Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Linkages Between Atmospheric Circulation, Weather, Climate, Land Cover And Social Dynamics Of The Tibetan Plateau, Shobha Kumari Yadav

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an important landmass that plays a significant role in both regional and global climates. In recent decades, the TP has undergone significant changes due to climate and human activities. Since the 1980s anthropogenic activities, such as the stocking of livestock, land cover change, permafrost degradation, urbanization, highway construction, deforestation and desertification, and unsustainable land management practices, have greatly increased over the TP. As a result, grasslands have undergone rapid degradation and have altered the land surface which in turn has altered the exchange of heat and moisture properties between land and the atmosphere. But gaps …

Assessing Turgor Loss Point In Bottomland Hardwood Trees Using Leaf Spectroscopy, Alexandra M. Eisley

LSU Master's Theses

Climate change is expected to radically alter our planet’s forests, with higher frequencies of drought- and flood-induced mortality events posing a challenge for forest managers and biologists. Research into the factors underlying plant tolerance to environmental stressors is therefore gaining popularity for incorporation into projective and earth system modeling using remote sensing measures. Leaf turgor loss point (TLP) is a key trait associated with drought tolerance among plants and is defined as the water potential at which leaf turgor pressure reaches zero, causing wilting. Here, I investigated patterns of TLP across the landscape and its role as an indicator of …

Characterization Of Smoke Particles Toward Improved Remote Sensing Retrievals And Chemical Transport Modeling, Chenchong Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Wildfires increase in extent, intensity, and frequency across the globe over the recent decades. The uncontrolled fires trigger cascading effects on local ecosystems and the fire emissions pose a higher risk to air quality and climate. Wildfire emissions contain a variety of trace gases and particulate matters. The particle-phase emissions, especially those light-absorbing species including black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC), significantly affect the regional and global climate by modulating the radiative transfer phenomena in the atmosphere. A great discrepancy still exists between model- and observation-based estimates of aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI). The discrepancy is partially attributed to the mischaracterizations …

Response Of Surface And Atmospheric Parameters Associated With The Iran M 7.3 Earthquake, Feng Jing, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Multiparameter observed from satellite, including microwave brightness temperature, skin temperature, air temperature, and carbon monoxide, have been analyzed to identify the anomalous signals associated with the M 7.3 Iran earthquake of November 12, 2017. Besides removing the multiyear variability of parameters as background, the effect of surface and atmosphere of a dust storm event in Middle East region during October 29–November 1 is considered to distinguish the possible anomalies associated with the earthquake. The characteristic behaviors of surface and atmospheric parameters clearly show the signals associated with the M 7.3 earthquake and the dust storm event. The multiple parameters at …

Ocean Eddies And Frontal Zones In The Gulf Of Mexico And Straits Of Florida, Yingjun Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ocean eddies and fronts in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and the Straits of Florida (SoF) play important roles in ocean physics, biology, and ecology. These two ubiquitous physical features have been studied worldwide for decades, yet many questions remain unanswered or poorly studied for the GoM and SoF. This study aims to improve the understanding of ocean eddies and frontal zones in the GoM and SoF using satellite remote sensing, in situ observations and model outputs, as well as state-of-the-art algorithms, with the following objectives: 1) analyze the three-dimensional (3-D) statistical characteristics and thermohaline structure of mesoscale eddies in …

Using Remote Sensing Technologies In Relocating Lubrak Village And Visualizing Flood Damages, Ronan Wallace

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As weather patterns change across the world, there are communities impacted by climate change that are left unnoticed. In the Himalayan mountain range, communities have suffered, experiencing an increase in flash flooding and droughts. For Lubrak Village in Lower Mustang, the community faces the threats of flash flooding. Over the last ten years, the amount of flash flooding has increased, occurring more than once each monsoon season. After every flood, concrete-like sediment is left behind, hardening across the riverbed and increasing its elevation. As the riverbed elevation increases, this sediment encroaches on Lu-brak Village’s agricultural fields and ancient mud buildings, …

