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Articles 271 - 296 of 296

Full-Text Articles in Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

The Downstream Extratropical Flow Response To Recurving Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclones, Heather M. Archambault Jan 2011

The Downstream Extratropical Flow Response To Recurving Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclones, Heather M. Archambault

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The factors that govern the downstream flow response to recurving western North Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclones (TCs) are investigated from climatological, composite analysis, case study, and predictability perspectives. A 1979–2009 climatology of WNP TC recurvature indicates that TC recurvature is followed by a four-day period of above-normal North Pacific meridional flow. The relationship between TC recurvature and above-normal North Pacific meridional flow is found to be stronger in late summer through mid-fall than in early summer and early winter, and stronger for TCs that interact strongly with the jet stream than for TCs that interact weakly with the jet stream. …

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Origin And Maintenance Of The Stable Boundary Layer In A Patchy Landscape, Luiz Eduardo Medeiros Jan 2011

Origin And Maintenance Of The Stable Boundary Layer In A Patchy Landscape, Luiz Eduardo Medeiros

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Field observations made in Hudson Valley region, NY during the Hudson Valley Ambient Meteorology Study (HVAMS) are analyzed to examine how terrain and land cover influence nocturnal mixing in real-world landscapes. Important terrain features such as local topographic concavity and site sheltering are shown to exhibit systematic influence on turbulent intermittency and on the consequent nocturnal heat and momentum fluxes. Very local obstacles have their most important effects on mixing during strong winds (> 5m/s). Local terrain concavity was found to be the more important factor influencing surface fluxes than sheltering for all classes of winds.

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Western Equatorial Pacific Climate Variability From Restricted Basins : Century Scale Changes In Kau Bay To Glacial-Interglacial Changes In The Sulu Sea, Samantha Langton Jan 2011

Western Equatorial Pacific Climate Variability From Restricted Basins : Century Scale Changes In Kau Bay To Glacial-Interglacial Changes In The Sulu Sea, Samantha Langton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The surface ocean in the western equatorial Pacific contains some of the warmest water on the planet in the western Pacific warm pool (WPWP). Changes in the size and scope of the warm pool have a significant impact on global climate. With the concern of changes in the extent of this body of water as a result of anthropomorphic changes in atmospheric composition, it is vital to investigate prior changes to the WPWP, the causes of such changes, and resultant effects. For my dissertation, I used several proxies to analyze sediments from Kau Bay and the Sulu Sea in Indonesia …

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Persistence And Dissipation Of Lake Michigan-Crossing Mesoscale Convective Systems, Nicholas Metz Jan 2011

Persistence And Dissipation Of Lake Michigan-Crossing Mesoscale Convective Systems, Nicholas Metz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis investigates mature mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) that traversed Lake Michigan to elucidate synoptic-scale and Lake Michigan-related features that discriminate between persistence and dissipation. Of the 110 coherent MCSs that crossed Lake Michigan during the warm seasons (April–September) of 2002–2007, 47 (43%) persisted, while 63 (57%) dissipated. Persistence was favored during July and August, when Lake Michigan was warmer and during the evening and overnight, when the low-level jet (LLJ) was most intense. However, a number of MCSs also persisted during the early warm season when the Lake Michigan water temperature was cooler than the surrounding land.

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A Spline Kernel Based Smoothing Algorithm : A Comparison Of Methods With A Spatiotemporal Application To Global Climate Fluctuations, Derek Daniel Cyr Jan 2010

A Spline Kernel Based Smoothing Algorithm : A Comparison Of Methods With A Spatiotemporal Application To Global Climate Fluctuations, Derek Daniel Cyr

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In statistics, smoothing is a technique that attempts to capture the key patterns or trends in data while leaving out the noise that is obscuring them. Nonparametric techniques are well-suited for smoothing as they do not rely on assumptions that the data arise from a given probability distribution.

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Retrieval Of Atmospheric Elemental Carbon Records Using Lake Sediments : Implications In Radiative Forcing, Tanveer Ahmed Jan 2010

Retrieval Of Atmospheric Elemental Carbon Records Using Lake Sediments : Implications In Radiative Forcing, Tanveer Ahmed

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Elemental or black carbon (EC or BC) aerosols produced during incomplete combustion strongly absorb solar radiation and contribute to global warming, and cause cardiopulmonary disease. Long-term atmospheric EC measurements, [EC]atm, are needed to validate global climate models to estimate the impact of EC on earth's temperature. Such data is sparse.

