Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Spatial Downscaling Of Goes-R Land Surface Temperature Over Urban Regions: A Case Study For New York City, Abdou Bah, Hamidreza Norouzi, Satya Prakash, Reginald Blake, Reza Khanbilvardi, Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publications and Research

The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect is among the major environmental issues encountered in urban regions. To better predict the dynamics of the SUHI and its impacts on extreme heat events, an accurate characterization of the surface energy balance in urban regions is needed. However, the ability to improve understanding of the surface energy balance is limited by the heterogeneity of surfaces in urban areas. This study aims to enhance the understanding of the urban surface energy budget through an innovation in the use of land surface temperature (LST) observations from remote sensing satellites. A LST database with 5–min …

Snow Cover Variability And Trend Over The Hindu Kush Himalayan Region Using Modis And Srtm Data, Nirasindhu Desinayak, Anup K. Prasad, Hesham El-Askary, Menas Kafatos, Ghassem R. Asrar

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Snow cover changes have a direct bearing on the regional and global energy and water cycles and the change in the Earth's climate conditions. We studied the relatively long-term (2000–2017) altitudinal spatiotemporal changes in the coverage of snow and glaciers in one of the world's largest mountainous regions, the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, including Tibet, using remote sensing data (5 km grid resolution) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite. This dataset provided a unique opportunity to study zonal and hypsographic changes in the intra-annual (accumulating season and melting season) and interannual variations in …

Environmental Isotope Geochemistry Ocg 550, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Sporadic-E Occurrence Rates Using Gps Radio Occultation And Ionosonde Measurements, Rodney Carmona, Omar A. Nava, Eugene V. Dao, Daniel J. Emmons

Faculty Publications

Sporadic-E (E_s) occurrence rates from Global Position Satellite radio occultation (GPS-RO) measurements have shown to vary by a factor of five between studies, motivating the need for a comparison with ground-based measurements. In an attempt to find accurate GPS-RO techniques for detecting E_s formation, occurrence rates derived using five previously developed GPS-RO techniques are compared to ionosonde measurements over an eight-year period from 2010–2017. GPS-RO measurements within 170 km of a ionosonde site are used to calculate E_s occurrence rates and compared to the ground-truth ionosonde measurements. The techniques are compared individually for each ionosonde site …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

Bicycles And Transit: Weather Or Not: A Study On The Effect Of Weather And Air Quality On Bicycle-Transit, Bicycle, Rail Transit Counts In Denver, Christiana M. Fairfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The movement of people and goods within metropolitan areas is critically important to the operational efficiency and functionality of cities. This study explores the influence of local weather conditions and the air quality index on bicycle-transit user in Denver, Colorado. Based on bicycle-transit having two key components, bicycle and transit, the effect of local weather conditions and the air quality index is also explored with bicycle use and rail-transit usage. Key findings include: (1) the most significant variable across all three modes is temperature, (2) for bicycle-transit and bicycle use, there is a steady increase in ridership as temperatures increase …

Climate Change And Cop26: Are Digital Technologies And Information Management Part Of The Problem Or The Solution? An Editorial Reflection And Call To Action, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes, Arpan Kumar Kar, Abdullah M. Baabdullah, Purva Grover, Roba Abbas, Daniela Andreini, Iyad Abumoghli, Yves Barlette, Deborah Bunker, Leona Chandra Kruse, Ioanna Constantiou, Robert M. Davison, Rahul De', Rameshwar Dubey, Henry Fenby-Taylor, Babita Gupta, Wu He, Mitsuru Kodama, Matti Mäntymäki, Bhimaraya Metri, Katina Michael, Johan Olaisen, Niki Panteli, Samuli Pekkola, Rohit Nishant, Ramakrishnan Raman, Nripendra P. Rana, Frantz Rowe, Suprateek Sarker, Brenda Scholtz, Maung Sein, Jeel Dharmeshkumar Shah, Thompson S.H. Teo, Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Morten Thanning Vendelø, Michael Wade

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The UN COP26 2021 conference on climate change offers the chance for world leaders to take action and make urgent and meaningful commitments to reducing emissions and limit global temperatures to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. Whilst the political aspects and subsequent ramifications of these fundamental and critical decisions cannot be underestimated, there exists a technical perspective where digital and IS technology has a role to play in the monitoring of potential solutions, but also an integral element of climate change solutions. We explore these aspects in this editorial article, offering a comprehensive opinion based insight to a …

Frameless-Finding And Refining A Sampling Frame For Surveying Recreational Fisheries: Lessons From Estimating Swedish Harvest Of Western Baltic Cod, Hege Sande, Nuno Prista, Annica De Groote, Michele Casini, Cynthia Jones, Andreas Sundelöf

