Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

2023 January 5 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

How Hurricanes Impact Florida's Tourism Industry, Arthur Huang

Rosen Research Review

Almost every year, hurricanes bear down upon the state of Florida. The storms appear to be growing in occurrence and severity. While the media cover the damage and death toll, the impacts on the state's critical tourism sector remain largely anecdotal. The full story lies buried in data. Dr. Arthur Huang from UCF's Rosen College of Hospitality Management has investigated different data sets to understand the impact of hurricanes on the tourism industry. What has been uncovered has significance not only for Florida but for tourism sectors elsewhere affected by these giant storms.

Hydrodynamics And Sediment Transport In The Tidally Influenced James River, Ollie Gilchrest, Rip Hale

The Graduate School Posters

The tidally influenced James River is an important economic, ecologic, and cultural resource for VA residents. Tidal rivers have been historically understudied, however they are critical transition zones, the dynamics of which have implications for freshwater supply and sediment trapping. Globally, estimates suggest that >30% of fluvial sediment is trapped in the tidal zone, the location and dynamics of which are actively changing due to sea level rise and saltwater encroachment. In addition, analysis of historical water levels on the James River has shown a decrease in the tidal range since 1940. The present study combines >1-year’s worth of hydrographic …

Dust Deposition To The Bermuda Region: A Comparison Of Estimates Using Seasonally-Resolved Measurements Of Aluminum In Water-Column, Aerosol, And Rain Samples, Tara Williams, Peter Sedwick, Bettina Sohst, Joe Resing, Kristen Buck, Salvatore Caprara, Rod Johnson, Dan Ohnemus, Ben Twining, Alessandro Tagliabue

College of Sciences Posters

Dust deposition is a major source of bioactive trace elements to the surface ocean, yet this flux remains difficult to constrain. Previously, time-averaged dust flux has been estimated using surface ocean dissolved aluminum (DAl) concentrations, assumed values for aerosol aluminum solubility (%Al_S), and the residence time of DAl in the surface mixed layer (SML). We apply this method to estimate dust deposition in the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) region using water-column DAl data from cruises in 2019, which is compared with direct flux estimates from contemporaneous measurements of aluminum in aerosols and rain collected on Bermuda. Seasonal …

The Future Of Extreme Windstorms In The United States: Insights From Convection-Permitting Simulations, Kristie Kaminski

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

A derecho is a long-lived, convectively induced, extratropical windstorm that produces severe wind gusts and an affiliated damage swath across an extensive area. This peril can generate billions of dollars in losses and poses a significant risk to life, infrastructure, and wind-sensitive industries. While the response of severe convective storms to anthropogenic climate change has received much attention in the literature, research assessing the genitors of derechos—mesoscale convective systems—has focused on understanding potential changes in the United States hydroclimate, not their severe wind potential. To date, there has been no research investigating spatiotemporal changes to derecho activity in the context …

Daily Meteorological Report, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

Meteorological data is collected daily at CERCOM and is submitted to the National Weather Service (NWS), in Upton NY at the Brookhaven National Laboratories. Air Temperature, wind speed and direction, pH of precipitation, rain gauge, barometer pressure, cloud cover and estimated altitude by type, are data sets compiled and submitted to the NWS daily. CERCOM’s Co-Op site is the only continuous operating facility on Great South Bay.

Great South Bay, Long Island, New York Summer Water Quality Monitoring Program, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

The Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring (CERCOM) visits 11 locations in the Great South Bay from Memorial Day – Labor Day to monitor dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, salinity, clarity and temperature. Students are trained to assist in CERCOM’s water quality data collection by research assistant Mr. Kyle Maurelli. This monitoring program has been conducted for the past 17 years. These parameters are critical in determining long term water quality conditions in Long Island estuaries

Convection Allowing Simulations Of Hail In Historical And Future Climate Epochs, Jillian Rose Goodin