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Assessing Replicated Coral Trace Element (Sr/Ca And Mg/Ca) Variability And Skeletal Growth Records From The Tropical Pacific, Henry Chun-Yi Wu Jan 2010

Assessing Replicated Coral Trace Element (Sr/Ca And Mg/Ca) Variability And Skeletal Growth Records From The Tropical Pacific, Henry Chun-Yi Wu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

To gain a more complete history and understanding of the full amplitude of climate variability prior to instrumental records, science must rely on natural proxy archives that are sensitive to fluctuations in key climate parameters. Calcium carbonate skeletons of long-living hermatypic corals in some locations have been shown to be natural archives of surface ocean variability. This study investigated the fidelity and reproducibility of coral derived Sr/Ca time series from Clipperton Atoll, Fiji, and Tonga as accurate proxies of sea surface temperature (SST). The replicated high-resolution Sr/Ca time series record monthly and bimonthly SST changes, though with a greater magnitude …

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Effect Of Noise In Principal Component Analysis With An Application To Ozone Pollution, Katerina G. Tsakiri Jan 2010

Effect Of Noise In Principal Component Analysis With An Application To Ozone Pollution, Katerina G. Tsakiri

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis analyzes the effect of independent noise in principal components of k normally distributed random variables defined by a covariance matrix. We prove that the principal components as well as the canonical variate pairs determined from joint distribution of original sample affected by noise can be essentially different in comparison with those determined from the original sample. However when the differences between the eigenvalues of the original covariance matrix are sufficiently large compared to the level of the noise, the effect of noise in principal components and canonical variate pairs proved to be negligible. The theoretical results are supported …

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Tropical Cyclogenesis Associated With Extratropical Precursors In The North Atlantic Basin, Thomas J. Galarneau Jan 2010

Tropical Cyclogenesis Associated With Extratropical Precursors In The North Atlantic Basin, Thomas J. Galarneau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis investigates genesis pathways of tropical cyclones (TCs) over the North Atlantic basin during 2004-2008 with a focus on TCs that form in conjunction with extratropical precursor disturbances. These genesis pathways are nonbaroclinic, low-level baroclinic, trough-induced, transient-trough interaction, weak tropical transition (TT), and strong TT. The transient-trough interaction, trough-induced, weak TT, and strong TT genesis pathways all occur in conjunction with extratropical precursor disturbances. This thesis will assess the physical and dynamical mechanisms relevant to TC genesis among these genesis pathways via composite and case study analyses.

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Role Of Equatorial Waves In Tropical Cyclogenesis, Carl J. Schreck, Iii Jan 2010

Role Of Equatorial Waves In Tropical Cyclogenesis, Carl J. Schreck, Iii

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Tropical cyclones typically form within preexisting wavelike disturbances that couple with convection. Using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) multisatellite rainfall estimates, this study determines the relative number of tropical cyclones that can be attributed to various wave types, including the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), Kelvin waves, equatorial Rossby (ER) waves, mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) waves, and tropical depression (TD)-type disturbances. Tropical cyclogenesis is attributed to an equatorial wave's convection when the filtered rainfall anomaly exceeds a threshold value at the genesis location.

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African Easterly Waves And Convection, Gareth James Berry Jan 2009

African Easterly Waves And Convection, Gareth James Berry

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this research the physical mechanisms relating synoptic scale African Easterly Waves (AEWs) and convection are explored using a variety of analysis techniques.

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Measurement Of Atmospheric Ammonia Species : Development, Validation, And Field Applications Of An Analytical Method, Jian Hou Jan 2009

Measurement Of Atmospheric Ammonia Species : Development, Validation, And Field Applications Of An Analytical Method, Jian Hou

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ammonia is the primary base in the atmosphere. It reacts readily with atmospheric acids such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid to form ammonium salts that occur predominantly in the fine aerosol particle (PM2.5) fraction. The ability to measure ammonia species (NHx, the sum of gaseous NH3 and particulate NH4+) is essential for the investigation of atmospheric behaviors of NHx. In this dissertation work, a highly sensitive technique has been developed for the measurement of atmospheric NHx species. The method is based on aqueous scrubbing of the atmospheric NH3 and NH4+ using …

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Interdecadal-Decadal Climate Variability From Multi-Coral Oxygen Isotope Records In The South Pacific Convergence Zone Region Since 1650ad, Peipei Zhang Jan 2007

Interdecadal-Decadal Climate Variability From Multi-Coral Oxygen Isotope Records In The South Pacific Convergence Zone Region Since 1650ad, Peipei Zhang

