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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

A Hydroclimatic Assessment Of The U.S. Corn Belt Across Spatial And Temporal Scales, Olivia B. Kellner Apr 2015

A Hydroclimatic Assessment Of The U.S. Corn Belt Across Spatial And Temporal Scales, Olivia B. Kellner

Open Access Dissertations

The term hydroclimate is used to describe the climate of a given location as determined by the incident radiant energy (temperature) and the existence of water in its various forms on Earth. Two types of climate comprise the science of hydroclimatology: the climate as established by general global circulation patterns at specific locations on Earth (large-scale climate) and the climate established at Earth's surface resulting from the daily fluxes of radiant energy and water in its various forms between the atmosphere, Earth's surface, and the subsurface (local-scale climate) (Shelton 2009). This dissertation investigates different spatial and temporal scales of the …


Impact Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds On Peroxyacetyl Nitrate Production In The Southeast United States, Christopher John Groff Apr 2015

Impact Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds On Peroxyacetyl Nitrate Production In The Southeast United States, Christopher John Groff

Open Access Theses

Our atmosphere is arguably the fundamental entity that has made life on Earth possible. Knowledge of the delicate nature of our atmosphere continues to spread as "green" initiatives promote awareness of human influence on the environment. However, many climate scientists fear that unless immediate mitigation occurs, the reversal of human impact on our planet will be impossible, leading to unknown consequence. Perturbations to natural processes are likely to cause drastic change to the planet as we know it and ultimately result in significant health issues. It is important to push the boundaries of our understanding of atmospheric processes with intent …


Fully Electronic Method Of Measuring Post-Release Gap And Gradient/Residual Stress Of A Mems Cantilever, Andrew Stephen Kovacs Apr 2015

Fully Electronic Method Of Measuring Post-Release Gap And Gradient/Residual Stress Of A Mems Cantilever, Andrew Stephen Kovacs

Open Access Dissertations

Smartphones and other wireless devices have become ubiquitous over the past decade, and the RF front-end inside of them has become more complex and disproportionately consumes more power compared to other components. Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have a huge potential to reduce these problems while simultaneously offering superior performance compared to current leading-edge technology. However, MEMS technology has difficulty transitioning from the lab to large-scale manufacturing due to the unpredictability of device lifetime and manufacturability issues. This can be mitigated by investigating how critical material or physical parameters (gap, stress, Young's modulus, material thickness, etc.) vary from manufacturing uncertainties and how …


Studies Of The Interaction Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds And Nox In Forest Environments, Kevin M. Mcavey Apr 2015

Studies Of The Interaction Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds And Nox In Forest Environments, Kevin M. Mcavey

Open Access Dissertations

Ozone is a pollutant that causes crop damage, adverse health effects, and is a contributor to global climate change. Ozone concentrations are predicted to rise over the next half-century along with global temperature. Ozone production is controlled by the chemistry between biogenic volatile organic compounds and NOx (NO + NO2), and therefore, a greater understanding of NOx + BVOC chemistry along with their sources and sinks is needed. One large uncertainty in understanding NOx + BVOC chemistry is the production of organic nitrates (RONO2), which act as a radical termination step in the …


Spectroscopic Characterization And Photochemistry Of Nitrogen-Containing Molecules Relevant To Titan's Atmosphere, Deepali N. Mehta-Hurt Apr 2015

Spectroscopic Characterization And Photochemistry Of Nitrogen-Containing Molecules Relevant To Titan's Atmosphere, Deepali N. Mehta-Hurt

Open Access Dissertations

Titan's atmospheric chemistry has been the source of intrigue since the planetary body's discovery. Though there is a growing understanding of the atmospheric chemistry of small molecules on Titan, much less is known about larger molecule formation, and particularly about nitrile chemistry. This dissertation characterizes nitrile/isonitrile intermediates that are postulated to be important in Titan's atmosphere, adding to the necessary foundation for understanding Titan's atmospheric chemistry. The vibronic spectroscopy of para-diisocyanobenzene (pDIB, C≡N-Ph-N≡C) has been characterized as a first step towards photochemical studies that can test the transformation of the isonitrile group to other nitrogen-based functionalities.p …


Laboratory Studies On The Production Of Alpha-Pinene-Derived Organic Nitrates And Their Atmospheric Fate, Joel David Rindelaub Apr 2015

Laboratory Studies On The Production Of Alpha-Pinene-Derived Organic Nitrates And Their Atmospheric Fate, Joel David Rindelaub

Open Access Dissertations

Currently, the formation yields of organic nitrates from the oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds, such as α-pinene, is highly uncertain, negatively impacting our knowledge on tropospheric ozone production and the fate of atmospheric NOx. To lower this uncertainty, we quantified the organic nitrate yield from the OH radical oxidation of α-pinene under high NOx conditions. The α-pinene- derived nitrates created in chamber experiments readily partitioned to the aerosol phase and underwent particle phase hydrolysis, indicating that these processes are likely a sink for atmospheric NOx. The hydrolysis of organic nitrates was found to be …


Winter Weather Services And Forecasting Options For Local Agencies, Michael Baldwin Mar 2015

Winter Weather Services And Forecasting Options For Local Agencies, Michael Baldwin

Purdue Road School

Students majoring in atmospheric science at Purdue's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences have organized a "forecasting club" to provide weather forecasting services to a wide range of customers. During the winter months, these students provide a detailed forecast of conditions across the state of Indiana that are expected to impact road maintenance operations. These forecasts are available via a web page as well as direct email. Other information regarding winter weather observations and predictions is rapidly increasing in availability. This presentation will discuss these freely available sources of winter weather information that can be used by local agencies …


What Do Experienced Water Managers Think Of Water Resources Of Our Nation And Its Management Infrastructure?, Faisal Hossain, Jeffrey R. Arnold, Edward Beighley, Casey M. Brown, Steven J. Burian, Ji Chen, Anindita Mitra, Dev Dutta S Niyogi, Roger A. Pielke, Vincent C. Tidwell, Dave Wegner Jan 2015

What Do Experienced Water Managers Think Of Water Resources Of Our Nation And Its Management Infrastructure?, Faisal Hossain, Jeffrey R. Arnold, Edward Beighley, Casey M. Brown, Steven J. Burian, Ji Chen, Anindita Mitra, Dev Dutta S Niyogi, Roger A. Pielke, Vincent C. Tidwell, Dave Wegner

Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Faculty Publications

This article represents the second report by an ASCE Task Committee "Infrastructure Impacts of Landscape-driven Weather Change" under the ASCE Watershed Management Technical Committee and the ASCE Hydroclimate Technical Committee. Herein, the 'infrastructure impacts" are referred to as infrastructure-sensitive changes in weather and climate patterns (extremes and non-extremes) that are modulated, among other factors, by changes in landscape, land use and land cover change. In this first report, the article argued for explicitly considering the well-established feedbacks triggered by infrastructure systems to the land-atmosphere system via landscape change. In this report by the ASCE Task Committee (TC), we present the …