The Use Of Composite Goes-R Satellite Imagery To Evaluate A Tc Intensity And Vortex Structure Forecast By An Fv3gfs-Based Hurricane Forecast Model, Shaowu Bao, Zhan Zhang, Evan Kalina, Bin Liu

Marine Science

The HAFS model is an effort under the NGGPS and UFS initiatives to create the next generation of hurricane prediction and analysis system based on FV3-GFS. It has been validated extensively using traditional verification indicators such as tracker error and biases, intensity error and biases, and the radii of gale, damaging and hurricane strength winds. While satellite images have been used to verify hurricane model forecasts, they have not been used on HAFS. The community radiative transfer model CRTM is used to generate model synthetic satellite images from HAFS model forecast state variables. The 24 forecast snapshots in the mature …

Understanding The Relationship Between Urban Areas And The Boundary Layer Using Remote Sensing Methods, Gabriel A. Rios

Dissertations and Theses

The atmospheric boundary layer is crucial to the exchange in energy between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Within this layer, the majority of human activities are carried out, which makes understanding the boundary layer especially important for many of our interests. A key component of this energy exchange is found at the surface, was surface properties are the interface through which momentum, heat, moisture, and other fluxes are transferred between media. Not only does the surface act as an interface, but as an actor that influences the exchange efficiency and rates. This concept is the crux of atmospheric boundary …

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 …

Changes In Lake Drainage In The Western Canadian Arctic, Dilshan Kariyawasam, Philip Marsh Dr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Nearly half of all Pan-Arctic lakes are situated in the Canadian Arctic, with many of these lakes being of thermokarst origin. Thermokarst lakes are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment, making them useful indicators to examine the condition of hydrological systems in response to rapid climate warming, a trend which has been well observed in the Canadian Western Arctic. In this study, we use aerial photography to quantify lake area and count changes for lakes in the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk region, between 1950 and 2004. A combination of aerial photography and Landsat imagery were used in identifying drained thermokarst lake basins …

Analysis Of The Current And Future Land Use/Land Cover Changes In Peri-Urban Areas Of Dar Es Salaam City, Tanzania Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Erick T Mnyali, Silvia F Materu

Tanzania Journal of Science

A rapid increase in population and urban development has direct impacts on the natural environment of peri-urban areas of big cities, especially in the developing countries. This study examined land use and land cover changes (LULCC) of peri-urban areas of Kinondoni Municipality in Dar es Salaam city for the period between 1999 and 2019 and predicted future changes by 2039. The specific objectives were to; (i) map the spatial-temporal land use and cover changes (ii) analyze settlements (built-up areas) patterns and factors influencing their changes (iii) predict changes that might happen for the next two decades. LULCC for 1999 to …

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 …

Automated Detection And Characterization Of Mesocyclones In X-Band Radar Observations, Raychel E. Nelson

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Atmospheric Tomography Using The Nordic Meteor Radar Cluster And Chilean Observation Network De Meteor Radars: Network Details And 3d-Var Retrieval, Gunter Stober, Alan Z. Liu, Zishun Qiao, Alexander Kozlovsky, Masaki Tsutsumi, Chris Hall, Satonori Nozawa, Mark Lester, Evgenia Belova, Johan Kero, Patrick J. Espy, Robert E. Hibbins, Nicholas Mitchell

Publications

Ground-based remote sensing of atmospheric parameters is often limited to single station observations by vertical profiles at a certain geographic location. This is a limiting factor for investigating gravity wave dynamics as the spatial information is often missing, e.g., horizontal wavelength, propagation direction or intrinsic frequency. In this study, we present a new retrieval algorithm for multistatic meteor radar networks to obtain tomographic 3-D wind fields within a pre-defined domain area. The algorithm is part of the Agile Software for Gravity wAve Regional Dynamics (ASGARD) and called 3D-Var, and based on the optimal estimation technique and Bayesian statistics. The performance …