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Annual average oxygen isotope (δ18O) time series from five coral cores collected from Fiji and Tonga are used to construct a Fiji-Tonga Interdecadal-Decadal Pacific Oscillation (F-TIDPO) index of low frequency (>9yr and <55yr) climate variability in this area back to 1650 A.D. Presently, both Fiji and Tonga are located in the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) salinity front region where the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) variation is most pronounced. We first demonstrate the consistency between this F-T IDPO index and a MSL pressure-based SPCZ Position Index (SPI) (1891-2000), thus verifying the ability of coral δ18O to record past interdecadal-decadal climatic variations in this region back to 1891. The F-T IDPO index is then shown to be synchronous with the IPO index (1856-2000), suggesting that this coral-based index effectively represents the interdecadal-decadal scale climate variance back to 1650. The consistently anti-phase spectrums of the F-T five-coral composite and the interdecadal-decadal components in equatorial Pacific coral δ18O series from Maiana [Urban et al., 2000] and Palmyra [Cobb et al., 2001] suggest that the simultaneous eastern expansion (western contraction) of the eastern salinity front of Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) occurs at the same time as the northeast (southwest) movement of the SPCZ during a positive IPO (negative IPO) phase.

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Evaluating The Deep-Sea Coral Acanella From Hawaii As A Paleoceanographic Archive, Geraldine Hourigan Lantier Jan 2006

Evaluating The Deep-Sea Coral Acanella From Hawaii As A Paleoceanographic Archive, Geraldine Hourigan Lantier

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Deep-sea corals have emerged as potential proxies of changing paleoceanographic properties. The utility of deep-sea corals for the purpose of interpreting paleoclimatic reconstructions is still in the discovery phase. However, long life spans, a relatively stable habitat, and unique growth geometry provide support to the growing body of research that has identified deep-sea corals as indicators of past climate and ocean properties. Two colonies of Acanella were collected from the permanent thermocline at depths between 414 and 437 m in the Makapuu Coral Bed, Oahu, HI in 1997 by submersible. Here I present results from a pilot study of the …

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Assessing The Paleoceanographic Potential Of The Coral Montipora Venosa At Fanning Atoll, Central Equatorial Pacific, Alexa Stolorow Jan 2006

Assessing The Paleoceanographic Potential Of The Coral Montipora Venosa At Fanning Atoll, Central Equatorial Pacific, Alexa Stolorow

Geology Theses and Dissertations

As interest in global climate change increases, so does the need for better and more extensive climate proxies. The central equatorial Pacific has been established as the region with the largest ENSO-related sea surface temperature (SST) and precipitation (PPT) anomalies, which are known to impact global interannual climate variability. To date, the coral genus Porites has been most commonly utilized for coral-based paleo-reconstructions of ENSO and lower frequency phenomena. However, due to questions of biological artifacts in coral, to more fully understand coral-based reconstruction, different coral genera need to be analyzed.
In this study, oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotopic …

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Stable Isotopic And Trace Metal Analyses Of Two Porites Lobata Colonies - Oahu, Hawaii: Implications For Past Seasonal Variation And Sea Surface Temperatures And Anthropogenic Effects On The Reef Environment, Jonathan Macdonald Jan 2004

Stable Isotopic And Trace Metal Analyses Of Two Porites Lobata Colonies - Oahu, Hawaii: Implications For Past Seasonal Variation And Sea Surface Temperatures And Anthropogenic Effects On The Reef Environment, Jonathan Macdonald

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Corals from the western and equatorial Pacific Ocean have been extensively studied for the purposes of generating paleoclimate reconstructions spanning the last several hundred years. However, in the central subtropical North Pacific, there are currently few published coral records extending beyond 10 to 20 years. The hermatypic coral species Porites lobata and Porites lutea have proven to be useful indicators of paleoclimate and past sea surface conditions at other locations. Here I have analyzed two Porites lobata coral cores collected from colonies from opposite sides of Oahu, Hawaii to assess their utility for developing multi-decadal length climatic reconstructions in this …

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Oxygen Isotopes And Metolachlor Residues In Water Samples From A Portion Of The Canajoharie Creek Watershed, Central New York, John M. Nadeau Jan 2000

Oxygen Isotopes And Metolachlor Residues In Water Samples From A Portion Of The Canajoharie Creek Watershed, Central New York, John M. Nadeau

