Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Modeling Scenarios Of Sea-Level Rise And Human Migration: Rita Village, The Republic Of The Marshall Islands, Donna Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between sea-level rise and human migration from Rita Village in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). As one of only four low-lying atoll countries at the forefront of risks associated with climate change, examining the extent to which sea level will rise and displace residents in the Marshall Islands is of timely importance. The approach to this research is a scenario-based, case study and it examines loss of home, human displacement and subsequent migration in Rita Village as a result of varying levels of sea level rise. The scenario-based approach is based on the …

Development Of A Hydrologic Model For An Urban Headwater Stream: The Influence Of Pervious Surface Properties On Runoff Dynamics, Dawn A. Farver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A hydrologic model was developed for the Mullins Creek (MC) catchment located on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The MC catchment is a small, dynamic urban stream system with a range of land use/land cover (LULC), an extensive and well-developed stormwater drainage network, and extensive urbanization (over 90% developed, and almost 50% impervious surface area (ISA)). Selected datasets provided information on the stormwater drainage network, the physical attributes of the catchment and receiving waterway (i.e. drainage area, slope, etc.), infiltration potential of soil map units, LULC, and percent ISA. These datasets were analyzed to provide input parameters …

Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness And Resilience Intergovernmental Planning Pilot Project, Ray Toll, David Architzel

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

No abstract provided.

Book Review - Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship And Mating Tell Us About Human Relationships, J. Matthew Hoch

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Arctic Air Pollution: New Insights From Polarcat-Ipy, Katherine S. Law, Andreas Stohl, Patricia K. Quinn, Charles A. Brock, John F. Burkhart, Jean-Daniel Paris, Gerard Ancellet, Hanwant B. Singh, Anke Roiger, Hans Schlager, Jack E. Dibb, Daniel J. Jacob, S R. Arnold, Jacques Pelon, Jennie L. Thomas

Earth Sciences

Given the rapid nature of climate change occurring in the Arctic and the difficulty climate models have in quantitatively reproducing observed changes such as sea ice loss, it is important to improve understanding of the processes leading to climate change in this region, including the role of short-lived climate pollutants such as aerosols and ozone. It has long been known that pollution produced from emissions at midlatitudes can be transported to the Arctic, resulting in a winter/spring aerosol maximum known as Arctic haze. However, many uncertainties remain about the composition and origin of Arctic pollution throughout the troposphere; for example, …

Nippon Foundation / Gebco Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation Project, Rochelle A. Wigley, Norhizam Hassan, Mohammad Chowdhury, Roshan Ranaweera, Xinh Le Sy, Hemanaden Runghen, Jan Erik Arndt

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation (IOBC) project, undertaken by Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Scholars, is focused on building a regional bathymetric data compilation, of all publically-available bathymetric data within the Indian Ocean region from 30°N to 60° S and 10° to 147° E. One of the objectives of this project is the creation of a network of Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Scholars working together, derived from the thirty Scholars from fourteen nations bordering on the Indian Ocean who have graduated from this Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Bathymetry (PCOB) training program training program at the University of New Hampshire. The IOBC …

Water System For Developing Countries / Disaster Relief Made With Local Materials, Shumon Hasan

Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objective of this project was to design a water purification system that can be constructed from easily available materials, common to the particular country, and is capable of the complete water purification process.

Umphlett Qci Dec 2014, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Drought Conditions

Agriculture

Horticulture

Recreation and Tourism

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Soil Moisture Conditions

Comparison Of Upper Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide From Mopitt, Ace-Fts, And Hippo-Qcls, Sara Martínez-Alonzo, Merritt N. Deeter, Helen M. Worden, John C. Gille, Louisa K. Emmons, Laura L. Pan, Mijeong Park, Gloria L. Manney, Peter F. Bernath, Chris D. Boone

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Products from the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument are regularly validated using in situ airborne measurements. However, few of these measurements reach into the upper troposphere, thus hindering MOPITT validation in that region. Here we evaluate upper tropospheric (~500 hPa to the tropopause) MOPITT CO profiles by comparing them to satellite Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) retrievals and to measurements from the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research Pole to Pole Observations (HIPPO) Quantum Cascade Laser Spectrometer (QCLS). Direct comparison of colocated v5 MOPITT thermal infrared-only retrievals, v3.0 ACE-FTS retrievals, and HIPPO-QCLS measurements shows …