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the potential impact of anthropogenic climate change on hail frequency and intensity, which poses a significant threat to life and property, accounting for annual insured losses of around $30 billion in the U.S. This approach uses convection-allowing dynamically-downscaled regional climate simulations using input data from NCAR's bias-corrected Community Earth System Model to simulate historical and projected future climate regimes under two greenhouse gas emission scenarios. A column maximum diameter hail diagnostic is simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting regional climate model to identify instances of hail days and size to quantify changes in large hail frequency …

A Workshop On Using Nasa Airs Data To Monitor Drought For The U.S. Drought Monitor, Alireza Farahmand,, Sharon Ray, Heidar Thrastarson, Stephen Licata, Stephanie Granger, Brian Fuchs

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Recent studies indicate that drought indicators based on near-surface air relative humidity (RH), air temperature (T), and air vapor pressure deficit (VPD), derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite can detect the onset of drought earlier than other drought indicators, specifically standardized precipitation index (SPI), which is widely used for drought onset detection. A recent study showed that standardized relative humidity index (SRHI) can detect drought signals earlier than SPI (Farahmand et al. 2015). Relative humidity is a climate variable defined as the ratio of air vapor pressure to saturated vapor pressure. Precipitation and relative …

Trust And Subjective Knowledge Influence Perceived Risk Of Lead Exposure, Madeline Goebel, Chloe B. Wardropper

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Lead exposure is a persistent environmental hazard that poses risks to human health. But motivating protective action is challenging with this low visibility hazard whose health effects are often subtle and chronic. Higher risk perception is generally associated with taking protective measures, so public health efforts prioritize risk messaging. Yet, little is known about perceptions of lead exposure risk among the U.S. public. Using cross-sectional data from a national survey of 1035 U.S. residents, we measured the role of trust in government management of lead and subjective knowledge about lead as predictors of perceived risk of lead exposure, controlling for …

Sea Spray Generation Function Due To Shear-Induced Instabilities Of The Air-Sea Interface Under Tropical Cyclone Conditions, Alexander Soloviev, Breanna Vanderplow

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The sea surface under tropical cyclone conditions is covered by whitecaps and whiteout material. The whitecap areas are formed by large breaking waves and occupy ~4% of the sea surface (Holthuijsen et al. 2012). These areas produce large amounts of bubble and spray but occupy only a relatively small faction of the sea surface. The whiteout material that covers the rest of the sea surface can be caused by shear-induced instabilities of the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) type (Soloviev et al. 2017). The KH type instabilities at the gas-liquid interface have been intensively studied in engineering applications such as atomization of the …

Historical And Future Projections Of Supercell Precipitation Contributions To The Hydroclimate Of The United States, Aaron Zeeb

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Rotating storms, or supercells, are frequent producers of significant tornadoes, hail, and nontornadic winds and an underappreciated genitor of extreme precipitation rates and flash floods. Little research has examined the precipitation contributions from supercells to the overall hydroclimate of the CONUS and, provided that these storms and their precipitation rates may shift in the future due to climate change, it is important to understand their characteristics from both historical and future perspectives. This research seeks to understand supercell precipitation characteristics across the CONUS using high-resolution, convection-permitting, dynamical-downscaled simulations for three, 15-year epochs. Epochs include a historical end-of-20th-century period (1990–2005) and …

A Complex Record Of Last Interglacial Sea-Level History And Paleozoogeography, Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California, Usa, Daniel R. Muhs, Lindsey T. Groves, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Scott A. Minor

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Studies of marine terraces and their fossils can yield important information about sea level history, tectonic uplift rates, and paleozoogeography, but some aspects of terrace history, particularly with regard to their fossil record, are not clearly understood. Marine terraces are well preserved on Santa Rosa Island, California, and the island is situated near a major marine faunal boundary. Two prominent low-elevation terraces record the ~80 ka (marine isotope stage [MIS] 5a) and ~120 ka (MIS 5e) high-sea stands, based on U-series dating of fossil corals and aminostratigraphic correlation to dated localities elsewhere in California and Baja California. Low uplift rates …

