Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Extreme Value Analysis Of Rainfall Events Over The Kennedy Space Center Complex, Adam David Schnapp

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The use of observational datasets to determine the occurrence frequencies of extreme weather events has gained a lot of recent interest due to concerns about the potential regional impacts from global climate change. Extreme-value theory can quantify the return frequency of the most extreme events, using climatologically short data sets and the assumption that such short climatological periods are stationary. However, the resulting analyses must be used with caution since they may not accurately reflect the potential of extreme events in the future due to climate change and variability. Accurately predicting extreme-event likelihood is important for building realistic long-range planning …

Decomposition Of Atmospheric Aerosol Phase Function By Particle Size And Morphology Via Single Particle Scattering Measurements, Kevin B. Aptowicz, Jacqueline Sugar, Sean D. Martin, Richard K. Chang, Elena Fernandez, Yong-Le Pan, Ronald G. Pinnick

Physics & Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rapid Fluctuations In Mid-Latitude Siliceous Plankton Production During The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (Odp Site 1051, Western North Atlantic), Jakub Witkowski, Steven M. Bohaty, Kirsty M. Edgar, David M. Harwood

ANDRILL Research and Publications

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~ 40 million years ago [Ma]) is one of the most prominent transient global warming events in the Paleogene. Although the event is well documented in geochemical and isotopic proxy records at many locations, the marine biotic response to the MECO remains poorly constrained. We present new high-resolution, quantitative records of siliceous microplankton assemblages from the MECO interval of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1051 in the subtropical western North Atlantic Ocean, which are interpreted in the context of published foraminiferal and bulk carbonate stable isotope (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) records. …

Winter Wind Chill Climatology For The High Plains Region, Holly B. Lussenden, Natalie A. Umphlett, Martha D. Shulski, Daniel Ebert

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

During the winter months in the High Plains region of the United States, wind chill temperatures can reach dangerous levels for humans and animals. Knowing the frequency in which extreme wind chill temperatures occur could help forecasters know when to issue wind chill advisories and also the general public understand just how rare, or common, certain wind chill temperatures are. A climatology spanning a 37-year period was created using data from 57 stations in and around the plains portion of the High Plains region from the Integrated Surface Hourly Database at National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). These climatologies were completed …

Climate Masters Of Nebraska: An Innovative Action-Based Approach For Climate Change Education, Tapan Pathak, Tonya Bernadt, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Climate Masters of Nebraska is an innovative educational program that strategically trains community volunteers about climate change science and corresponding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an interactive and action-based teaching environment. As a result of the program, 91% of participants indicated that they made informed changes in their lives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 500 hours of volunteer work was reported by participants as an outreach for greenhouse gas emission reduction. The program can be easily replicated to other locales with an effective planning and with small leadership team.

Droughtscape, Winter 2014, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report

Outlook & quarterly review . 2

Drought in 2013 review.

Quarterly impacts review . 5

Impacts in 2013 review.

Belmont Forum research0

USDM change maps 11

Central Asia drought planning

Kansas RC&D planning

Publication compares plans

Drought for planners webinar

Soil moisture networks

Kansas farm and ranch planning

$500 to develop leadership

Kids seek solutions

Plains symposium April 1-4

Can We Predict The Future: Juvenile Finfish And Their Seagrass Nurseries In The Chesapeake Bay, Cynthia M. Jones

OES Faculty Publications

The importance of estuarine seagrass beds as nurseries for juvenile fish has become a universal paradigm, especially for estuaries that are as important as the Chesapeake Bay. Yet, scientific tests of this hypothesis were equivocal depending on species, location, and metrics. Moreover, seagrasses themselves are under threat and one-third of seagrasses have disappeared worldwide with 65 of their losses occurring in estuaries. Although there have been extensive studies of seagrasses in the Chesapeake Bay, surprisingly few studies have quantified the relationship between seagrass as nurseries for finfish in the Bay. Of the few studies that have directly evaluated the use …

