Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sequias En El Sur De La Peninsula De Yucatan: Analisis De La Variabilidad Anual Y Estacional De La Precipitacion (Droughts In The Southern Yucatan Peninsula: Analysis Of The Annual And Seasonal Precipitation Variability), Sofia Mardero, Elsa Nickl, Birgit Schmook, Laura Schneider, John Rogan, Zachary Christman, Deborah Lawrence

Zachary Christman

Paper is in Spanish. English abstract: This study analyzes the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation across the Southern Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, addressing the anomalies and trends of annual and seasonal precipitation as well as the occurrence of meteorological droughts, using rainfall data from nine weather stations during the period 1953-2007. Linear regression in the annual and seasonal rainfall were used to analyze the increase or decrease in precipitation trends over this period. Precipitation anomalies enabled the evaluation of the stability, deficit, or surplus of precipitation for each year or season, and a quintile method was used to …

Whiting Events Off Southwest Florida: Remote Sensing And Field Observations, Jacqueline Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Whiting” is a term used to describe a sharply defined patch of water that contains high levels of suspended, fine-grained calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). These features are named for their bright (at times white) appearance when compared to surrounding waters, and have been found to occur globally, persisting for multiple consecutive days. Although whitings have been widely studied using chemical, biological, geological, and physical techniques, there has been little effort to document their spatio-temporal distributions in a systematic way, not to mention the lack of consensus on what generates whitings and allows them to persist for days to weeks …

Analyzing Accuracy Of The Lufft Ws600 In Remotely Measuring Precipitation Events, Justin Gay

STAR Program Research Presentations

The goal of this project was to analyze the accuracy of the Lufft WS600 Weather Sensor in measuring the rate of both liquid and solid precipitation. Measurement accuracy, especially in remote locations, can be difficult to obtain and quantify. Wind, blowing debris, and atmospheric particles can all have the capacity to interfere with instruments that are not being continuously compared to manual observations. Access to quality precipitation data sets are important for both hydrologic and weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and understanding the role of water cycling through ecosystems. Commercially, weather sensors are heavily relied upon by the Federal Aviation Administration …

Agro-Climatic Change, Crop Production And Mitigation Strategies-Case Studies In Arkansas, Usa And Kenya, John Westley Magugu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although climate change impacts vary geographically and temporally, studies at local levels are not readily available for stakeholders to better understand how their local communities would be affected and what remedial measures could be more effective in their local contexts. This dissertation has examined climate change and its impacts in two different local contexts: eastern Arkansas in the USA and Nyando in Kenya. The first part of this dissertation develops agro-meteorological indicators and examines the relationship between agro-meteorological indicators and crop yields in eastern Arkansas between 1960 and 2014. Results reveal that temperature based indicators were more strongly correlated to …

Slides: Water Allocation And Water Markets In Spain, Nuria Hernández-Mora

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenter: Nuria Hernández Mora, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

22 slides

Differing Roles Of The Great Plains Low-Level Jet In Producing Warm Season Precipitation Over The Central United States In 2002, Mengyuan Shang

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research is to describe and compare different roles of the Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ) in producing warm season precipitation over the central United States by model simulation. After going through 35 years’ (from 1979- 2013) NCEP North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data, year 2002 was selected for model simulation as it contained a “wet period” (May- June) and a “dry period” (July- August). The model simulation was done by using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Regional Model. In this study, the GPLLJ was defined by the low-level wind at 925 hPa. The results showed the …

Stable Isotope Investigations Of Two Components Of The Cryosphere: Snow And Icicle Formation, Thomas C. Brubaker

Masters Theses

Understanding the processes that govern the cryosphere is necessary to understand the water budget within an area that receives significant winter precipitation. This research investigates two components of the cryosphere, namely snow and icicle formation, through the application of the stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen.

Stable isotope measurements from precipitation collected throughout the winter of 2013-2014 are presented. The measured isotope values are in discord with known isotope effects. This discrepancy hints at a previously unexplored atmospheric phenomenon, where the enriched oxygen isotope signature of atmospheric ozone was incorporated, via photochemical reactions, into water vapor which subsequently fell as …

New Metric For Defining The Time Of Extratropical Transition Of Tropical Cyclones, Ajay Raghavendra, Shawn M. Milrad

Publications

Almost half of all tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Atlantic basin undergo extratropical transition (ET). During an ET event, wind fields often expand dramatically, resulting in more widely-felt impacts. Moreover, the heaviest precipitation typically shifts to the left-of-center (LOC), which can result in inland flash flooding hundreds of kilometers from the cyclone center. While several objective metrics to track and predict ET have been developed, they rely at least partially on internal tropical cyclone structure, for which numerical models show less skill. Further, these metrics fail to account for static stability, which plays a vital role in determining precipitation amounts. …

Carbon Isotope Discrimination In C3 Land Plants Is Independent Of Natural Variations In PCo2, M. J. Kohn

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The δ¹³C of terrestrial C3 plant tissues and soil organic matter is important for understanding the carbon cycle, inferring past climatic and ecological conditions, and predicting responses of vegetation to future climate change. Plant δ¹³C depends on the δ¹³C of atmospheric CO₂ and and mean annual precipitation (MAP), but an unresolved decades-long debate centres on whether terrestrial C3 plant δ¹³C responds to p_CO2. In this study, the p_CO2-dependence of C3 land plant δ¹³C was tested using isotopic records from low- and high-p_{CO …}

