Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

A Global Database Of Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity, Tc Chakraborty, Xuhui Lee

Yale Day of Data

The urban heat island (UHI) effect - the phenomenon of higher temperatures in urban environments - is one of the most well-known consequences of urbanization on local climate. We develop the simplified urban-extent (SUE) algorithm, a new algorithm to estimate the urban heat island (UHI) intensity at a global scale. This algorithm is implemented on the Google Earth Engine platform and uses satellite-derived images to calculate the surface UHI intensity for over 9500 urban clusters covering 15 years, making this the most comprehensive global UHI database. The data are validated against previous multi-city studies and then used to estimate the …

Enso-Induced Co-Variability Of Salinity, Plantkton Biomass And Coastal Currents In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Fabian A. Gomez, Sang-Ki Lee, Frank J. Hernandez Jr., Luciano M. Chiaverano, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Yanyun Liu, John T. Lamkin

Faculty Publications

The northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is a region strongly influenced by river discharges of freshwater and nutrients, which promote a highly productive coastal ecosystem that host commercially valuable marine species. A variety of climate and weather processes could potentially influence the river discharges into the northern GoM. However, their impacts on the coastal ecosystem remain poorly described. By using a regional ocean-biogeochemical model, complemented with satellite and in situ observations, here we show that El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a main driver of the interannual variability in salinity and plankton biomass during winter and spring. Composite analysis …

Spatial Heterogeneity Of Temporal Shifts In Extreme Precipitation Across India, Manas Khan, Francisco Munoz-Arriola, Rehana Shaik, Penny Greer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

When analyzing trends and patterns of extreme precipitation, one can easily generalize the shifts caused by external climate forcings and map a single temporal shift of annual precipitation. However, the complexity of a changing environment evidences spatially distributed shifts particularly those of extreme precipitation which are essential in planning and designing enterprises and, ultimately, in managing infrastructure across scales. The goal of this study is to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of shifts in the increasing pace of extreme events over India. The study has a two-part hypothesis: (1) the number of grid cells with significant trends in annual precipitation (P), …

Isolution 1.0: An Isotope Evolution Model Describing The Stable Oxygen (Δ18O) And Carbon (Δ13C) Isotope Values Of Speleothems, Michael Deininger, Denis Scholz

International Journal of Speleology

Stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O) are the most applied climate and environmental proxies in speleothems allowing to infer past changes in cave drip water δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O related to climate and environmental variations from above the cave. However, disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes can modify δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values in speleothems, which is in most cases difficult to estimate due to inter-dependencies on various cave specific parameter. To better understand the effect of these disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes proxy system models were developed in recent …

A Multi-Proxy Approach To Refining Paleotempestology Records On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Marianne Elizabeth Dietz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reconstructing pre-historic hurricane activity is typically accomplished through the analysis of sandy overwash deposits identified in coastal lake settings. This method has been used successfully in many parts of the world and can extend the hurricane record thousands of years into the past. However, this approach also has its limitations. This dissertation addresses some of the limitations associated with geologic proxies used to reconstruct hurricane landfalls in the absence of historic data and tests new proxies for the identification of hurricane-derived overwash deposits. Modern storm deposits from two sites on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast are analyzed in detail …

Assessing The Evolution Of Soil Moisture And Vegetation Conditions During A Flash Drought–Flash Recovery Sequence Over The South-Central United States, Jason A. Otkin, Yafang Zhong, Eric D. Hunt, Jeff Basara, Mark Svoboda, Martha C. Anderson, Christopher Hain

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This study examines the evolution of soil moisture, evapotranspiration, vegetation, and atmospheric conditions during an unusual flash drought–flash recovery sequence that occurred across the south-central United States during 2015. This event was characterized by a period of rapid drought intensification (flash drought) during late summer that was terminated by heavy rainfall at the end of October that eliminated the extreme drought conditions over a 2-week period (flash recovery). A detailed analysis was performed using time series of environmental variables derived from meteorological, remote sensing, and land surface modeling datasets. Though the analysis revealed a similar progression of cascading effects in …

Soil Moisture Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Data And A Stepwise-Cluster Prediction Model: The Case Of Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia, Getachew Ayehu, Tsegaye Tadesse, Berhan Gessesse, Yibeltal Yigrem

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

In this study, a residual soil moisture prediction model was developed using the stepwise cluster analysis (SCA) and model prediction approach in the Upper Blue Nile basin. The SCA has the advantage of capturing the nonlinear relationships between remote sensing variables and volumetric soil moisture. The principle of SCA is to generate a set of prediction cluster trees based on a series of cutting and merging process according to a given statistical criterion. The proposed model incorporates the combinations of dual-polarized Sentinel-1 SAR data, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and digital elevation model as input parameters. In this regard, two …

Global Patterns And Drivers Of Ecosystem Functioning In Rivers And Riparian Zones, Scott Tiegs, David Costello, Mark W. Isken, Guy Woodward, Peter B. Mcintyre, Mark O. Gessner, Amy Marcarelli, Et. Al.