Cyclostationary Empirical Orthogonal Function Sea-Level Reconstruction, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Leben, M. W. Strassburg, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Since 1993, satellite altimetry has provided accurate measurements of sea surface height with near-global coverage. These measurements led to the first definitive estimates of global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise and have improved understanding of how sea levels are changing regionally at decadal time scales. These relatively short records, however, provide no information about the state of the ocean prior to 1993, and with the modern altimetry record spanning only 20 years, the lower frequency signals that are known to be present in the ocean are difficult or impossible to resolve. Tide gauges, on the other hand, have measured sea level …

Krill, Climate, And Contrasting Future Scenarios For Arctic And Antarctic Fisheries, Margaret M. Mcbride, Padmini Dalpadado, Kenneth F. Drinkwater, Olav Rune Godø, Alistair J. Hobday, Anne B. Hollowed, Trond Kristiansen, Eugene J. Murphy, Patrick H. Ressler, Sam Subbey, Eileen E. Hofmann, Harald Loeng

CCPO Publications

Arctic and Antarcticmarine systems have incommon high latitudes, large seasonal changes in light levels, cold air and sea temperatures, and sea ice. In other ways, however, they are strikingly different, including their: age, extent, geological structure, ice stability, and foodweb structure. Both regions contain very rapidly warming areas and climate impacts have been reported, as have dramatic future projections. However, the combined effects of a changing climate on oceanographic processes and foodweb dynamics are likely to influence their future fisheries in very different ways. Differences in the life-history strategies of the key zooplankton species (Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean …

Old Tools, New View : Utilizing Species Distribution Models To Focus Conservation Efforts Under A Changing Climate, Samantha Hoff

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In New York State, scientists have observed many changes in bird communities including population declines, range contractions, mismatch between behavior and resources, and changes in bird phenology as a result of climatic changes. Four objectives were addressed with this research: understanding how different bird species may respond to changing climatic conditions under a future IPCC emission scenario; determining how suitable habitat may change in the future and what bioclimatic variables are important to specific avian guilds; identifying hotspots of suitable habitat that may represent important areas for conservation investment; and investigating how managers can incorporate future climate predictions into management …

Climate Risk Analysis On The Food Security In Saguday, Quirino Province, Jose Santos R. Carandang, Glenn S. Banaguas

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Saguday is a 5th-class municipality of Quirino Province. The nine barangays of Saguday namely – La Paz, Cardenas, Salvacion, Santo Tomas, Rizal, Tres Reyes, Dibul, Cardenas and Gamis – are all vulnerable to climate change and calamities, not only because of the scarce resources of the municipality, but also due to the geographical and climatological condition of the area. Rainfall rates are projected to increase due to climate change and there will also be some likely increase in mean maximum tropical cyclone wind speed due to the projected 21st century warming (Knutson et al., 2010). Its location in Quirino Province …

Numerical Investigation Of Orographic Effects On Supercell Thunderstorms, Galen M. Smith

Dissertations

Orographic effects on tornadic supercell development, propagation, and structure are investigated using the Cloud Model 1 with idealized bell-shaped mountains of various heights and geometries and a homogeneous fluid flow with a single sounding. In total, the variations of height and geometry yield 16 terrain configurations. It is found that blocking effects are dominative compared to the terrain-induced environmental heterogeneity downwind of the mountain. The isolated bell-shaped mountains tended to shift the track of the storm towards the left of storm motion; however, when the terrain was elongated the effect tended to be rightward. The terrain blocking effect also enhanced …

The Role Of Politics And Proximity In Sea Level Rise Policy Salience: A Study Of Virginia Legislators’ Perceptions, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Burton St. John Iii, Ivan K. Ash

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

The acceleration of sea level rise (SLR) has become a threat to the stability of nation-states worldwide and associated with risks to environmental sustainability, economic infrastructure, and public health. However, from both an international and U.S. perspective, there is a lack of research examining legislative decision makers’ perceptions about policies regarding SLR. This study addresses that gap by examining how politics and proximity affects Virginia state legislators’ perceptions of the saliency of SLR. A survey of these legislators reveals their perceptions of credible sources of information, SLR-related risk, and who should take the lead to address SLR. While this study …