Flood-Inundation Maps For An 8-Mile Reach Of Papillion Creek Near Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, 2022, Kellan R. Strauch, Christopher M. Hobza

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Digital flood-inundation maps for an 8-mile reach of Papillion Creek near Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, Offutt Air Force Base. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program website at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/flood-inundation-mapping-fim-program, depict estimates of the areal extent and depth of flooding corresponding to selected water levels (stages) at the USGS streamgages Papillion Creek at Fort Crook, Nebr. (station 06610795), and Papillion Creek at Harlan Lewis Road near La Platte, Nebr. (station 06610798). Near-real-time stages at these streamgages may …

Selected Anthropogenic Contaminants In Groundwater, Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District, Eastern Nebraska, 1992–2020, Brent M. Hall, Cory L. Kavan, Amanda Flynn, Mikaela L. Cherry

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

A study in cooperation with the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District was completed in 2019 to determine the concentration of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in groundwater in the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District, eastern Nebraska. Each well was sampled twice (in June and October or November) in 2019, totaling 34 samples. Samples were analyzed for 132 CECs, which include pharmaceutical, steroid hormone, and other organic chemicals. Seven of the 132 CEC analytes were detected in samples collected during this study. The most commonly detected CEC in this study was the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole. Other CECs detected in this study were …

An Integrated Hydrologic Model To Support The Central Platte Natural Resources District Groundwater Management Plan, Central Nebraska, Jonathan (Jp) Traylor, Moussa Guira, Steven M. Petersen

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The groundwater and surface-water supply of the Central Platte Natural Resources District supports a large agricultural economy from the High Plains aquifer and Platte River, respectively. This study provided the Central Platte Natural Resources District with an advanced numerical modeling tool to assist with the update of their Groundwater Management Plan.

An integrated hydrologic model, called the Central Platte Integrated Hydrologic Model, was constructed using the MODFLOW-One-Water Hydrologic Model code with the Newton solver. This code integrates climate, landscape, surface water, and groundwater-flow processes in a fully coupled approach. Model framework included 163 rows; 327 columns; 2,640 feet cell sides; …

Droughtscape, Winter 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Winter 2023

Historical And Potential Future Climate Of Extreme Daily Precipitation Over The Contiguous United States Using Convection-Permitting Simulations, Sylvia Stinnett

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The impacts of anthropogenic climate change will be felt most strongly through changes in hazards such as extreme precipitation. The potential for extreme precipitation changes—both increases and decreases—may have significant societal impacts (e.g., agriculture production, loss of life and property). However, limited research has quantified future projected changes in extreme precipitation due to computational limitations and considerable time expenditure for convection-permitting simulations of substantial duration.This project sought to analyze changes in extreme daily precipitation—defined as the 99th percentile daily accumulated value—due to climate change in the contiguous United States (CONUS) using a dynamically downscaled and convection-permitting regional climate modeling framework. …

The Green Revolution In California: The Real Costs And Benefits Of Changing Electricity Production, Joseph James Hoffman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In recent years democratic societies have added concern for the environment to the perennial problems of inequality, economic growth, and law and order. What is often called the Green Revolution has focused on the effect of industrial growth on the health of the individuals living in that society and on the effects on climate. In the United States, the State that was the first to see this problem and the first to make changes to deal with it, was California, where geographical factors ensured that the effects of industrial change on the air were much more severe than anywhere else …

Great South Bay, Long Island, New York Summer Phytoplankton Identification & Monitoring Program, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

Phytoplankton Collection Methodologies: 80 micron Plankton Tow Net with sample bottle attachment

Phytoplankton Protocol: 1.Gather Samples 2.Make one slide per sample 3.View slides using microscope connected with computer 4. Record findings using “ Row # “ and “ Column letter “ 5. Record using “ Tallies “ per species found within sample 6. Capture anything interesting “ Take Picture “ 7.Duplicate pictures taken 8.Make sure measurement of species found is taken 9. Email Jennifer Maucher at [email protected] , include pictures, questions and names of the species you “guess” you found.