Towards An Integrated Assessment Of Sea-Level Observations Along The U.S. Atlantic Coast, Brett A. Buzzanga

OES Theses and Dissertations

Sea levels are rising globally due to anthropogenic climate change. However, local sea levels that impact coastal ecosystems often differ from the global trend, sometimes by a factor of two or more. Improved understanding of this regional variability provides insights into geophysical processes and has implications for coastal communities developing resilience to ongoing sea-level rise. This dissertation conducts an investigation of sea level and its contributing processes at multiple spatial scales. Focusing on primarily interannual time-scales and data-driven approaches, new data sources and technologies are utilized to reduce current uncertainties.

First, sea-level trends are assessed over the global ocean and …

Examining Melt Pond Dynamics And Light Availability In The Arctic Ocean Via High Resolution Satellite Imagery, Austin Wesley Abbott

OES Theses and Dissertations

As the Arctic experiences consequences of climate change, a shift from thicker, multi-year ice to thinner, first-year ice has been observed. First-year ice is prone to extensive pools of meltwater (“melt ponds”) forming on its surface, which enhance light transmission to the ocean. Changes in the timing and distribution of melt pond formation and associated increases in under-ice light availability are the primary drivers for seasonal progression of water column primary production and warming. Observations of melt pond development and distribution require meter scale resolution and have traditionally been limited to airborne images. However, recent advances in high spatial resolution …

Identifying Four Year Average Cloud Field Regimes From World Wide Merged Cloud Analysis Dataset By Way Of K-Means Clustering, Stewart G. Almeida

Theses and Dissertations

Joint histograms of cloud top height (CTH) and optical depth (OD) are created using the World-Wide Merged Cloud Analysis (WWMCA) dataset over a four year period (2014-2017) to identify average cloud field regimes and assess the application of utilizing the WWMCA dataset with the AFIT Sensor and Scene Emulation Tool (ASSET). Two selected regions encompassing the Florida peninsula and a portion of the Pacific Ocean off the west-central coast of South America are examined over the months of January and July. Cloud field regimes are identified by running generated hourly OD-CTH histograms through k-means clustering, with optimal cluster number ( …

Comparison Of A Smartfin With An Infrared Sea Surface Temperature Radiometer In The Atlantic Ocean, Robert J. W. Brewin, Werenfrid Wimmer, Phillip J. Bresnahan, Tyler Cyronak, Andreas J. Andersson, Giorgio Dall’Olmo

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

The accuracy and precision of satellite sea surface temperature (SST) products in nearshore coastal waters are not well known, owing to a lack of in-situ data available for validation. It has been suggested that recreational watersports enthusiasts, who immerse themselves in nearshore coastal waters, be used as a platform to improve sampling and fill this gap. One tool that has been used worldwide by surfers is the Smartfin, which contains a temperature sensor integrated into a surfboard fin. If tools such as the Smartfin are to be considered for satellite validation work, they must be carefully evaluated against state-of-the-art techniques …

Evaluation Of Remotely Sensed Precipitation Estimates From The Nasa Power Project For Drought Detection Over Jordan, Muhammad Rasool Al‑Kilani, Michel Rahbeh, Jawad Al‑Bakri, Tsegaye Tadesse, Cody Knutson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts can cause devastating impacts on water and land resources and therefore monitoring these events forms an integral part of planning. The most common approach for detecting drought events and assessing their intensity is use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which requires abundant precipitation records at good spatial distribution. This may restrict SPI usage in many regions around the world, particularly in areas with limited numbers of ground meteorological stations. Therefore, the use of remotely sensed derived data of precipitation can contribute to drought monitoring. In this study, remotely sensed precipitation estimates from the POWER/Agroclimatology archive of NASA and …

An Assessment Of Regional Icesat-2 Sea-Level Trends, Brett Buzzanga, Eduard Heijkoop, Benjamin D. Hamlington, R. Steven Nerem, Alex Gardner

