Physics Commons^™

Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques, Ruthba Yasmin

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

This thesis aims to develop a hybrid physics-incorporated neural network model (PINN) for classifying geomangnetic substorms in Earth's Magnetosphere. The model is trained using a comprehensive list of substorm onsets, ground magentometer data from a global network, and solar wind parameters from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. Two different neural network architectures are used, and the physics model used for training is called WINDMI. The magnetic field components on the ground, which are a function of the ionospheric currents, are captured by the SML index. The methodology involves using 60-minute data segments preceding an event to train the hybrid …

Low Cost Magnetometer Calibration And Distributed Simultaneous Multipoint Ionospheric Measurements From A Sounding Rocket Platform, Joshua W. Milford

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Low-cost and low-size-weight-and-power (SWaP) magnetometers can provide greater accessibility for distributed simultaneous measurements in the ionosphere, either onboard sounding rockets or on CubeSats. The Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIL) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has launched a multitude of sounding rockets in recent history: one night-time mid-latitude rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in August 2022 and three mid-latitude rockets from White Sands Missile Range during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. All rockets had a comprehensive suite of instruments for electrodynamics and neutral dynamics measurements. Among this suite was one science-grade three-axis fluxgate magnetometer (Billingsley TFM65VQS / TFM100G2) and up …

Spectroscopy Of Atmospheres, Randika Dodangodage

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Spectroscopic methods are used to study planetary and stellar atmospheres. The information obtained from spectroscopic studies provides insight into atmospheric compositions and dynamics, which can be used to model and characterize atmospheres and climates. Laboratory-recorded absorption cross-sections are needed to interpret the recorded spectra of planets and stars. High resolution ethane, neopentane, propene, and n-butane spectra have been recorded, and absorption cross-sections have been provided for different temperatures and total pressures with different broadening gases, including hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen. The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite orbits Earth and records spectra through solar occultation limb observations. HOCl is a chlorine …

Effect Of Morphology And An Upstream Tall Building On A Street Canyon Flow, Haoran Du

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The effects of the morphological model and the existence of an upstream tall building on the turbulent street canyon flow and the overlying boundary layer are investigated in a wind tunnel, using Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (S-PIV) measurements. The velocity variances, Reynolds shear stress, and turbulent kinetic energy are found to be larger than in a similar idealized street canyon model. Increasing building height results in a decrease in vertical mass fluxes across the opening of the canyon, at least in the canyon portion directly downstream of the building. The interaction between the large-scale structures in the overlying boundary layer …

Studies Of The Ionosphere-Thermosphere Responses To Multi-Scale Energy Deposition Processes, Haonan Wu

All Dissertations

The Ionosphere-Thermosphere (I-T) system is greatly affected by the magnetospheric energy deposition from above and subjected to forcing from the lower atmosphere simultaneously. A central problem in studying the coupled I-T system is to analyze the multi-scale processes naturally embedded in both ways. Magnetospheric energy input such as auroral precipitation and electric field demonstrates multi-scale structures during magnetic storms, resulting in multi-scale I-T responses when deposited into the I-T system. To better quantify the multi-scale aurora and electric field, we developed a new data assimilation model based on a multi-resolution Gaussian process model to synthesize empirical models and observational data …

Spectra Of Atmospheric And Astronomical Molecules, W. D. Cameron

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Spectroscopy techniques are focused on spectra of molecules of interest to the Earth’s atmosphere and/or astronomy and astrophysics. Laboratory spectroscopy as well as remote satellite sensing are applied. Using the Fourier transform spectrometer aboard the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite to measure the absorption spectra of the Earth’s atmosphere through solar occultation limb observation demonstrates that volcanic eruption plumes can be located and tracked through their SO₂ content. The presence of those plumes is corroborated by overlaying infrared atmospheric aerosol extinction observed by the 1 μm imager on the same satellite. Tracking atmospheric aerosol movement with the ACE …

Stratospheric Glider Measurements Of Atmospheric Parameters, Anisa Haghighi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

In June 2021 a series of high altitude flights were conducted in Spaceport America, NM, using a balloon launched Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) to assess its capability to conduct measurements of various atmospheric properties and study turbulence in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. This UAS descends using an automated flight trajectory. The instruments aboard included a NASA-developed infrasonic microphone to evaluate its remote turbulence detection capabilities and a five-hole probe capable of measuring the in situ wind vector. Also on board were temperature, humidity and wind profile sensors. This document focuses on the atmospheric properties measured at high altitudes, the …

Physical, Optical, And Chemical Properties Of Light Absorbing Aerosols And Their Climatic Impacts, Susan Mathai