Are Concentration-Discharge Relations Influenced By Water Sample Collection Methods?, William M. Welch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two primary methods of stream water sampling, the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) equal-width increment (EWI) and point samples (PS) from vertical centroid of flow (VCF) were compared at three river sites, the White River near Fayetteville, Richland Creek at Goshen, and War Eagle Creek near Hindsville. A little over three years of concentration data, which was paired with corresponding instantaneous discharge values (http://ar.water.usgs.gov/), was gathered separately at each site by the Arkansas Water Resource Center (AWRC) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The purpose of this study was to evaluate how concentration is related to discharge when water samples …

2014 Aquatic Weed Surveys In Timothy Lake, Lake Harriet, North Fork Reservoir, Faraday Lake, And Estacada Lake, Rich Miller, Mark D. Sytsma, Jeffrey Thomas Brittain

Center for Lakes and Reservoirs Publications and Presentations

The Clackamas River Hydroelectric Project No. 2195 (Project) is located on the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River and the mainstem of the Clackamas River in Clackamas County, Oregon. Reservoirs included in the Project include Timothy Lake, Lake Harriet, North Fork Reservoir, Faraday Lake, and Estacada Lake. The operator of the Project, Portland General Electric (PGE), was issued a license on December 21, 2010 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for continued operations and maintenance. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the license noted that regular surveys for invasive aquatic weed species would be conducted as part …

The National Science Foundation's Coupling, Energetics And Dynamics Of Atmospheric Regions (Cedar) Student Community, Leda Sox, Timothy Duly, Barbara Emery

Physics Student Research

The National Science Foundation sponsors Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Workshops, which have been held every summer, for the past 27 years. CEDAR Workshops are on the order of a week long and at various locations that are close to university campuses where CEDAR type scientific research is done. Although there is no formal student group within the CEDAR community, the workshops are very student-focused. Roughly half the Workshop participants are students. There are two Student Representatives on the CEDAR Science Steering Committee (CSSC), the group of scientists who organize the CEDAR Workshops. Each Student Representative is …

Cloud Impacts On Pavement Temperature And Shortwave Radiation, Curtis L. Walker

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

Forecast systems provide decision support for end-users ranging from the solar energy industry to municipalities concerned with road safety. Pavement temperature is an important variable when considering vehicle response to various weather conditions. A complex, yet direct relationship exists between tire and pavement temperatures. Literature has shown that as tire temperature increases, friction decreases which affects vehicle performance. Many forecast systems suffer from inaccurate radiation forecasts resulting in part from the inability to model different types of clouds and their influence on radiation. This research focuses on forecast improvement by determining how cloud type impacts pavement temperature and the amount …

Evaluating The Surface Layer Wind Profile In The Wrf, Robert Stephen James

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the surface vertical wind profile responds to different planetary boundary layer schemes in computer models. Local surface roughness is one of the elements represented in these schemes, and is used when interpolating winds down from the lowest model level to the surface, so this needs to be accurately represented in the model. Computer models rely on one bulk estimate of surface roughness for a given grid point, despite the complexity of surrounding terrain. Data for this research was gathered from local surface observations and computer simulations, which looked at two different …

Global Climate Change: The Political Impact Of Global Warming On Developing Countries. The Case Studies Of Egypt And Oman, Eugene Thomas O'Neal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The discourse of climate change has become important in the field of political science, as well as in the policy-making community. Climate change has become a political phenomenon that has and will greatly impact political stability regionally and globally. Using the ecological security theory as a framework, I explored the relationship between climate change and political stability in developing countries.

This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative analyses to investigate the relationship between climate change and its effects on political volatility in developing countries. Using regression models, the author examined all non-OECD countries (140 countries) and their relationship to political …

Langmuir Probe Instrument Suite For Mesosphere Turbulence Experiment Mission, Adam Blake

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Langmuir probe technique is the predominant in-situ plasma diagnostic technique, and is arguably the only measurement technique that is universally own on every sounding rocket investigation. Earth's mesosphere region (80-120 km) is a host of many dynamic phenomena such as the noctilucent clouds, breaking gravity waves, inversion layers, settlement of mesospheric smoke particles, etc. As such it is critical to have a comprehensive suite of plasma diagnostics that can unambiguously measure various plasma parameters.

