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An Examination Of The Mechanisms And Environments Supportive Of Bow Echo Mesovortex Genesis, George Limpert

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Low-level mesovortices are associated with enhanced surface wind gusts and high-end wind damage in quasi-linear thunderstorms. Although damage associated with mesovortices can approach that of moderately strong tornadoes, skill in forecasting mesovortices is low. The overarching goal of this work is to understand mesovortices and how they develop, to improve the skill in forecasting them. This was done by developing a climatology of mesovortices, which required a tracking algorithm, and numerical simulations were conducted to answer questions that could not be answered through the observational data. A climatology of mesovortices was constructed from 44 events during 2009 and 2010 to ...

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A Climatology Of Lake-Effect Snowfall And Evaluation Of The Cobb Method For The Great Lakes Region, Seth Kutikoff

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Accuracy in snowfall prediction has lagged behind other short-term weather forecasting areas. Errors in quantitative precipitation forecasts ensure that any snow ratio applied to snow may result in inaccurate snowfall amounts, and snowfall observations are not consistent or fully reliable. In this study, the Cobb Method is tested on lake-effect snowfalls to determine if the top-down ice crystal growth modeled in the algorithm can be applied to convective snowfalls. To establish the spatiotemporal and physical characteristics of lake-effect snowfalls at selected study locations near the Great Lakes, snowfall and snow ratio climatologies are produced that separate events by lake-effect and ...

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Remote Sensing Of Surface Visibility From Space: A Look At The United States East Coast, Amy L. Kessner

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

While important for the management of air quality, human health and transportation, surface visibility data currently are only available through ground-based measurements, such as the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), and therefore lack spatial coverage. In analogy to the recent work of using satellite-based aerosol optical depth (AOD) to derive surface dry aerosol mass concentration at continental-to-global scale for cloud-free conditions, this study evaluates the potential of AOD retrieved from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for deriving surface visibility. For this purpose of evaluation, the truncated and discrete visibility data from daily weather reports are not suitable and the ...

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Using High-Resolution Weather Data To Improve Winter Weather Maintenance Operations, Michael Baldwin

Purdue Road School

Substantial resources are required for winter maintenance operations. This presentation focuses on more accurate and precise weather information that can help reduce the uncertainty related to winter weather, resulting in improved decision-making and significant cost savings for winter operations.

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Woolfolk, Dorothy (Gregory) (Sc 713), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 713. Letter written to Marjorie Clagett, Bowling Green, Kentucky, from Dorothy (Gregory) Woolfolk, Brandenburg, Meade County, Kentucky, in which she describes the tornado that devastated the town on 3 April 1974.

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An Examination Of Physical And Empirical Approaches In Forecasting Nonconvective Wind Gusts, Jeramie Lippman

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Nonconvective winds can be a dangerous and costly weather hazard. For example, over a ten year span from 2002 to 2011, there were over 200 fatalities and nearly 1,000 injuries, as well as over 6.4 billion dollars in monetary losses due to high, nonconvective winds. An important subset to nonconvective winds is the nonconvective wind gust. When winds are already relatively strong, a sudden wind gust can magnify already existing hazards. Three different methods were evaluated to determine if either of two physically based algorithms can outperform an empirical algorithm. The two physically based methods were the Wind ...

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An Analysis Of Deep Convection Initiation Environments, Noah Lock

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Initiation is the part of the convective life cycle which is currently least understood and least well forecast. The inability to properly forecast the timing and/or location of deep convection initiation degrades forecast skill, especially during the warm season. The goals of this research are examine the spatiotemporal distribution of thunderstorm initiation points and to determine which atmospheric parameters (and ultimately processes) are most important for the initiation of thunderstorms. The spatiotemporal distribution of thunderstorm initiation points shows the expected peaks during summer and during the afternoon. The warm season also produces significant concentrations of initiation points near mountains ...

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Retrieval Of Sub-Pixel-Based Fire Intensity And Its Application For Characterizing Smoke Injection Heights And Fire Weather In North America, David Peterson

Dissertations & Theses in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

For over two decades, satellite sensors have provided the locations of global fire activity with ever-increasing accuracy. However, the ability to measure fire intensity, know as fire radiative power (FRP), and its potential relationships to meteorology and smoke plume injection heights, are currently limited by the pixel resolution. This dissertation describes the development of a new, sub-pixel-based FRP calculation (FRP_f) for fire pixels detected by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detection algorithm (Collection 5), which is subsequently applied to several large wildfire events in North America. The methodology inherits an earlier bi-spectral algorithm for retrieving sub-pixel fire ...

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Morris, Walter B. (Sc 29), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 29. Photocopies of letter written by Walter B. Morris, Gallatin, Tennessee, to his brother, Eastin Morris, Fort Pickering, Tennessee, pertaining to a shower of flesh and blood near Lebanon, Tennessee, on 17 August 1841, and of an article from American Journal of Science, 1841, pertaining to the same event. Also a letter to Julia Neal regarding photocopies, 1968.

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Estimating Annual Precipitation For The Colorado River Basin Using Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Faculty Publications (CEE)

Estimating long-lead time precipitation under the stress of increased climatic variability is a challenging task in the field of hydrology. A modified Support Vector Machine (SVM) based framework is proposed to estimate annual precipitation using oceanic-atmospheric oscillations. Oceanic-atmospheric oscillations, consisting of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) for a period of 1900–2008, are used to generate annual precipitation estimates with a 1 year lead time. The SVM model is applied to 17 climate divisions encompassing the Colorado River Basin in the western United States. The overall results ...

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Application Of The Weather Research And Forecasting (Wrf) Model To Simulate A Squall Line: Implications Of Choosing Parameterization Scheme Combinations And Model Initialization Data Sets, Mitchell Gaines

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

On January 29-30, 2008 a squall line of thunderstorms moved through the Ohio Valley resulting in four deaths and one injury. Such events highlight the importance of accurate forecasting for public safety. Mesoscale Modeling plays an important role in any forecast of a potential squall line. The focus of this study was to examine the performance of several parameterization scheme combinations in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model version three (WRF) as they related to this event. These examinations included cloud microphysics (WRF Single-Moment 3-class, 6-class, and Goddard), cumulus parameterization (Kain-Fritsch and Bets-Miller-Janjic) and planetary boundary layer schemes (Yonsei-University and ...

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Caswell County, North Carolina - Weather (Sc 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 406. Weather records for Caswell County, North Carolina, 25 December 1844 to 6 January 1845; no temperature readings given.

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