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Increased ground and surface water contamination has fueled the need for a better understanding of factors affecting hydrogeological settings. Seasonal variability in the recharge of an aquifer can affect the rate and amount of contamination that can occur. Stable isotopes have been previously investigated as tracers to determine flow paths of the water and contaminants. In this study, oxygen isotopes were used to determine the factors that influence seasonal variations in ground and surface water, such as well location, aquifer type, surface water sites, and soil type. Samples were collected from different locations around the Canajoharie Field Site, including wells …

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Identification Of Past Climate Variability Of The Eastern Pacific Ocean Using Both D13c And D18o Records In Corals From Clipperton Atoll (1994-1906), Lei Ren Jan 1998

Identification Of Past Climate Variability Of The Eastern Pacific Ocean Using Both D13c And D18o Records In Corals From Clipperton Atoll (1994-1906), Lei Ren

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The ENSO (El Nino and the Southern Oscillation) is a fundamental ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that dominates interannual global climate variability. Reconstructing past ENSO events is therefore important for documenting and understanding the past behavior of the global climate system and enabling us to predict future climate change. However, the present understanding of ENSO events has been mainly based on the instrumental record of Pacific climate which provides detailed data only for the past few decades. Recent studies have shown that the stable isotope record in coral skeletons can be used as a valuable indicator of paleoclimatic changes in tropical regions, and …

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Fission Track Dating Of Detrital Zircons From The Scotland Sandstones, Barbados, West Indies, Suzanne Louise Baldwin Jan 1984

Fission Track Dating Of Detrital Zircons From The Scotland Sandstones, Barbados, West Indies, Suzanne Louise Baldwin

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Results of fission track dating of detrital zircons from the Scotland sandstones, Barbados, yield a mixture of ages with several strong groupings from 20-80 Ma, 200-350 Ma, and greater than 500 Ma. Metamict grains were assumed to fall into the greater than 500 Ma population.
The youngest population indicates that the Scotland beds, previously dated by paleontologic methods as Eocene, may actually be as young as late Oligocene. These ages better constrain the timing of deposition for these sediments and support the proposal that the late middle Eocene - early Oligocene Oceanic Fm has overthrust the Scotland beds. This population …

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The Influence Of Oceanic Transform Boundaries On The Generation And Evolution Of Oceanic Lithosphere, David G. Gallo Jan 1984

The Influence Of Oceanic Transform Boundaries On The Generation And Evolution Of Oceanic Lithosphere, David G. Gallo

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The first-order geologic and morphologic relationships at, along and proximal to ridge-transform-ridge plate boundaries are used to construct an empirical and speculative tectonic model. The geometry of a ridge-transform intersection necessitates the juxtaposition of relatively cold, thick lithosphere against the truncated end of an accreting plate boundary. The cold face of lithosphere cools the adjacent wedge of asthenosphere rising beneath the axis of accretion and restricts the amount of partial melting thus attenuating the amount of basaltic melt segregated from the asthenosphere per unit time. The manifestation of this cold edge effect is a thinner oceanic crust. At depth, upper …

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The Geology Of The Oceanographer Transform Fault, Richard H. Moody Jr. Jan 1982

The Geology Of The Oceanographer Transform Fault, Richard H. Moody Jr.

Geology Theses and Dissertations

A detailed survey of the Oceanographer transform fault and environs at 35º N, 35ºW has yielded detailed information with respect to the generation and evolution of seafloor at a slowly accreting plate margin. From this data detailed bathymetric maps and maps of depth to basement have been constructed for a swath of seafloor 1800 km long and 100-200 km wide centered about the offset region. This data was used to subdivide major phases of seafloor spreading during the Tertiary. The ridge crest and all major topographic features near the transform appear to be affected by their proximity to the transform. …

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Geologic Investigations In The Cayman Trough And The Nature Of The Plutonic Foundation Of The Oceanic Crust, Janet B. Stroup Jan 1981

Geologic Investigations In The Cayman Trough And The Nature Of The Plutonic Foundation Of The Oceanic Crust, Janet B. Stroup

Geology Theses and Dissertations

A survey of the literature that deals with the gabbroic rocks believed to comprise the foundation of the oceanic crust indicates that the overwhelming majority of these rocks are recovered from escarpments associated with transform faults. The wide range of mineral and chemical compositions characterizing oceanic gabbroic rocks suggests that the lower oceanic crust is much more heterogeneous in nature than was previously suggested by the results of geophysical investigations. The examination of gabbroic rocks recovered in situ from the walls of the Mid-Cayman Rise rift valley by the submersible ALVIN not only supports the notion that oceanic gabbroic rocks …

