Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Keynote Address: Climate Change: From Global To New York Scale, Christopher D. Thorncroft

CHAR

This talk is concerned with the science and impacts of climate change from global to New York scales. It will provide an assessment of how the climate has changed over the past Century based on a purely observational perspective. The scientific basis for anthroprogenic climate change will be explained and discussed including a description of the “greenhouse effect” and why it is important for life on this planet. We will briefly discuss global and local consequences of a warmer climate and what we need to be prepared for going forward in the coming decades.

Using P-Band Signals Of Opportunity Radio Waves For Root Zone Soil Moisture Remote Sensing, Phillip H. Lipinski, Benjamin R. Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Retrieval of Root Zone Soil Moisture (RZSM) is important for understanding the carbon cycle for use in climate change research as well as meteorology, hydrology, and precision agriculture studies. A current method of remote sensing, GNSS-R uses GPS signals to measure soil moisture content and vegetation biomass, but it is limited to 3-5 cm of soil penetration depth. Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) has emerged as an extension of GNSS-R remote sensing using communication signals. P-band communication signals (370 MHz) will be studied as an improved method of remote sensing of RZSM. P-band offers numerous advantages over GNSS-R, including stronger signal …

An Evaluation Of Gridded Temperature Products And Their Effectiveness In Modeling Small Scale Ambient Temperature, Barrie Chileen

Celebration of Learning

The use of gridded temperature products is becoming increasingly prevalent in ecological research due to their accessibility, low cost, and spatial and temporal coverage. While a few studies have compared gridded products against each other and against weather station data, little research exists that attempts to verify the accuracy of these gridded products on finer spatial scales in field settings. In this study, we use two networks of temperature sensors to evaluate the effectiveness of these widely used gridded products in modeling ambient temperatures and compare tradeoffs between spatial and temporal resolution of gridded products.

We deployed 65 temperature sensors …

Global Ranking Of U.S. Adults Concerned About Climate Change, Eric Marek

Undergraduate Research Conference

Even with a plethora of evidence and the vast majority of climate scientists supporting climate change, there remains a considerable amount of denial among the public. The purpose of this research is to examine where the United States stands in relation to other countries on the topic of climate change. The aspects explored include the history of climate change, the effects of climate change on the environment, science literacy and pseudoscience beliefs, opposition to climate change, the mitigation of climate change, as well as public opinion of climate change. This paper will include measures taken by governments and businesses to …

Link Between Local Phenology And Climate Change, Blake Steiner, Tatyana Lobova

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

The SouthEast Virginia Phenology Project was initiated as collaboration between Norfolk Botanical Garden and Old Dominion University in 2010 to document phenology of seven native plants and potential effects of the climate change on their life cycle. The air temperature in Norfolk has increased on average by 0.02ºC per year since 1980. Four out of seven of taxonomically diverse plant species (Mayapple, Flowering Dogwood, Highbush Blueberry, and Common ButtonBush) exhibited significant sensitivity to warming temperatures. Of these four, only Common Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) had shown significant phenophases shift. Specifically, first flowering and first fruiting dates had shifted 2.7 …

Climate Change, Natural Disasters, And Suicide: A Systematic Review, Ans Irfan, Peter Lapuma

GW Research Days 2016 - 2020

Background.
Natural disasters are projected to increase due to climate change. Mental health is not a well-researched area in public health, particularly as it relates to environmental health and in the aftermath of natural disasters. The suicide rate is approximately 13 per 100,000 people in the US, nationally. This already high suicide rate warrants researching this area mental health. Understanding the relation between natural disasters and suicide rates might help alleviate human suffering and potentially save lives in the future, in post-disaster settings. This research will further the knowledge of the association between natural disasters and suicide and provide foundation …

P16. Ralmo Rotational Raman Temperature Retrieval: First Steps Towards The Application Of Optimal Estimation Method (Oem), Shayamila N. Mahagammulla Gamage, Robert Sica, Alexander Haefele

Western Research Forum

Background:

Temperature is an important atmospheric parameter that plays an extensive role in the fields of atmospheric dynamics, climatology, meteorology, and chemistry. Light detection and ranging (lidar), is a remote sensing technology that can be used for atmospheric temperature profiling. A lidar transmits short laser pulses into the atmosphere and the light scattered by the particles in the atmosphere is collected and measured using a telescope. The atmospheric temperatures can be retrieved by analysing the Pure Rotational Raman (PRR) scatter measurements from the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere.

Methods:

In this study use the Optimal Estimation Method (OEM) …

P07. Characterizing The Purple Crow Lidar To Investigate Potential Sources Of Wet Bias, Jeffrey Vankerkhove, Robert J. Sica, Robin Wing, Steve Argall

Western Research Forum

The Purple Crow Lidar is a large aperture lidar, capable of retrieving water vapor profiles into the stratosphere. Water vapor in the upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) region is of particular importance in understanding Earth's radiative budget and atmospheric dynamics, making accurate UTLS measurements crucial. A comparison campaign with the NASA/GSFC ALVICE mobile lidar in the spring of 2012 showed PCL water vapor measurements were consistently larger than those of ALVICE in the lower stratosphere, prompting an investigation to characterize the system. The investigation looks into how changes to the data processing approach, as well as applying additional instrumental corrections, would …