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

River ecosystems receive and process vast quantities of terrestrial organic carbon, the fate of which depends strongly on microbial activity. Variation in and controls of processing rates, however, are poorly characterized at the global scale. In response, we used a peer-sourced research network and a highly standardized carbon processing assay to conduct a global-scale field experiment in greater than 1000 river and riparian sites. We found that Earth’s biomes have distinct carbon processing signatures. Slow processing is evident across latitudes, whereas rapid rates are restricted to lower latitudes. Both the mean rate and variability decline with latitude, suggesting temperature constraints …

Role Of The Atchafalaya River Basin In Regulating Export Fluxes Of Dissolved Organic Carbon, Nutrients, And Trace Elements To The Louisiana Shelf, Dongjoo Joung, Laodong Guo, Alan M. Shiller

Faculty Publications

The abundance and fluxes of selected dissolved trace elements (TE), nutrients, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were quantified in the Atchafalaya River Basin to better understand its influence on the chemical regime of the Louisiana Shelf, a region where bottom water hypoxia occurs annually during late spring to early fall. Water samples were collected from throughout the entire Atchafalaya River Basin including from the Mississippi and Red Rivers as well as basin swamp waters during April and November 2010, and June 2011, which represent “typical” high and low, and “unusual” high river discharges, respectively. Within the total dissolved (< 0.45 µm) pool, most of the TEs were mainly partitioned to the < 0.02 µm dissolved phase with the exception of Cr, Cs, Fe, Pb and Zn which were dominantly in the colloidal (0.02-0.45 µm) phase. In the Atchafalaya River, seasonal concentration variations in nutrients, DOC and most TEs were similar to those in the Mississippi River, reflecting a major contribution of water from the Mississippi River. Contributions of the Red River to the Atchafalaya River’s DOC and nutrients were estimated to be 1-35%, similar to previous estimates for this system. The Red River contribution to the fluxes of Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Mn, Pb, Rb, and Zn was generally disproportionally high (>20%), …

Socioecological Determinants Of Drought Impacts And Coping Strategies For Ranching Operations In The Great Plains, Tonya Haigh, Walter H. Schacht, Cody L. Knutson, Alexander J. Smart, Jerry Volesky, Craig R. Allen, Michael Hayes, Mark E. Burbach

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

In Great Plains rangelands, drought is a recurring disturbance. Ranchers in this region expect to encounter drought but may not be adequately prepared for it. Efforts to encourage drought preparednesswould benefit froma better understanding of the conditions under which managers make decisions to minimize the impacts of drought.We tested the direct andmoderating roles of the drought hazard and the social-ecological context on drought impacts and response. This study was conducted with ranchers in western and central South Dakota and Nebraska following the drought that began in 2012. We surveyed ranchers regarding the effects of the drought and their responses and …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: January 2019 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for January 2019. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Comparisons Of Five Dna Repair Pathways Between Elasmobranch Fishes And Humans, Lucia Llorente

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Although DNA repair capacity has been correlated with lifespan in terrestrial vertebrate species, it remains unknown how evolutionarily conserved the process is across all vertebrate taxa. In particular, chondrichthyan fishes have lifespans that range from 3-350 years and they are evolutionarily separated from modern humans Homo sapiens by approximately 400 million years. We hypothesized that chondrichthyan fishes would show significant homology in nuclear excision repair (NER) genes with humans, and that the expression of NER genes will correlate with the lifespan of the respective assessed species. For this study, DNA repair gene homology and expression was performed on the nurse …

Creative Citizen Science Illuminates Complex Ecological Responses To Climate Change, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Amanda S. Gallinat, Richard B. Primack

Biology Faculty Publications

Climate change is causing the timing of key behaviors (i.e., phenology) to shift differently across trophic levels and among some interacting organisms (e.g., plants and pollinators, predators and prey), suggesting that interactions among species are being disrupted (1, 2). Studying the phenology of interactions, however, is difficult, which has limited researchers’ ability to zero in on changes in specific interactions or on the consequences of mismatches. In PNAS, Hassall et al. (3) use a combination of citizen science techniques to investigate the effects of climate change on dozens of specific interactions. They focus on a Batesian mimicry complex involving stinging …

Thermal Structure Of The Mesopause Region During The Wadis-2 Rocket Campaign, Raimund Wörl, Boris Strelnikov, Timo P. Viehl, Josef Höffner, Pierre-Dominique Pautet, Michael J. Taylor, Yucheng Zhao, Franz-Josef Lübken