OES Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise is an important indicator of ongoing climate change and well observed by satellite altimetry. However, observations from conventional altimetry degrade at the coast where regional sea-level changes can deviate from the open-ocean and impact local communities. With the 2018 launch of the laser altimeter onboard ICESat-2, new high-resolution observations of ice, land, and ocean elevations are available. Here we assess the potential benefits of sea level measured by ICESat-2 by comparing to data from Jason-3 and tide gauges. We find good agreement in the linear rates computed from the independent observations, with an absolute average residual of 3.60 …

Line-Of-Sight Winds And Doppler Effect Smearing In Ace-Fts Solar Occultation Measurements, Chris D. Boone, Johnathen Steffen, Jeff Crouse, Peter F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Line-of-sight wind profiles are derived from Doppler shifts in infrared solar occultation measurements from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometers (ACE-FTS), the primary instrument on SCISAT, a satellite-based mission for monitoring the Earth’s atmosphere. Comparisons suggest a possible eastward bias from 20 m/s to 30 m/s in ACE-FTS results above 80 km relative to some datasets but no persistent bias relative to other datasets. For instruments operating in a limb geometry, looking through a wide range of altitudes, smearing of the Doppler effect along the line of sight can impact the measured signal, particularly for saturated absorption lines. Implications …

Rapid Quantification Of Biofouling With An Inexpensive, Underwater Camera And Image Analysis, Matthew R. First, Scott C. Riley, Kazi Aminul Islam, Victoria Hill, Jiang Li, Richard C. Zimmerman, Lisa A. Drake

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

To reduce the transport of potentially invasive species on ships' submerged surfaces, rapid-and accurate-estimates of biofouling are needed so shipowners and regulators can effectively assess and manage biofouling. This pilot study developed a model approach for that task. First, photographic images were collected in situ with a submersible, inexpensive pocket camera. These images were used to develop image processing algorithms and train machine learning models to classify images containing natural assemblages of fouling organisms. All of the algorithms and models were implemented in a widely available software package (MATLAB^©). Initially, an unsupervised clustering model was used, and three …

Response Of Deep Aquifers To Climate Variability, Karem Fathy Abdelgaber Abdelmohsen

Dissertations

Our recent analysis of Temporal Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) solutions over the largest aquifer system in Africa (the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System: NSAS) revealed that while the response of deep aquifers to climatic variations remains a relatively slow process that takes thousands to tens of thousands of years, there is a much faster response in aquifers that are characterized by dense networks of faults, fractures and karst as is the case with the NSAS. This rapid groundwater flow, when it occurs, is detected as an increase in GRACE_TWS over areas downgradient and distant (hundreds of km) from …

High Wind Alerts: A System Created With Observations From The X-Band Teaching And Research Radar, Lauren Warner

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Following the August 13, 2011, Indiana State Fair stage collapse tragedy, caused by a wind gust from an approaching thunderstorm, Purdue University enforced a wind speed restriction of 30 mph (13 m s-1) for tents at outdoor events. During these events, volunteers stand outside with handheld anemometers, measuring and reporting when the wind speeds exceed this limit. In this study, we report testing of a new system to automate high-wind alerts based on observations from a Doppler radar, the X-band Teaching and Research Radar (XTRRA), near Purdue’s campus. XTRRA scans over campus at low elevations approximately every 5 minutes. Using …

Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Analysis Of Mangrove Ecosystems Using Gis, Kayla Caldwell

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is accelerating beyond what is natural due to excessive emissions from human activities. The sea level has been rising for many years and is currently at a rate of 3.6 mm/yr. Mangroves are known to only keep pace with a sea level rate of less than 1.2 mm/yr. Mangroves are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels if they are not able to keep pace through vertical sediment accretion or inland migration. To test the vulnerability of the south Florida mangrove ecosystems to sea level rise, this study analyzed changes in the mangrove forest coverage of the Oleta River …