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Aerosols are particles suspended in the atmosphere; they are emitted during natural phenomena such as dust storms, wildfires, and volcanic eruptions, and during anthropogenic activities like household wood burning, vehicles operations, and industrial productions, or they can form in the atmosphere from gas to particle partition. Aerosols impact earth’s weather and climate by absorbing and scattering the incoming solar and the outgoing earth thermal radiation and interacting with clouds. The optical properties of aerosols evolve as the chemical and physical properties vary during their residence in the atmosphere. In addition, the aerosols’ properties strongly depend on the vertical distribution in …

Kinetic Modeling Of Ionospheric Outflows Observed By The Visions-1 Sounding Rocket, Robert M. Albarran Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Plasma escape from the high-latitude ionosphere (ion outflow) serves as a significant source of heavy plasma to magnetospheric plasma sheet and ring current regions. Outflows alter mass density and reconnection rates, hence global responses of the magnetosphere. The VISIONS-1 (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm) sounding rocket was launched on Feb. 7, 2013 at 8:21 UTC from Poker Flat, Alaska, into an auroral substorm with the objective of identifying the drivers and dynamics of nightside ion outflow at altitudes where it is initiated, below 1000 km. Energetic ion data from the VISIONS-1 polar cap boundary crossing …

Acoustic Waves In The Upper Atmosphere, Geoffrey Blayne Schulthess

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Atmospheric waves can be generated by tropospheric sources such as earthquakes and explosions, causing significant disturbances in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, where radio wave communications take place. For this analysis, they will be separated into two sub-groups called acoustic waves and gravity waves. Because each of these waves have unique frequency ranges, they can be observed and measured in order to determine their source type and location. Past studies attempted to build the connections between these waves with severe storms and earthquakes, which have improved our understanding of their complexity. Because of the complex nature of these waves, simplified …

The Impact Of Sea-Level Rise In Numerically Modeled Landfalling Hurricanes: Katrina And The Gulf Coast., Serenity Nadirah Mercuri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With climate change, landfalling hurricanes become an increasing threat to coastal regions. However, the interactions between the coastal landscape and landfalling hurricanes are often overlooked when addressing sea-level rise outside of inundation and independent of sea surface temperature. This study analyzed the potential impacts regarding structure and intensity as a result of sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico using the WRF-ARW numerical model coupled with a 1D ocean model. Analysis showed that 10 m windspeed from landfall forward was higher in modified coastlines, and minimum sea-level pressure post-landfall was consistently lower for modified runs where storms maintain a higher …

Physical Investigation Of Downburst Winds And Applicability To Full Scale Events, Federico Canepa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thunderstorm winds, i.e. downbursts, are cold descending currents originating from cumulonimbus clouds which, upon the impingement on the ground, spread radially with high intensities. The downdraft phase of the storm and the subsequent radial outflow that is formed can cause major issues for aviation and immense damages to ground-mounted structures. Thunderstorm winds present characteristics completely different from the stationary Gaussian synoptic winds, which largely affect the mid-latitude areas of the globe in the form of extra-tropical cyclones. Downbursts are very localized winds in both space and time. It follows that their statistical investigation, by means of classical full scale anemometric …

Connections Between Atmospheric Blocking, General Circulation, And Weather Extremes In A Hierarchy Of Models And Various Climates, Veeshan Narinesingh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD) includes the study of both the motion and thermodynamic aspects of the atmosphere. These properties are of particular importance because they directly influence both local and large-scale weather and climate and are associated with various phenomena. One phenomena that is particularly influential is atmospheric blocking. Atmospheric blocks are persistent, quasi-stationary anticyclones (a.k.a. high-pressure systems) that occur in the atmosphere and disrupt the flow. Blocks are known to induce heat extremes and cold spells, as well as steer storms and cause numerous types of hazards. Yet despite the hazards associated with blocks, our current …

Acoustic/Gravity Wave Phenomena In Wide-Field Imaging: From Data Analysis To A Modeling Framework For Observability In The Mlt Region And Beyond, Jaime Aguilar Guerrero

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Acoustic waves, gravity waves, and larger-scale tidal and planetary waves are significant drivers of the atmosphere’s dynamics and of the local and global circulation that have direct and indirect impacts on our weather and climate. Their measurements and characterization are fundamental challenges in Aeronomy that require a wide range of instrumentation with distinct operational principles. Most measurements share the common features of integrating optical emissions or effects on radio waves through deep layers of the atmosphere. The geometry of these integrations create line-of-sight effects that must be understood, described, and accounted for to properly present the measured data in traditional …