This thesis deals with the development and testing of three different Langmuir probe implementations suitable for investigation of the mesosphere which are to be launched …

A Hazard Assessment And Proposed Risk Index For Art, Architecture, Archive And Artifact Protection: Case Studies For Assorted International Museums, Clara Jeanene Kirk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes a hazard/risk index for environmental, technological, and social hazards that may threaten a museum or other place of cultural storage and accession. This index can be utilized and implemented to measure the risk at the locations of these storage facilities in relationship to their geologic, geographic, environmental, and social settings. A model case study of the 1966 flood of the Arno River and its impact on the city of Florence and the Uffizi Gallery was used as the index focus. From this focus an additional eleven museums and their related risk were assessed. Each index addressed a …

Identification Of Long Term Changes And Evaluation Of The Relationships Among Streamflow Variability And Oceanic-Atmospheric Indices, Soumya Sagarika

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To examine the effects of climate variability on streamflow, this thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the streamflow variability of the continental United States and its association with oceanic-atmospheric indices. First, the presence of trends with consideration of short term and long term persistence followed by shifts over the past years in the continental U.S. streamflow were analyzed by using the non-parametric tests: Mann Kendall and Pettitt. Second, the spatio-temporal relationships between seasonal streamflow variability of continental U.S. and sea surface temperatures (SST) and 500 mbar geopotential height (Z500) of the Pacific and Atlantic were established using the singular valued …

The Economic Viability Of Cocoa Crop Insurance In Ghana, Justin D. Mckinley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was motivated by the fact that Ghanaian cocoa producers face lower yields than other main cocoa producing counties which in turn increases food insecurity for smallholder producers. In addition, low yields experienced by Ghanaian producers is a driving factor for forest degradation and deforestation as cocoa producers encroach further into previously undisturbed forests in efforts to increase their incomes. There are currently production methods to achieve higher yields readily available in Ghana; however, many producers choose not to adopt these methods because they are seen as too risky, or simply cannot adopt them due to financial/credit constraints. A …

The Threat In Hampton Roads, Ray Toll, David W. Titley

News Items

No abstract provided.

Comment On “Chemically Mediated Behavior Of Recruiting Corals And Fishes: A Tipping Point That May Limit Reef Recovery”, Andrew H. Baird, Vivian R. Cumbo, Joana Figueiredo, Saki Harii, Tom Hata, Joshua S. Madin

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Dixson et al. (2014) report that coral larvae navigate towards chemical cues associated with healthy reefs and avoid cues from degraded reefs. However, the swimming capabilities of coral larvae and well-established patterns of recruitment and reef hydrodynamics indicate that coral larvae will not be able to use these cues to recruit to healthy reefs. Perfuming degraded reefs, as suggested by Dixson et al (2014), will not enhance recovery rather it will distract from the difficult task of reducing fishing effort and improving water quality.

Agricultural Advisors As Climate Information Intermediaries: Exploring Differences In Capacity To Communicate Climate, Tonya Haigh, Lois Wright Morton, Maria Carmen Lemos, Cody Knutson, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Yun Jia Lo, Jim Angel

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Although agricultural production faces chronic stress associated with extreme precipitation events, high temperatures, drought, and shifts in climate conditions, adoption of climate information into agricultural decision making has been relatively limited. Agricultural advisors have been shown to play important roles as information intermediaries between scientists and farmers, brokering, translating, and adding value to agronomic and economic information of use in agricultural management decision making. Yet little is known about the readiness of different types of agricultural advisors to use weather and climate information to help their clients manage risk under increasing climate uncertainty. More than 1700 agricultural advisors in four …

Association Of Weekly Suicide Rates With Temperature Anomalies In Two Different Climate Types, Paul Grady Dixon Ph.D., Mark Sinyor, Ayal Schaffer, Anthony Levitt, Christa R. Haney, Kelsey N. Ellis, Scott C. Sheridan

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Annual suicide deaths outnumber the total deaths from homicide and war combined. Suicide is a complex behavioral endpoint, and a simple cause-and-effect model seems highly unlikely, but relationships with weather could yield important insight into the biopsychosocial mechanisms involved in suicide deaths. This study has been designed to test for a relationship between air temperature and suicide frequency that is consistent enough to offer some predictive abilities. Weekly suicide death totals and anomalies from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1986-2009) and Jackson, Mississippi, USA (1980-2006) are analyzed for relationships by using temperature anomaly data and a distributed lag nonlinear model. For both …

Marginal Coral Populations: The Densest Known Aggregation Of Pocillopora In The Galápagos Archipelago Is Of Asexual Origin, Iliana B. Baums, Meghann Devlin-Durante, Beatrice A. A. Laing, Joshua S. Feingold, Tyler B. Smith, Andrew Bruckner, Joao Monteiro