OES Faculty Publications

To achieve sustainable fisheries, advice to management should be based on reliable science and unbiased data. Attaining quality data (i.e. precise and unbiased) on recreational fishing can be challenging, particularly when prior knowledge of the sector is limited and a proper sample frame of recreational fishers or vessels does not exist. In this study, a registry of access points was constructed for the Swedish south–west coast and used as a spatial sample frame in determining both effort and catches of the private boat fishery. Sampling dates, times for sampling, and access points visited were selected using probabilistic methods, ensuring unbiased …

Fire Emissions In The Tropical Indonesia: Improved Estimation And Driving Forces Investigation, Xiaoman Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indonesia has experienced frequent fires since the 1970s due to large-scale peatland conversion and extensive drainage for agricultural development. Fire emissions released from these fires have led to Indonesia being the world’s 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases in certain years. Given that fire emissions severely affect climate, weather, and the human environment, numerous approaches have been developed to estimate fire emissions. However, existing emission estimates differ largely by a factor of four in this tropical country because of frequent cloud interferences and low-temperature smoldering fires. Therefore, this dissertation aims to improve the quantification of Indonesian fire emissions through enhanced …

The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (Raft) As An Approach For Incorporating Equity Into Coastal Resilience Planning And Project Implementation, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Tanya Denckla Cobb, Elizabeth Andrews, Sierra Gladfelter, Gray Montrose

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

As coastal communities across the U.S. and worldwide undertake efforts to enhance their resilience to coastal hazards, they must do so while ensuring that all voices are heard, addressing and preventing disparate impacts, and, ultimately, increasing resilience in an equitable way. The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) assists coastal communities in incorporating equity into resilience planning and implementation of projects to increase resilience. The RAFT includes social and economic dimensions in assessment of resilience and focuses on how localities can build resilience equitably. The RAFT process has three phases -- a scorecard assessment, development of a resilience action checklist that …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 2. Assessing Economic Impacts, Andrew M. Scheld, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, Sarah Borsetti, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck

CCPO Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) fishery generates approximately USD 30 million in landings revenues annually, distributed across ports throughout the US Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Overlap between areas of Atlantic surfclam harvests and offshore wind energy leasing make the fishery vulnerable to exclusion and effort displacement as development expands in the region. An existing integrated bioeconomic agent-based model, including spatial dynamics in Atlantic surfclam stock biology, heterogeneous captain behaviour, and federal management processes, was extended to incorporate costs and revenues for fishing vessels and processors and used to evaluate the potential economic effects of offshore wind development on the …

On The Stratospheric Chemistry Of Midlatitude Wildfire Smoke, Susan Soloman, Kimberlee Dube, Kane Stone, Pengfei Yu, Doug Kinnison, Owen B. Toon, Susan E. Strahan, Karen H. Rosenlof, Robert Portmann, Sean Davis, William Randel, Peter Bernath, Chris Boone, Charles G. Bardeen, Adam Bourassa, Daniel Zawada, Doug Degenstein

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Massive Australian wildfires lofted smoke directly into the stratosphere in the austral summer of 2019/20. The smoke led to increases in optical extinction throughout the midlatitudes of the southern hemisphere that rivalled substantial volcanic perturbations. Previous studies have assumed that the smoke became coated with sulfuric acid and water and would deplete the ozone layer through heterogeneous chemistry on those surfaces, as is routinely observed following volcanic enhancements of the stratospheric sulfate layer. Here, observations of extinction and reactive nitrogen species from multiple independent satellites that sampled the smoke region are compared to one another and to model calculations. The …

A Holistic Approach To Hurricane Preparedness, Edwina A. Ward

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes are billion-dollar disasters, and current climate models suggest that their frequency and strength will only get worse because of global warming. Gulf Coast residents living in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas worry about hurricane season annually and the goal of this dissertation was to measure their hurricane preparedness. This study surveyed 971 participants who have experienced hurricanes. Building on the theoretical foundations of quantitative survey research, the researcher conducted the study with the goal of answering the following questions: How do families in The Gulf Coast prepare for hurricanes, and how do local authorities prepare for the holistic …

A Historical Analysis Of The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agencies (Fema) Response And Recovery To Gulf Coast Hurricane And Other Weather-Related Disasters, Lauren Marie Denning

Graduate Research Papers

The growing changes in our environment combined with the increased number of catastrophic climate and weather- related events are occurring more frequently and continuing to intensify in the United States and Worldwide. These events are resulting in mass destruction in our environment and infrastructure, significant loss in human lives, and costing billions of dollars in response and recovery. Although there is no way to prevent these events, governments and populations can take steps to adapt and prepare for these events. This will ultimately decrease the overall impacts that these events have on our environment and future generations to come.