Long Island Horseshoe Crab Network Annual Inventory Report, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

CERCOM conducts monitoring of 111 beach locations spanning from Brooklyn to Montauk during the optimal breeding season of Limulus polyphemus. These surveys span approximately 15 weeks, commencing in May and concluding in August. Each beach location is meticulously marked with GPS coordinates to ensure consistent annual revisitation. Participation in these surveys necessitates attendance at an HSC Survey training orientation, led by Mr. Key Maurelli, CERCOM's research assistant.

A Methodology For Statistical Mean Wave Climate Regime Characterisation In Oceanic Islands: The Case Of The Southern Coast Of Tenerife, Emilio Megías, Manuel García-Román

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Oceanic islands of volcanic origin tend to have peculiar characteristics, such as: exposure to many wave directions; grouping in archipelagos; steep coastal slopes; and small coastal shelves. All these features require certain considerations in wave climate studies. These types of studies, when wave spectra are not available and have to be performed with parametric data, can be unreliable without an adequate systematic treatment. In this work we propose a methodology consisting of pre-classification according to the peak period and subsequent separation into different sectors according to the geographical fetch. The island of Tenerife is the case study, and in particular …

The Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (Cbass): A Low Cost, Portable System For Standardized Empirical Assessments Of Coral Thermal Limits, Nicolas R. Evensen, Katherine E. Parker, Thomas A. Oliver, Stephen R. Palumbi, Cheryl A. Logan, James S. Ryan, Courtney N. Klepac, Gabriela Perna, Mark E. Warner, Christian R. Voolstra, Daniel J. Barshis

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ocean warming is increasingly affecting marine ecosystems across the globe. Reef-building corals are particularly affected by warming, with mass bleaching events increasing in frequency and leading to widespread coral mortality. Yet, some corals can resist or recover from bleaching better than others. Such variability in thermal resilience could be critical to reef persistence; however, the scientific community lacks standardized diagnostic approaches to rapidly and comparatively assess coral thermal vulnerability prior to bleaching events. We present the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) as a low-cost, open-source, field-portable experimental system for rapid empirical assessment of coral thermal thresholds using standardized temperature …

Futures On Dry Ground: Anthropology And Coastal Planning, Theodore Hilton, Sheehan Moore

Publications and Research

Around the world, governments, industry, and other actors are creating plans to save coasts from environmental crisis. Louisiana is one prominent example: levees and other measures protect oil and gas infrastructure from inundation as the wetlands buffer rapidly erodes—in large part due to that same industry. The state’s primary answer to land loss is a $50 billion Coastal Master Plan. To illuminate such responses in Louisiana and globally, this article reviews emerging literature and frames an anthropology of coastal planning around three themes: (1) novel orientations toward time and space, (2) the reproduction of power and capital in the name …

Methane Emissions In Seagrass Meadows As A Small Offset To Carbon Sequestration, Yvonne Y. Y. Yau, Gloria Reithmaier, Caludia Majtényi-Hill, Oscar Serrano, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Martin Dahl, Miguel A. Mateo, Stefano Bonaglia, Isaac R. Santos

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrass meadows are effective carbon sinks due to high primary production and sequestration in sediments. However, methane (CH4) emissions can partially counteract their carbon sink capacity. Here, we measured diffusive sediment-water and sea-air CO2 and CH4 fluxes in a coastal embayment dominated by Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea. High-resolution timeseries observations revealed large spatial and temporal variability in CH4 concentrations (2–36 nM). Lower sea-air CH4 emissions were observed in an area with dense seagrass meadows compared to patchy seagrass. A 6%−40% decrease of CH4 concentration in the surface water around noon indicates that photosynthesis likely limits CH4 fluxes. Sediments …