Publications

This paper presents simultaneous temperature measurements by three independent instruments during the WADIS-2 rocket campaign in northern Norway (69^◦ N, 14^◦ E) on 5 March 2015. Vertical profiles were measured in situ with the CONE instrument. Continuous mobile IAP Fe lidar (Fe lidar) measurements during a period of 24 h, as well as horizontally resolved temperature maps by the Utah State University (USU) Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) in the mesopause region, are analysed. Vertical and horizontal temperature profiles by all three instruments are in good agreement. A harmonic analysis of the Fe lidar measurements shows the presence …

Applications Of Satellite Data In Analyses Of Surface Pm2.5, Minghui Diao, Frank R. Freedman, Sen Chiao, Isa Cruz, Ana Rivera, Mohammad Z. Al-Hamdan, Akula Venkatram

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Fine particulate is among the most harmful air pollutants for human health. There is ongoing interest in developing reliable methods to estimate PM2.5 concentrations 1) at unmonitored locations and 2) at finer horizontal resolution for improved health risk assessment and public health tracking.We aim to develop an efficient system that can reliably estimate PM2.5 at unmonitored locations and at finer horizontal resolution at important locations.• MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) provides an input for particulate levels at unmonitored locations in methods used to construct regional PM2.5 fields.• Dispersion model fields can be fused into portions of these regional fields for …

Air Quality And Health Burden Of 2017 Northern California Wildfires, Susan O’Neill, Minghui Diao

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

No abstract provided.

Vintage Report 2018: North Willamette Valley, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report describes the impacts of climate and phenology on vintage for the North Willamette Valley in Oregon in 2018. A relatively mild and dry winter set the stage for a 2018 growing season that was highlighted by a cool spring, a summer with low heat stress but high drought stress along with numerous regional fires, and a glorious October. The moderately cool spring led to a late start to the growing season with an average bud break of April 17th delayed by 5-10 days compared to average. However, a warm May through August brought plant growth timing to near …

2019 January - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Irrigation Water Quality—A Contemporary Perspective, Arindam Malakar, Daniel D. Snow, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

In the race to enhance agricultural productivity, irrigation will become more dependent on poorly characterized and virtually unmonitored sources of water. Increased use of irrigation water has led to impaired water and soil quality in many areas. Historically, soil salinization and reduced crop productivity have been the primary focus of irrigation water quality. Recently, there is increasing evidence for the occurrence of geogenic contaminants in water. The appearance of trace elements and an increase in the use of wastewater has highlighted the vulnerability and complexities of the composition of irrigation water and its role in ensuring proper crop growth, and …

Data Contributing To Zuidema Et Al., 2019: "Is Summer African Dust Arriving Earlier At Barbados? The Updated Long-Term In-Situ Dust Mass Concentration Time Series From Ragged Point, Barbados And Miami, Florida”, Bulletin Of The American Meteorological Society., Paquita Zuidema

Supplementary Data and Tools

Daily-resolved time series of surface dust mass concentrations gathered at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida from 1974 through December, 2018, and at Ragged Point, Barbados, from 193 through December, 2014, and primarily May-October of 2015-2018. The data were extracted from Whatman-41 filters sampling under pumped high-flow conditions. A fuller description of the sampling, data collection and analysis procedures can be found in Zuidema et al., 2019, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0083.1). The data are available as separate files for Miami and Barbados, in both Excel and netcdf format.

North Atlantic Observed Climatological Mean Absolute Geostrophic Velocity Profiles, Tiago Carrilho Biló

Supplementary Data and Tools

North Atlantic observed climatological mean absolute geostrophic velocity components in meters per second from near the surface (pressure = 2.5 dbar) to near ocean bottom (pressure = 5562.0 dbar). The absolute velocity fields in the upper 2000 dbar of the water column were obtained by referencing an ARGO based mean geostrophic shear with mean velocity estimates at 1000 dbar between 2004-2016. The shear was derived using the so-called Roemmich-Gilson Argo climatology (Roemmich & Gilson, 2009). The referencing procedure was conducted using Argo displacement data referred to as YoMaHa'07 (Lebedev et al., 2007). For regions deeper than 2000 dbar, the velocity …

Temporal And Spatial Scaling Of Dissipation Under Non-Breaking Surface Waves, Mingming Shao, Brian K. Haus, Darek Bogucki, Mohammad Barzegar

Supplementary Data and Tools

This dataset is associated to the NSF OCE/Physical Oceanography funded project “Laboratory Investigation of Turbulence Generation by Surface Waves”. There are three papers in preparation that will refer to data contained within this archive. The overarching goal of this project was to address a significant knowledge gap regarding the turbulent dissipation of non-breaking surface waves. To accomplish this, a comprehensive study in the SUrge-STructure-Atmosphere-INteraction (SUSTAIN) wind-wave laboratory at the University of Miami was conducted. A combination of established measurement approaches (Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Vertical Microstructure Profiler (VMP)) and new technologies (Optical Turbulence Sensor (OTS)) have been used carry …