Radiosonde High Altitude Measurements Of Radiation Levels And Cosmic Ray Events, Ayodeji Opeyemi Akinuliola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Just above us, cosmic rays are hurtling in from space. These fast moving particles crash uncontrollably into molecules in the atmosphere, causing spontaneous decays of these particles. Despite the fact that we are broadly shielded from this radiation on earth, these particles can still disturb humans and electronics alike. Therefore, this research focuses on expanding the use of long-range radio transmitters such as radiosondes to transmit valuable data such as cosmic ray flux, geographical position, atmospheric temperature, pressure, etc. This can improve real-time radiation monitoring for aviation industry crew and passengers working in potentially higher radiation environments. On March 11, …

On The Improvements Of Boundary-Layer Representation For High Resolution Weather Forecasting In Costal-Urban Environments, David Melecio-Vazquez

Dissertations and Theses

As large urban centers around the world become more densely populated, the global conversion from natural to man-made land surfaces will only increase. These land-use changes affect the urban surface energy budget which in turn changes the structure of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) above. With current high-performance computing systems, meteorological and built environment information can be better utilized to quantify the anthropogenic effects of these modifications. Although these systems have improved forecasting near-surface weather conditions, a comprehensive approach to represent urban impacts on the PBL is still limited. Improved PBL representation can lead to better weather and climate forecasts, …

Understanding The Effects Of Water Vapor And Temperature On Aerosol Using Novel Measurement Methods, Tyler Jacob Capek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Aerosol and water are inexorably linked, and both are ubiquitous within our atmosphere and required components for cloud formation. Relative humidity (RH), a temperature dependent quantity, can have a significant influence on the size, shape, and ultimately, the optical properties of the aerosol. RH can vary substantially on small spatial and short temporal scales in turbulent conditions due to rapid fluctuations in temperature and water vapor mixing ratio. Accurate assessment of optical enhancements due to an increase in RH is key for determining the particles’ impact on the climate and visibility.

A humidity-controlled cavity attenuated phase-shift albedometer (H-CAPS-PM_SSA) …

Investigating Ice Nucleation At Negative Pressures Using Molecular Dynamics: A First Order Approximation Of The Dependence Of Ice Nucleation Rate On Pressure, Elise Rosky

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Atmospheric scientists and climate modelers are faced with uncertainty around the process of ice production in clouds. While significant progress has been made in predicting homogeneous and heterogeneous ice nucleation rates as a function of temperature, recent experiments have shown that ice nucleation rates can be enhanced without decreasing temperature, through various mechanical agitations. One hypothesis for these findings is that mechanisms of stretching water and thereby inducing negative pressure in the liquid could lead to an increase in freezing rate. To better understand the viability of this concept, the effect of negative pressure on ice nucleation rates needs to …

Modeling And Numerical Simulations Of The Michigan Tech Convection Cloud Chamber, Subin Thomas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Understanding atmospheric clouds is essential for human progress, ranging from short-term effects such as when and how much it rains to long-term effects such as how much temperatures would rise due to global climate change. Clouds vary globally and seasonally; also they have length scales ranging from a few nanometers to a few kilometers and timescales from a few nanoseconds to a few weeks. Knowledge gaps in aerosol-cloud-turbulence interactions and a lack of sufficient resolution in observations pose a challenge in understanding cloud systems.

Experimental facilities like the Michigan Tech Cloud Chamber can provide a suitable platform for studying aerosol-cloud …

The Aging And Impacts Of Atmospheric Soot: Closing The Gap Between Experiments And Models, Ogochukwu Yvonne Enekwizu

Dissertations

The main goal of this dissertation is to generate data and parameterizations to accurately represent soot aerosols in atmospheric models. Soot from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass burning is a major air pollutant and a significant contributor to climate warming. The environmental impacts of soot are strongly dependent on the particle morphology and mixing state, which evolve continuously during atmospheric transport via a process known as aging. To make predictions of soot impacts on the environment, most atmospheric models adopt simplifications of particle structure and mixing state, which lead to substantial uncertainties. Using an experimentally constrained modeling approach, …

Parametric Model Development For Heterogeneous Atmospheric Conditions, Daniel Paul Greenway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Physics-Constrained Hyperspectral Data Exploitation Across Diverse Atmospheric Scenarios, Nicholas M. Westing

Theses and Dissertations

Hyperspectral target detection promises new operational advantages, with increasing instrument spectral resolution and robust material discrimination. Resolving surface materials requires a fast and accurate accounting of atmospheric effects to increase detection accuracy while minimizing false alarms. This dissertation investigates deep learning methods constrained by the processes governing radiative transfer to efficiently perform atmospheric compensation on data collected by long-wave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral sensors. These compensation methods depend on generative modeling techniques and permutation invariant neural network architectures to predict LWIR spectral radiometric quantities. The compensation algorithms developed in this work were examined from the perspective of target detection performance using …