Co-Designing A Multi-Criteria Approach To Ranking Hazards To And From Australia’S Emerging Offshore Blue Economy, Mischa P. Turschwell, Christopher J. Brown, Myriam Lacharité, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Keith R. Hayes, Rodrigo H. Bustamante, Jeffrey M. Dambacher, Karen Evans, Pedro Fidelman, Darla H. Macdonald, Ingrid Van Putten, Graham Wood, Nagi Abdussamie, Mathilda Bates, Damien Blackwell, Steven D'Alessandro, Ian Dutton, Jessica A. Ericson, Christopher L. J. Frid, Carmel Mcdougall, Mary-Anne Lea, David Rissik, Rowan Trebilco, Elizabeth A. Fulton

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A multi-sectoral assessment of risks can support the management and investment decisions necessary for emerging blue economy industries to succeed. Traditional risk assessment methods will be challenged when applied to the complex socio-ecological systems that characterise offshore environments, and when data available to support management are lacking. Therefore, there is a need for assessments that account for multiple sectors. Here we describe the development of an efficient method for an integrated hazard analysis that is a precursor to full risk assessments. Our approach combines diverse disciplinary expertise, expert elicitation and multi-criteria analysis to rank hazards, so it encompasses all types …

Evaluating Gizzard Shad Dorosoma Cepedianum And Threadfin Shad D. Petenense Populations In Two Kentucky Reservoirs Recently Invaded With Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix, Nathan Klein

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum and Threadfin Shad D. petenense are ecologically important fish species found in many reservoirs throughout the southeastern United States, such as Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. One current challenge that Gizzard Shad and Threadfin Shad may face in these two reservoirs is competition with the invasive Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix. However, quantifying the effects of this competition may be difficult because of limited baseline population data for Gizzard Shad and Threadfin Shad in these two reservoirs. Gizzard Shad and Threadfin Shad were collected by boat electrofishing and surface trawling in cove and main channel locations …

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix Movements In The Lower Cumberland River And Lower Tennessee River, Miranda Belanger

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The introduction of exotic fishes in freshwater environments has caused significant ecological and economic changes. Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix are an invasive species in the United States but are native to large rivers in eastern Asia. This species is expanding its range throughout the Mississippi River basin, beginning with the Cumberland River and Tennessee River drainages. Although Silver Carp movement patterns have been studied in other portions of the Cumberland River and Tennessee River, the lowermost portion of both rivers below Lake Barkley Dam and Kentucky Lake Dam is a unique environment in which the movement of Silver Carp has …

Remote Sensing Of Georgia Tidal Marsh Habitats Using Aerial Photography And Planetscope Satellite Imagery, Harrison M. Currin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Globally, tidal marshes cover about 90,800 km. Within the state of Georgia tidal marshes are primarily located behind the barrier islands and total 1,619 km². The combination of high salinity environments and daily inundation, and being dependent on river output, make these dynamic systems. Tidal marshes provide numerous ecosystem services such as carbon and nitrogen sequestration, flood control, coastal protection, and numerous biogeochemical processes. Due to their unique position, tidal marshes are under threat from sea level rise, drought, coastal development, and large-scale disturbance events. Tidal freshwater marshes are especially susceptible to these threats due to their geographic …

Cirrus Microphysical Properties And The Controlling Factors Using A Machine Learning Approach, Derek D. Ngo

Master's Theses

Cirrus clouds are located at high altitudes and are composed of ice crystals. The unique location of cirrus clouds and their large variability in-cloud microphysical properties allow them to have either warming or cooling effects on Earth’s surface and affect the Earth’s energy budget on a global scale. The examination of cirrus radiative effects is further complicated by multiple factors affecting their formation and evolution, including the effects of thermodynamic, dynamic, aerosol, and chemical tracer variables. In this work, we developed a composite aircraft-based in-situ observation dataset based on seven National Science Foundation (NSF) and five NASA flight campaigns that …