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Geology Of The Mafic/Ultramafic Transition, Table Mountain, Western Newfoundland, Suzanne O'Connell Jan 1979

Geology Of The Mafic/Ultramafic Transition, Table Mountain, Western Newfoundland, Suzanne O'Connell

Geology Theses and Dissertations

A thin (<200 m.) mafic suite and well developed mafic/ultramafic transition zone are exposed above a flat lying peridotite contact on northwestern Table Mountain. The igneous layering and sedimentary features indicate mineral deposition under conditions which promoted adcumulate growth, were capable of minor transport, and were subjected to at least minor tectonic activity during consolidation. Feldspathic,. mafic, and ultramafic dikes and veins cross-cut the layering. Microscopic futures indicate deformation at elevated temperature and/or low strain rates. Deformation is best developed within the transition zone, but cataclastic zones are most common in the hornblende gabbros. Orientations of layering, foliation, and lineation indicate a variable mafic/ultramafic transition and macroscopic folding. Geometric analysis indicates three distinct fold axis orientations: an east-west horizontal fold axis, a northeast trending modestly plunging axis, and a vertical though poorly defined axis. Such features demonstrate that an apparently simple contact relationship may be extremely complex. This has important implications for ocean floor accretion. The relatively simple ocean floor seismic stratigraphy masks very complex petrological and structural processes. Such processes may involve deposition in an actively convecting magma chamber with a differentially subsiding wedge (Dewey and Kidd, 1977), in which folding occurs in response to the steepening angle between the cumulate banding and the base of the magma chamber. The instability is enhanced by the different accumulation rates and densities of the minerals involved. The lineation may originally be a sedimentary feature indicative of transport direction from the convection cell, and perpendicular to the compressive stress which produced. the folding. The different orientations of lineations and fold axes could be produced by rotation of the ocean crustal blocks during lateral transport along the ocean floor and/or obduction. Further detailed study of ophiolite complexes will continue to shed light upon the nature and development of oceanic crust.

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Paleoclimatic Implications Of Oxygen Isotope And Sedimentological Study Of Late Miocene And Early Pliocene Sediments From The South Atlantic, Western Indian Ocean, And The Gulf Of Aden, Kathryn M. Scanlon Jan 1979

Paleoclimatic Implications Of Oxygen Isotope And Sedimentological Study Of Late Miocene And Early Pliocene Sediments From The South Atlantic, Western Indian Ocean, And The Gulf Of Aden, Kathryn M. Scanlon

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Previous work by many authors has implied that the Antarctic ice sheet underwent a major expansion in the latest Miocene. It was intended in the present study to use the oxygen isotope event, which could be expected to accompany this glacial expansion, as a stratigraphic marker to aid in the correlation of several DSDP Sites. Samples were taken at approximately 100,000 year intervals throughout the latest Miocene and early Pliocene sections at Sites 237 and 249 in the western Indian Ocean, Site 360 in the South Atlantic and Site 231 in the Gulf of Aden. Oxygen isotope analyses were done …

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Petrology Of The Oceanographer Fracture Zone (35ºn35ºw), Tsugio Shibata Jan 1976

Petrology Of The Oceanographer Fracture Zone (35ºn35ºw), Tsugio Shibata

Geology Theses and Dissertations

During a geological and geophysical survey of the Oceanographer Fracture Zone (35°N, 35°W), seventeen dredge hauls containing a variety of rocks were obtained. Petrographic study shows that these rock samples can be classified into six main rock types: fresh basalt, weathered basalt, metabasalt, gabbro, metagabbro, and serpentinite. Most of the dredge hauls were positioned on the steep, southern wall of the fracture zone, and an inference from the dredging results suggests that basalt is the most abundant rock type which outcrops at the junction between the rift valley and the fracture zone; however, as we move away from the junction, …

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The Investigation Of Snowfall Rate Using Optical Techniques, Gerald J. Mulvey Jan 1973

The Investigation Of Snowfall Rate Using Optical Techniques, Gerald J. Mulvey

Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Experiments involving the attenuation of light by falling snow, or hydrometeors in general, lend themselves to the study of at least two problems of meteorological interest. The first problem is that of visibility in adverse weather conditions, and the second is that of finding a better method to measure precipitation. From the late 1940's through the late 1960's, various investigators have attempted to apply forward light scattering theory in the geometric optics range (α ≥ 200, where α = (2π_r)/λ, λ=wavelength and r = radius)* to quantitatively describe the attenuation of a light beam, and thereby visibility changes due to …

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