Spray Concentration Measurements From Asist For Freshwater And Seawater, Sanchit Mehta, David G. Ortiz-Suslow, Andrew W. Smith, Brian K. Haus

Supplementary Data and Tools

The size-dependent vertical distribution of spume particles in high wind conditions is necessary to understand their effect on air-sea fluxes of heat and momentum. The predominant focus of previous studies of spray dynamics has been on the marine environment. Spray dynamics in non-seawater bodies have not been extensively studied, and any significant differences between sea and freshwater remain unquantified. To address this gap, we have conducted the first laboratory experiment directly comparing spume concentrations above fresh and real seawater for 10-m equivalent wind speeds of 36-54 m/s. Droplets in the air above the intensely breaking wind-waves were directly observed and …

Assessing The Skill Of The Improved Treatment Of Riverine Freshwater In The Community Earth System Model Relative To A New Salinity Climatology, Qiang Sun, Michael M. Whitney, Frank O. Bryan, Yu-Heng Tseng

Department of Marine Sciences

Recent studies have explored the sensitivity of global ocean model simulations to the treatment of riverine freshwater and the representation of estuarine processes via an estuary box model (EBM) applied within CESM. This study builds on these efforts by assessing the model skill score relative to a new salinity climatology. The new climatology averages the original observational data of the World Ocean Database directly onto the CESM ocean-component tracer-grid cells without spatial interpolation, smoothing, or other gap-filling techniques to mitigate coastal ocean salinity bias present in the World Ocean Atlas. The mean squared error (MSE) for coastal upper ocean salinity …

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

CERCOM Reports

CERCOM monitors 115 beach locations from Brooklyn – Montauk during optimal Limulus Polyphemus breeding season. These beach surveys take place for approximately 15 weeks, ranging from MayAugust. These beach locations are marked specifically using GPS coordinates, to assure the same location is visited each year. Students and volunteers are required to attend a HSC Survey training orientation lead by CERCOM’s research assistant, Mr. Kyle Maurelli. Surveying is done around tide and moon cycles (New/Full Moon). Each site takes about 1-2 hours and data is recorded along an approximate 1 mile distance. Walking along the water’s edge the number of male …

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- January 2019, Natalie Umphlett, Rezaul Mamood, Warren Pettee, Gannon Rush, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

Year in review............................2

Drought THIRA toolkit...........3

Product highlight....................4

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Other HPRCC news.................5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

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 for dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, salinity, clarity and temperature. Students are trained and assist in CERCOM’s water quality data collection by research assistant Mr. Kyle Maurelli. This monitoring program has been conducted for the past 16 years. These parameters are critical in determining long term water quality conditions in Long Island estuaries.

Variation In Righting Times Of Holothuria Atra, Stichopus Chloronotus, And Holothuria Edulis In Response To Increased Seawater Temperatures On Heron Reef In The Southern Gbr, Elizabeth Buccheri, Matthias W. Foellmer, Beth A. Christensen, Paul Langi, Stefani Ritter, Esther Wolf, Aaren S. Freeman

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Sea cucumbers can mitigate some impacts of climate change through digestion of benthic sands and production of calcium carbonate. The projected ecological benefits of sea cucumbers in warmer, more acidic oceans are contingent on the capacities of individuals to acclimate and populations to adapt to climatic changes. The goal of this experiment was to evaluate the degree to which warming waters would impact three abundant species of sea cucumbers on the Heron Reef in Queensland, Australia. We conducted a behavioral assay using three species of sea cucumbers, Holothuria atra, Stichopus chloronotus, and Holothuria edulis. Individuals from each species were subjected …

Meteorological Comparison Of Three Cave Systems, Matthew Wine

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Cave systems are home to delicate underground ecosystems that can be affected by changes in surface atmospheric conditions which in turn affect underground meteorology. Modern human use of caves is typically for tourism, so understanding surface-underground weather-climate interactions is important when caves carry streams that are prone to flooding in response to surface precipitation. The purpose of this research is to document the effects of surface weather conditions on cave meteorology in three different cave system types located in different geographic locations including an island, the central USA, and at high elevations in British Columbia. The study caves include Kaumana …

Ua66/8/2 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Geography & Geology Centers & Institutes, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Centers and Institutes administered by the Geography & Geology Department. Including:

• Center for Cave & Karst Studies
• Center for Local Government Services
• Hoffman Environmental Research Institute
• Kentucky Climate Center
• Resources Management Institute
• Small Public Water System Technology Center