A Comparative Study Of Sea Level Reconstruction Techniques Using 20 Years Of Satellite Altimetry Data, M. W. Strassburg, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Leben, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Sea level reconstructions extend spatially dense data sets, such as those from satellite altimetry, by decomposing the data set into basis functions and fitting those functions to in situ tide gauge measurements with a longer temporal record. We compare and evaluate two methods for reconstructing sea level through an idealized study. The compared sea level reconstruction methods differ in the technique for calculating basis functions, i.e., empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) versus cyclostationary EOFs (CSEOFs). Reconstructions are created using Archiving, Validation, and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic (AVISO) satellite altimetry data and synthetic tide gauges. Synthetic tide gauge records are simulated using …

From Alarm To Action: Closing The Gap Between Belief And Behavior In Response To Climate Change, Kathryn Laing Doherty

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The degree to which the climate continues to change will largely be determined by choices made by individuals and nations regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Many Americans engage in energy conservation actions. But, the political will in the United States to adopt emissions reduction policies is unlikely to exist without public demand. Therefore, public mitigation actions of individuals (e.g., contacting elected officials in support of emissions reduction) are critical to induce legislative response. The majority of individuals who are most concerned about climate change (the “Alarmed” segment) do not engage in public mitigation actions, but some do. The purpose of this …

So, You Want To Use Next Generation Sequencing In Marine Systems? Insight From The Pan Pacific Advanced Studies Institute, D. A. Willette, F. W. Allendorf, P. H. Barber, D. J. Barshis, K. E. Carpenter, E. D. Crandall, W. A. Cresko, I. Fernandez-Silva, M. V. Matz, E. Meyer, M. D. Santos, L. W. Seeb, J. E. Seeb

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The emerging field of next-generation sequencing (NGS) is rapidly expanding capabilities for cutting edge genomic research, with applications that can help meet marine conservation challenges of food security, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Navigating the use of these tools, however, is complex at best. Furthermore, applications of marine genomic questions are limited in developing nations where both marine biodiversity and threats to marine biodiversity are most concentrated. This is particularly true in Southeast Asia. The first Pan-Pacific Advanced Studies Institute (PacASI) entitled "Genomic Applications to Marine Science and Resource Management in Southeast Asia" was held in July 2012 in Dumaguete, …

Finding Them Before They Find Us: Informatics, Parasites, And Environments In Accelerating Climate Change, Daniel R. Brooks, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, Scott Lyell Gardner, Kurt E. Galbreath, David Herczeg, Hugo H. Mejía-Madrid, S. Elizabeth Rácz, Altangerel Tsogtsaikhan Dursahinhan

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Parasites are agents of disease in humans, livestock, crops, and wildlife and are powerful representations of the ecological and historical context of the diseases they cause. Recognizing a nexus of professional opportunities and global public need, we gathered at the Cedar Point Biological Station of the University of Nebraska in September 2012 to formulate a cooperative and broad platform for providing essential information about the evolution, ecology, and epidemiology of parasites across host groups, parasite groups, geographical regions, and ecosystem types. A general protocol, documentation–assessment–monitoring–action (DAMA), suggests an integrated proposal to build a proactive capacity to understand, anticipate, and respond …

Cosee Ocean Inquiry Group Report: Opportunities For Creating Lifelong Ocean Science Literacy, Paul Boyle, Vince Breslin, Lisa Craig Brisson, John Fraser, Alan J. Friedman, Katie Gardner, Sarah Schoedinger, Jerry Schubel, Steve Uzzo, Steven Yalowitz

School for the Environment General Publications

This Inquiry Group Report for the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence Ocean Communities in Education And Social Networks (COSEE OCEAN) provides a fresh look at how broader ocean science literacy can be developed, especially through less-recognized channels such as opportunistic learning, the private and “third” sectors, and the enormously varied activities under the heading of informal science education. The 10 authors of this report (see Contributors section) have been working together for two years to find and review a range of issues and resources for current and potential ocean science literacy providers, both professional and volunteer.