Towards Sustained Monitoring Of Subsidence At The Coast Using Insar And Gps: An Application In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Brett Buzzanga, David P.S. Bekaert, Ben D. Hamlington, Simran S. Sangha

OES Faculty Publications

Hampton Roads is among the regions along the U.S. Atlantic Coast experiencing high rates of relative sea level rise. Partly to mitigate subsidence from aquifer compaction, Hampton Roads is injecting treated wastewater into the underlying aquifer. However, the GPS (Global Positioning System) station spacing (∼30 km) is too coarse to capture the spatial variability of subsidence and potential uplift from the injection. We present a cost‐effective workflow for generating an InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) and GPS combined displacement product. We leverage a live, open‐access archive of InSAR products generated from Sentinel‐1 data. We find an overall subsidence rate of …

Performance Across Worldview-2 And Rapideye For Reproducible Seagrass Mapping, Megan M. Coffer, Blake A. Schaeffer, Richard C. Zimmerman, Victoria Hill, Jiang Li, Kazi A. Islam, Peter J. Whitman

OES Faculty Publications

Satellite remote sensing offers an effective remedy to challenges in ground-based and aerial mapping that have previously impeded quantitative assessments of global seagrass extent. Commercial satellite platforms offer fine spatial resolution, an important consideration in patchy seagrass ecosystems. Currently, no consistent protocol exists for image processing of commercial data, limiting reproducibility and comparison across space and time. Additionally, the radiometric performance of commercial satellite sensors has not been assessed against the dark and variable targets characteristic of coastal waters. This study compared data products derived from two commercial satellites: DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 and Planet's RapidEye. A single scene from each platform …

Annual And Seasonal Surface Circulation Over The Mid Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf Derived From A Decade Of High Frequency Radar Observations, Hugh Roarty, Scott Glenn, Joseph Brodie, Laura Nazzaro, Michael Smith, Ethan Handel, Josh Kohut, Teresa Updyke, Larry Atkinson, William Boicourt, Wendell Brown, Harvey Seim, Mike Muglia, Haixing Wang, Donglai Gong

CCPO Publications

A decade (2007–2016) of hourly 6‐km‐resolution maps of the surface currents across the Mid‐Atlantic Bight (MAB) generated by a regional‐scale High Frequency Radar network are used to reveal new insights into the spatial patterns of the annual and seasonal mean surface flows. Across the 10‐year time series, temporal means and interannual and intra‐annual variability are used to quantify the variability of spatial surface current patterns. The 10‐year annual mean surface flows are weaker and mostly cross‐shelf near the coast, increasing in speed and rotating to more alongshore directions near the shelfbreak, and increasing in speed and rotating to flow off‐shelf …

Assessing The Accuracy Of A Uav Snow Depth Survey: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska Calm Grid, Ian Nichols

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Active layer depth and snow depth are annually collected across the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) Network to observe the response of the active layer and near-surface permafrost to climate change over decadal-time scales. Snow depth is typically measured using a graduated steel probe at each grid node but, in this paper, we explore the viability of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (drone) technology to collect snow depth measurements at the 1 km² Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska CALM grid. This is achieved by comparing estimated UAV snow depths to measured snow depths collected using a MagnaProbe (MP) at each of …

Changes At The Edge: Trends In Sea Ice, Ocean Temperature And Ocean Color At The Northwest Atlantic/Southern Arctic Interface, Ashley V. York, Karen E. Frey, Luisa N.C. Young

Geography

Spatial and temporal trends of remotely sensed sea-ice cover, sea surface temperatures, chlorophyll-a concentration and primary production in the Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and Labrador Sea were analyzed for the 1998-2017 period. We found spatial variability in the trends of these cryospheric, biologic and oceanographic phenomena. For example, in the northern Baffin Bay, we observed decreases in annual sea-ice persistence, yet increases along the Labrador Sea-ice edge during winter, with the latter having significant correlations with broader atmospheric patterns. In general, we observed increases in summer sea surface temperatures across the study region, except a small area of cooling along …