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral populations at distributional margins frequently experience suboptimal and variable conditions. Recurrent El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warming events have caused extensive mortality of reef-building corals in the Eastern Pacific, and particularly impacted branching pocilloporid corals in the Galápagos Islands. Pocillopora spp. were previously more common and formed incipient reefs at several locations in the archipelago but now occur as scattered colonies. Here, we report an unusually concentrated aggregation of colonies and evaluate their current genetic diversity. In particular we focus on a large population of 1614 live Pocillopora colonies found in a volcanic lagoon along the southern shore of Isabela …

Weather Research Requirements To Improve Space Launch From Cape Canaveral Air Force Station And Nasa Kennedy Space Center, William P. Roeder, Lisa L. Huddleston, William H. Bauman Iii, Kelly B. Doser

Space Traffic Management Conference

Weather has a large affect on operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Weather is the leading source of scrubs and delays to space launch from CCAFS/KSC. Weather has an even larger impact on ground processing as space launch vehicles and payloads are prepared in the months before space launch. Many of those operations are very sensitive to weather. In addition, the weather in Florida is notoriously difficult to predict, especially during the summer when rapid deep convection can occur in minutes. Finally, the weather can be extremely subtle in this area during …

Challenges Associated With Space Weather Analysis And Prediction, John Lanicci

Space Traffic Management Conference

The term “space weather” is typically used to describe environmental conditions in the region extending from the sun’s surface, through the interplanetary medium, to the earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere, with a focus on those conditions that can affect the earth, its technological systems, and population. Space weather conditions are monitored continuously by a number of agencies around the world. These agencies use both satellite- and ground-based measurements to build analyses and employ predictive models that form the basis for impacts-based products dealing with myriad users in satellite operations, the utility industry, aviation, and satellite-based communications, to name a …

A Methodology For Near-Field Tsunami Inundation Forecasting: Application To The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, Aditya Riadi Gusman, Yuichiro Tanioka, Breanyn Macinnes, Hiroaki Tsushima

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Existing tsunami early warning systems in the world can give either one or a combination of estimated tsunami arrival times, heights, or qualitative tsunami forecasts before the tsunami hits near-field coastlines. A future tsunami early warning system should be able to provide a reliable near-field tsunami inundation forecast on high-resolution topography within a short time period. Here we describe a new methodology for near-field tsunami inundation forecasting. In this method, a precomputed tsunami inundation and precomputed tsunami waveform database is required. After information about a tsunami source is estimated, tsunami waveforms at nearshore points can be simulated in real time. …

Growth Rates In Gulf Of Mexico Red Snapper, Lutjanus Campechanus, Before And After The Deepwater Horizon Blowout, Elizabeth Shea Herdter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon blowout occurred on April 20^th, 2010 and released nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the northern Gulf of Mexico causing pollution of the water and sediment inhabited by many fishes for at least 87 days while the wellhead went uncapped. Populations of the Gulf of Mexico Red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, an important fish to the ecology and economy in the region, exhibit affinity to shallow water oil infrastructure such as the Deepwater Horizon making them especially vulnerable to crude oil contamination. The objective of this study is to determine growth of Red …

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Metabolites As A Biomarker Of Exposure To Oil In Demersal Fishes Following The Deepwater Horizon Blowout, Susan Susan Snyder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon blowout occurred on April 20th, 2010, releasing 4.9 million barrels of Louisiana crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Subsequent to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, sediment cores revealed oil on the northern GoM seafloor and abnormal skin lesions were seen in GoM fishes. Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a component of crude oil, in fish has been associated with many sublethal effects, including cancer and population-level effects. Using a biomarker of exposure to PAHs, this thesis evaluates inter-species, temporal and spatial differences in exposure to hydrocarbon contamination between three species of fish with varying levels …

Use Of A Towed Camera System For Estimating Reef Fish Populations Densities On The West Florida Shelf, Sarah Elizabeth Grasty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reef fish species tend to reside over high relief habitat which makes them difficult to sample with traditional gears such as nets and trawls. Therefore, implementing and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of new approaches which incorporate acoustic and optical methods has become a priority for reef fish stock assessment. Beginning in June of 2013, a towed camera system known as the Camera-Based Assessment Survey System (C-BASS) has been used to visualize over 500 kilometers of transect and record more than 80 hours of video over several habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. Surveys have been completed on the West …