Several chapters provide …

Coupling Of Pre-Monsoon Tropical Cyclones With The Monsoon Onset In Myanmar, B. O. Fosu, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The pre-monsoon tropical cyclone (TC) activity and the monsoon evolution in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are both influenced by the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), but the two do not always occur in unison. This study examines the conditions that allow the MJO to modulate the monsoon onset in Myanmar and TC activity concurrently. Using the APHRODITE gridded precipitation and the ERA-Interim reanalysis datasets, composite evolutions of monsoon rainfall and TC genesis are constructed for the period of 1979–2010. It is found that the MJO exhibits a strong interannual variability in terms of phase and intensity, which in some years modulate …

Obama Climate Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

States have been the policy leaders in establishing programs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants in the US through state renewable energy programs and energy efficiency programs. However, US global warming policy may have turned an important corner during the Obama administration. In the US the two largest sources of GHG emissions are motor vehicles and coal-fired power plants. Significantly reducing US GHG emissions would require addressing these two issues. The Obama climate plan does so. The most contentious issue is reducing GHG emissions from existing power plants. But states will be able to do so through …

Annual Sea-Air Co2 Fluxes In The Bering Sea: Insights From New Autumn And Winter Observations Of A Seasonally Ice-Covered Continental Shelf, Jessica N. Cross, Jeremy T. Mathis, Karen E. Frey, Catherine E. Cosca, Seth L. Danielson, Nicholas R. Bates, Richard A. Feely, Taro Takahashi, Wiley Evans

Geography

High-resolution data collected from several programs have greatly increased the spatiotemporal resolution of pCO2(sw) data in the Bering Sea, and provided the first autumn and winter observations. Using data from 2008 to 2012, monthly climatologies of sea-air CO2 fluxes for the Bering Sea shelf area from April to December were calculated, and contributions of physical and biological processes to observed monthly sea-air pCO2 gradients (ΔpCO2) were investigated. Net efflux of CO2 was observed during November, December, and April, despite the impact of sea surface cooling on ΔpCO2. Although the Bering Sea was believed to be a moderate to strong atmospheric …

Sea-Ice Melt Co2-Carbonate Chemistry In The Western Arctic Ocean: Meltwater Contributions To Air-Sea Co2 Gas Exchange, Mixed-Layer Properties And Rates Of Net Community Production Under Sea Ice, N. R. Bates, R. Garley, K. E. Frey, K. L. Shake, J. T. Mathis

Geography

The carbon dioxide (CO2)-carbonate chemistry of sea-ice melt and co-located, contemporaneous seawater has rarely been studied in sea-ice-covered oceans. Here, we describe the CO2-carbonate chemistry of sea-ice melt (both above sea-ice as "melt ponds" and below sea-ice as "interface waters") and mixed-layer properties in the western Arctic Ocean in the early summer of 2010 and 2011. At 19 stations, the salinity (∼0.5 to <6.5), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC; ∼20 to <550 μmol kg-1) and total alkalinity (TA; ∼30 to <500 μmol kg-1) of above-ice melt pond water was low compared to the co-located underlying mixed layer. The partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in these melt ponds was highly variable (∼<10 to >1500 μatm) with the majority of melt ponds acting as potentially strong sources of CO2 to the atmosphere. The pH of melt pond waters was also highly variable ranging from mildly acidic (6.1 to 7) to slightly …

Unintended Outcomes Of Farmers' Adaptation To Climate Variability: Deforestation And Conservation In Calakmul And Maya Biosphere Reserves, Claudia Rodriguez-Solorzano

Dartmouth Scholarship

Minimizing the impact of climate change on farmer livelihoods is crucial, but adaptation efforts may have unintended consequences for ecosystems, with potential impacts on farmers’ welfare. Unintended outcomes of climate adaptation strategies have been widely discussed, however, empirical exploration has been neglected. Grounded in scholarship on climate adaptation, environmental governance, social–ecological systems, and land-use change, this paper studies whether farmers’ climate adaptation contributes to deforestation or forest conservation. The paper draws on interviews with 353 farmers from 46 communities in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Farmers in the area of study have implemented adaptation …