Influence Of Sea Ice On Arctic Precipitation, Ben G. Kopec, Xiahong Feng, Fred A. Michel, Eric S. Posmentier

Dartmouth Scholarship

Global climate is influenced by the Arctic hydrologic cycle, which is, in part, regulated by sea ice through its control on evaporation and precipitation. However, the quantitative link between precipitation and sea ice extent is poorly constrained. Here we present observational evidence for the response of precipitation to sea ice reduction and assess the sensitivity of the response. Changes in the proportion of moisture sourced from the Arctic with sea ice change in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland Sea regions over the past two decades are inferred from annually averaged deuterium excess (d-excess) measurements from six sites. Other influences on …

Analysis Of The Precipitation Detection Algorithm For The Geonor T-200b Precipitation Gauge To Improve Accuracy, Megan Lerman, Robert K. Goodrich

STAR Program Research Presentations

In an effort to improve the precipitation detection algorithm for the Geonor All Weather Precipitation Gauge, an automated truth algorithm has been created to detect errors in the original algorithm. The original algorithm detects precipitation in real time and uses the rate of precipitation to indicate an event. The automated truth does not detect in real time, and focuses on precipitation accumulation to indicate an event. Since the automated truth is delayed, it is able to consider the data collected before and after the point it is analyzing. The automated truth is already more accurate than the original algorithm but …

Identification Of Rnase-Resistant Rnas In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extracts: Separation From Chromosomal Dna By Selective Precipitation, Blanca V. Rodriguez, Eric T. Malczewskyj, Joshua M. Cabiya, L Kevin Lewis, Corina Maeder

Chemistry Faculty Research

High-quality chromosomal DNA is a requirement for many biochemical and molecular biological techniques. To isolate cellular DNA, standard protocols typically lyse cells and separate nucleic acids from other biological molecules using a combination of chemical and physical methods. After a standard chemical-based protocol to isolate chromosomal DNA from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and then treatment with RNase A to degrade RNA, two RNase-resistant bands persisted when analyzed using gel electrophoresis. Interestingly, such resistant bands did not appear in preparations of Escherichia coli bacterial DNA after RNase treatment. Several enzymatic, chemical, and physical methods were employed in an effort to remove the resistant …

The Impacts Of Climate Change On Precipitation And Hydrology In The Northeastern United States, Justin Guilbert

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Shifting climatic regimes can increase or decrease the frequency of extreme hydrologic events (e.g., high and low streamflows) causing large societal and environmental impacts. The impacts are numerous and include human health and safety, the destruction of infrastructure, water resources, nutrient and sediment transport, and within stream ecological health. It is unclear how the hydrology of a given region will shift in response to climate change. This is especially the case in areas that are seasonally snow covered as the interplay of changing temperature, precipitation, and resulting snowpack can lead to an increased risk of flood or drought.

This research …

Estimated Grass Grazing Removal Rate In A Semiarid Eurasian Steppe Watershed As Influenced By Climate, Xixi Wang, Shohreh Pedram, Tingxi Liu, Ruizhong Gao, Fengling Li, Yanyun Luo

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Grazing removal rate of grasses needs to be determined for various climate conditions to address eco-environmental concerns (e.g., desertification) related to steppe grassland degradation. The conventional approach, which requires survey data on animal species and heads as well as grass consumption per individual animal, is too costly and time-consuming to be applied at a watershed scale. The objective of this study was to present a new approach that can be used to estimate grazing removal rate with no requirement of animal-related data. The application of this new approach was demonstrated in a Eurasian semiarid typical-steppe watershed for an analysis period …

An Assessment Of Long-Term Changes In The Characterisitcs Of Precipitation In The Upper Midwest, Blake Steven Lea

MSU Graduate Theses

As climate change progresses, many forecasts for the upper Midwest predict increases in annual precipitation, but with a shift in seasonal patterns that will leave the summer months drier with less frequent, higher magnitude storm events. Changes in precipitation patterns have the potential to alter the sediment budget and discharge patterns in watersheds. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects changes in frequency, magnitude, duration, and intensity of precipitation might have on streamflow and sediment budgets in the upper Midwest. This analysis was carried out using hourly precipitation data from 1948 to 2013 from 23 sites and …

Biomass Burning, Land-Cover Change, And The Hydrological Cycle In Northern Sub-Saharan Africa, Charles Ichoku, Luke T. Ellison, K. Elena Willmot, Toshihisa Matsui, Amin K. Dezfuli, Charles K. Gatebe, Jun Wang, Eric M. Wilcox, Jejung Lee, Jimmy Adegoke, Churchill Okonkwo, John Bolten, Frederick S. Policelli, Shahid Habib

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Northern Sub-Saharan African (NSSA) region, which accounts for 20%–25%of the global carbon emissions from biomass burning, also suffers from frequent drought episodes and other disruptions to the hydrological cycle whose adverse societal impacts have been widely reported during the last several decades. This paper presents a conceptual framework of the NSSA regional climate system components that may be linked to biomass burning, as well as detailed analyses of a variety of satellite data for 2001–2014 in conjunction with relevant model-assimilated variables. Satellite fire detections in NSSA show that the vast majority (>75%) occurs in the savanna and woody …

Precipitation Data, M. Knapp

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Precipitation data for agricultural experiment stations in Kansas, 2014-2015.