Trend Analyses Of The Abundances Of Atmospheric Molecules, Anton Fernando

Physics Theses & Dissertations

A new line list for the A³Π - X³Σ- electronic transition of NH has been prepared using line positions from the literature and calculated line intensities. High level ab initio calculations were performed with the MOLPRO program to obtain the A - X transition dipole moment function. Potential energy curves and line strengths were calculated with Le Roy's RKR1 and LEVEL programs. Line intensities and Einstein A values were calculated with Western's PGOPHER program after converting the Hund's case (b) output of LEVEL to Hund's case (a) input needed for PGOPHER. The Herman- Wallis effect is …

Determining Bulk Aerosol Absorption From Off Axis Backscattering Using Rayleigh Beacon Laser Pulses, Julie C. Grossnickle

Theses and Dissertations

Aerosol absorption and scattering can play a key role in degrading high energy laser performance in the form of thermal blooming and beam attenuation. Aerosol absorption properties are not completely understood, and thus affect how we are able to quantify expected high energy laser weapon performance. The Air Force Institute of Technology Center for Directed Energy (AFIT CDE) developed both Laser Environmental Effects Definition and Reference (LEEDR) and the High Energy Laser End-to-End Operational Simulation (HELEEOS) code to characterize atmospheric radiative transfer effects and evaluate expected directed energy weapon system performance. These packages enable modeling of total irradiance at given …

Developing A Uas-Deployable Methane Sensor Using Low-Cost Modular Open-Source Components, Gavin Demali

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project aimed to develop a methane sensor for deployment on an unmanned aerial system (UAS), or drone, platform. This design is centered around low cost, commercially available modular hardware components and open source software libraries. Once successfully developed, this system was deployed at the Bath Nature Preserve in Bath Township, Summit County Ohio in order to detect any potential on site fugitive methane emissions in the vicinity of the oil and gas infrastructure present. The deliverables of this project (i.e. the data collected at BNP) will be given to the land managers there to better inform future management and …

Easterly Waves Over The Eastern Pacific, Victor Manuel Torres Puente

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The research in this thesis explores different processes associated with the life cycle of Easterly Waves over the tropical Eastern Pacific. These include genesis, structural evolution, intensification and a dissipating stage.

Development Of A 1-Dimensional Data Assimilation To Determine Temperature And Relative Humidity Combining Raman Lidar Backscatter Measurements And A Reanalysis Model, Shayamila N. Mahagammulla Gamage

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water vapor is the most dominant greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere. It is highly variable and its variations strongly depend on changes in temperature. Atmospheric water vapor can be expressed as relative humidity (RH), the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in the mixture to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water over a flat surface of pure water at a given temperature. Liquid water can exist as super-cooled water for temperatures between 0C to -38C. Thus, RH can be measured either relative to water (RHw) or to ice (RHi). RHi measurements are important in the upper tropospheric region, …

Daily And Seasonal Variability Of Offshore Wind Power On The Central California Coast And Statewide Demand, Matthew Douglas Kehrli

Physics

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Uncertainty Of Ensemble Transport And Dispersion Simulations Using Hysplit, Daniel W. Bazemore

Theses and Dissertations

Uncertainty associated with determining the source location of nuclear pollutants in the atmosphere after a nuclear fallout using a numerical model is difficult to determine. Uncertainty can originate from input data (meteorological and emissions), internal model error, physics parameterizations, and stochastic processes. This study uses the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model with data from the 1983 Cross Appalachian Tracer Experiment (CAPTEX) (Ferber et al. 1986) and simulating six nuclear detonations (Rolph et al. 2014) to quantify and communicate uncertainty in ensemble dispersion simulations. This is accomplished by utilizing an ensemble of forward trajectory simulations varying initial conditions …

Global Ionosonde And Gps Radio Occultation Sporadic-E Intensity And Height Comparison, Joshua Y. Gooch

Theses and Dissertations

A global, multi-year comparison of low and mid-latitude COSMIC GPS radio occultation (RO) sporadic-E (E_s) plasma frequency and altitude and Digisonde blanketing frequency (fbEs) and altitude within 150 km and 30 minutes of each other. RO methods used to estimate the intensity of the E_s layer include the scintillation index S4, total electron content (TEC) with both a constant and variable E_s cloud thickness, and an Abel transform. The S4 and TEC with varying thickness techniques both under-represent the fbEs values while the TEC with constant thickness and Abel transform better estimate Digisonde fbEs values. …