Wetlands And Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: Causes And Effects Of Climate Change – A Meta-Analysis, Robert E. Ventura

Pomona Senior Theses

Climate change is one of the largest problems facing this generation. Anthropogenically caused increases of greenhouse gas emissions is a significant culprit to this problem. Although the obvious problems such as cars, industry, and urbanism garnish a significant amount of the criticism, natural sources such as wetlands are also beginning to contribute to this issue. This is becoming increasingly significant as wetlands shift from being sinks of greenhouse gases to becoming sources as various anthropogenic impacts, including global warming itself, begin to affect the health of the wetlands. The aim of this project is to look at four common types …

Ice Crystal Formation And Evolution In Five Campaigns: Start08, Hippo Global, Dc3, Predict And Torero, Minghui Diao, Joshua Digangi, Anthony O’Brien, Mark Zondlo

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

In order to understand the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds, it is important to understand the formation and evolution of the environments where ice crystals form and reside on the microscale (~100 m). Uncertainties remain in simulating/parameterizing the evolution of ice crystals, which require more analyses in the Lagrangian view. However, most in situ observations are in the Eulerian view and are restricted from examining the lifecycle of cirrus clouds. In this work, a new method of Diao et al. GRL (2013)* is used to separate out five phases of ice crystal evolution, using the horizontal spatial relationships between ice …

Marine Diatom Assemblage Variation Across Pleistocene Glacial–Interglacial Transitions And Neogene Diatom Biostratigraphy Of Site C9001, Nw Pacific Ocean, Marcella K. Purkey

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

In 2006, D/V-Chikyu cruise CK06-06 drilled Hole C9001C at Site C9001 in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, 80 km east of the Shimokita Peninsula, Japan. An existing chronostratigraphic framework provides a continuous glacial-interglacial (GI) climate record from which a diatom record of paleoenvironmental changes was developed across several GI cycles. Species counts, diatom temperature values, calculated sea-surface temperatures (SST) and factor analysis were produced for each sample and calibrated to prior diatom studies in this region. These features were used to characterize and compare interglacial maxima of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 5e, 9 and 11 and transitions from the preceding …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2013, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Soil Moisture

September Flooding in Colorado

Early October Blizzard

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook

Mass Bays Resource Inventory: Summary And Findings From The Review Of Plans And Assessments, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

The Massachusetts Bays Program (MBP) contracted with the Urban Harbors Institute (UHI) of the University of Massachusetts Boston to conduct a review of papers, presentations, reports, and other relevant material produced from 1996 (the last CCMP) to present, that might inform the MBP’s update of their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). The review focused on five topics identified as priority topics by the MBP: water quality, invasive species, climate change/vulnerability, continuity of estuarine habitat, and estuarine habitat protection in the geographic region of the Mass Bays Program, particularly the 47 nearshore estuaries and embayments identified in the 2012 MBP …

Biome Q10 And Dryness, Chuixiang Yi, Daniel Ricciuto, George Hendrey

Publications and Research

Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q₁₀) is a critical parameter in carbon cycle models with important implications for climate-carbon feedbacks in the 21st century. The common assumption of a constant Q₁₀, usually with a value of 2.0, was shown to be invalid by a previous model-data fusion study that reported biome-specific values of this parameter. We extend the previous analysis by demonstrating that these biome-level values of Q₁₀ also are a function of dryness (R² = 0.54). When tundra and cultivated lands are excluded, the correlation is much stronger (R² = 0.92). Therefore …

Temperature Trends And Urban Heat Island Intensity Mapping Of The Las Vegas Valley, Adam Leland Black

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modified urban climate regions that are warmer than rural areas at night are referred to as Urban Heat Islands or UHI. Islands of warmer air over a city can be 12 degrees Celsius greater than the surrounding cooler air. The exponential growth in Las Vegas for the last two decades provides an opportunity to detect gradual temperature changes influenced by an increasing presence of urban materials. This thesis compares ground based thermometric observations and satellite based remote sensing temperature observations to identify temperature trends and UHI areas caused by urban development.

Analysis of temperature trends between 2000 and 2010 at …