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

To gain a more complete history and understanding of the full amplitude of climate variability prior to instrumental records, science must rely on natural proxy archives that are sensitive to fluctuations in key climate parameters. Calcium carbonate skeletons of long-living hermatypic corals in some locations have been shown to be natural archives of surface ocean variability. This study investigated the fidelity and reproducibility of coral derived Sr/Ca time series from Clipperton Atoll, Fiji, and Tonga as accurate proxies of sea surface temperature (SST). The replicated high-resolution Sr/Ca time series record monthly and bimonthly SST changes, though with a greater magnitude …

A Spline Kernel Based Smoothing Algorithm : A Comparison Of Methods With A Spatiotemporal Application To Global Climate Fluctuations, Derek Daniel Cyr

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In statistics, smoothing is a technique that attempts to capture the key patterns or trends in data while leaving out the noise that is obscuring them. Nonparametric techniques are well-suited for smoothing as they do not rely on assumptions that the data arise from a given probability distribution.