This …

Comparison Of Topsoil Moisture In E3sm Model Simulations And In-Situ Observations Over Illinois, Jacinda Lee Mayer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Soil moisture stimulates land-atmosphere interactions by modifying energy and water fluxes in the boundary layer and it plays an important role in climate change studies. The objective of this research is to quantify the spatial and temporal variations of the Illinois Climate Network’s (ICN) observed topsoil moisture, as well as evaluate how accurately the new climate model, E3SM, is simulating soil moisture compared to the observed data during 2003-2014. Observed topsoil moisture averaged over growing season during the 12-year period indicates a general dry-north and wet-south pattern in Illinois, and northeast and southwest become drier with the progression of the …

Characterization Of Site-Specific Vegetation Activity In Alaskan Wet And Dry Tundra As Related To Climate And Soil State, Michael Gregory Brown, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Reiner Zimmermann, Nicholas Steiner, Stephanie Devries, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Advanced Science Research Center

We present discrete (2-h resolution) multi-year (2008–2017) in situ measurements of seasonal vegetation growth and soil biophysical properties from two sites on Alaska's North Slope, USA, representing dry and wet sedge tundra. We examine measurements of vertical active soil layer temperature and soil moisture profiles (freeze/thaw status), woody shrub vegetation physiological activity, and meteorological site data to assess interrelationships within (and between) these two study sites. Vegetation phenophases (cold de-hardening start, physiological function start, stem growth start, stem growth end, physiological function end, cold hardening completion) were found to have greater interannual day of year (DOY) occurrence variability at the …

Dynamic Modeling Of Inland Flooding And Storm Surge On Coastal Cities Under Climate Change Scenarios: Transportation Infrastructure Impacts In Norfolk, Virginia Usa As A Case Study, Yawen Shen, Navid Tahvildari, Mohamed M. Morsy, Chris Huxley, T. Donna Chen, Jonathan Lee Goodall

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-lying coastal cities across the world are vulnerable to the combined impact of rainfall and storm tide. However, existing approaches lack the ability to model the combined effect of these flood mechanisms, especially under climate change and sea level rise (SLR). Thus, to increase flood resilience of coastal cities, modeling techniques to improve the understanding and prediction of the combined effect of these flood hazards are critical. To address this need, this study presents a modeling system for assessing the combined flood impact on coastal cities under selected future climate scenarios that leverages ocean modeling with land surface modeling capable …

Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the strides made towards addressing climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, it has become increasingly apparent that attempting to mitigate the crisis in such a manner alone is insufficient. This thesis joins a growing body of research on how our societies must adapt to a changing climate, contributing more evidence on common barriers to adaptation and how they might be overcome. Through an attempt to evaluate the progress made towards mainstreaming, or integrating, climate change concerns into five Virginia MPOs’ long-range transportation plans (LRTPs), this study provides support for prior hypotheses around the potential for MPOs …

Lake Huron Shoreline Analysis, Shubham Satish Nandanwar

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lake Huron is a popular tourist destination and is home to several businesses and residents. Since the shoreline is dynamic and is subject to change over the years due to several factors such as a change in water level, soil type, human encroachment, etc., these locations tend to encounter floods due to increased water levels and wind speed. This causes erosion and loss to the properties along the shoreline.

This study is based on two areas of interest named Pinery Provincial Park and Sauble Beach which are located on the shoreline of Lake Huron where Pinery Provincial Park is a …

Progressive Destabilization And Triggering Mechanism Analysis Using Multiple Data For Chamoli Rockslide Of 7 February 2021, Wenfei Mao, Lixin Wu, Ramesh P. Singh, Yuan Qi, Busheng Xie, Yingjia Liu, Yifan Ding, Zilong Zhou, Jia Li

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

A catastrophic rockslide occurred on 7 February 2021 in Chamoli area in the high Himalaya. In the absence of field data, multiple satellites data of decade span have been used to investigate and understand the progressive destabilization of rockslide body. A 3D geometric model was developed using geospatial information about geology, terrain, and ice cover to understand the triggering mechanism. Several causes are uncovered as: the pronounced long-term change of land surface temperature facilitated local permafrost degradation and led to ice cover shrinking since 2010; the occurrence of ice avalanche nearby in 2016 accompanying with sidewall-to-bedrock fracturing enhanced the ice …

South Dakota Farmers’ Perceived Extreme Weather Frequency And Adaptation Measures, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted surveys of eastern South Dakota (SD) commodity crop producers with the support of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council. Using publicly available addresses of government program participants, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked to take a follow up survey. 94 were ineligible, and 350 responded for a 59% response rate. Producers could take the survey online or via …

Law Library Blog (December 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Forced And Unforced Permafrost Changes In The Northern Hemisphere During 1901-2100, Hong Guo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Permafrost regions are very sensitive to rapid changes in climate and environment. In recent decades, there has been growing interest to better understand the permafrost degradation over the Northern Hemisphere in the context of human-induced climate change. Understanding permafrost dynamics is not only important for infrastructure but also for environmental protection in cold regions. In-situ permafrost measurements are important for assessing permafrost conditions. However, direct permafrost observations are sparse and asymmetrical in both spatial and temporal coverage. Active layer thickness (ALT) modeling is another approach that can overcome many of these limitations, but the models have large uncertainty in predicting …

Shipboard Lidar As A Tool For Remotely Measuring The Distribution And Bulk Characteristics Of Marine Particles, Brian Leigh Collister

OES Theses and Dissertations

Light detection and ranging (lidar) can provide remote estimates of the vertical distribution of optical properties in the ocean, potentially revolutionizing our ability to characterize the spatial structure of upper ocean ecosystems. However, challenges associated with quantifying the relationship between lidar measurements and biogeochemical properties of interest have prevented its adoption for routinely mapping the vertical structure of marine ecosystems. To address this, we developed a shipboard oceanographic lidar that measures attenuation (α) and linear depolarization (δ) at scales identical to those of in-water optical and biogeochemical measurements. The instrument’s ability to resolve the distribution of optical and biogeochemical properties …

Spatial Distribution Of Pm2.5-Related Premature Mortality In China, Sheng Zheng, Uwe Schlink, Kin-Fai Ho, Ramesh P. Singh, Andrea Pozzer

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

PM_2.5 is a major component of air pollution in China and has a serious threat to public health. It is very important to quantify spatial characteristics of the health effects caused by outdoor PM_2.5 exposure. This study analyzed the spatial distribution of PM_2.5 concentration (45.9 μg/m³ national average in 2016) and premature mortality attributed to PM_2.5 in cities at the prefectural level and above in China in 2016. Using the Global Exposure Mortality Model (GEMM), the total premature mortality in China was estimated to be 1.55 million persons, and the per capita mortality was 11.2 …

Making Agriculture Carbon Neutral Amid A Changing Climate: The Case Of South-Western Australia, Ross Kingwell

Climate Science Research Articles

Making Australian agriculture carbon neutral by 2050 is a goal espoused by several agricultural organisations in Australia. How costly might it be to attain that goal, especially when adverse climate change projections apply to agriculture in southern Australia? This study uses scenario analysis to examine agricultural emissions and their abatement via reforestation in south-western Australia under projected climate change. Most scenarios include the likelihood of agricultural emissions being reduced in the coming decades. However, the impact of projected adverse climate change on tree growth and tree survival means that the cost of achieving agricultural carbon neutrality via reforestation is forecast …

The Imperative For Climate Action At Portland State University, Stephen Percy

Office of the President Publications and Presentations

Portland State University President Stephen Percy announces the formation of the Climate Change Initiative.

Pre-Earthquake Ionospheric Perturbation Identification Using Cses Data Via Transfer Learning, Pan Xiong, Cheng Long, Huiyu Zhou, Roberto Battiston, Angelo De Santis, Dimitar Ouzounov, Xuemin Zhang, Xuhui Shen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

During the lithospheric buildup to an earthquake, complex physical changes occur within the earthquake hypocenter. Data pertaining to the changes in the ionosphere may be obtained by satellites, and the analysis of data anomalies can help identify earthquake precursors. In this paper, we present a deep-learning model, SeqNetQuake, that uses data from the first China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) to identify ionospheric perturbations prior to earthquakes. SeqNetQuake achieves the best performance [F-measure (F1) = 0.6792 and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) = 0.427] when directly trained on the CSES dataset with a spatial window centered on the earthquake epicenter with the Dobrovolsky …

Risk Management And Biases In How Drivers Respond To Nuisance Flooding, Saige Hill, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Burton St. John Iii, Pragati Rawat, Carol Considine

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Nuisance flooding, or recurrent flooding, occurs during high tide and may be exacerbated when combined with other events such as heavy precipitation, strong winds, or storm surge. Sea level rise has contributed to increased frequency and duration of nuisance flooding in low-lying coastal areas and is causing community-specific impacts such as transportation disruption, road closures, compromises to life and property, overwhelmed storm water systems, and infrastructure damage. This chapter focuses on how drivers respond during nuisance flooding events. Specifically, we discuss how drivers in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern coastal Virginia obtain information about road flooding, how they respond, …

Risk Communication In The Tourism Industry, Lindsay E. Usher, Ashley Schroeder

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This chapter focuses on risk communication in the tourism sector. Tourism organizations must communicate with a variety of stakeholders when conveying messages about impending severe weather or disasters, which are increasing due climate change and sea level rise. There is also an increased need to distribute information to tourism stakeholders about preparing for, continuing service during, and recovering from, disasters. Stakeholders involved with the tourism industry include business owners, government officials and tourists, all of whom have differing degrees of vulnerability in a destination when a threat occurs. Different messages regarding disaster preparation and recovery must be communicated to the …