Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Turbulence Measurement In The Atmospheric Boundary Layer Using Cellular Telephone Signals, Lee R. Burchett

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated a new method for measuring the intensity of turbulence in the planetary boundary layer that shows a high correlation with measurements from weather radar. The method takes measurements of cell phone signal strength and uses scintillation in the signal to estimate the strength of local turbulence. Using cell phone signals provides unique measurement advantages: it is a passive measurement method, it is not strongly affected by precipitation, and one device can potentially measure several paths at once. The measurements were taken using an Android® cell phone running a custom built application. The strength of turbulence was quantified …

Connecting Subseasonal Movements Of The Winter Mean Ridge In Western North America To Inversion Climatology In Cache Valley, Utah, Shi-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert R. Gillies, Randy Martin, Robert E. Davies, Marty R. Booth

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

A 10-yr record of PM2.5 (particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm), collected in Cache Valley near downtown Logan, Utah, reveals a strong peak in the PM2.5 concentration climatology that is tightly localized in mid-January. The cause of this subseasonal variation in the PM2.5 climatology is investigated through dynamical downscaling and large-scale diagnostics. Climatological analysis of the U.S. winter mean ridge reveals a mid-January subseasonal shift in the zonal direction, likely in response to variations in the Rossby wave source over the central North Pacific Ocean. This displacement of the winter mean ridge, in turn, has an impact on …

Evidence For Viral Infection In The Copepods Labidocera Aestiva And Acartia Tonsa In Tampa Bay, Florida, Darren Stephenson Dunlap

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mesozooplankton are of critical importance to marine food webs by transferring energy from the microbial food web to higher trophic levels and depositing energy to the deeper ocean layers through fecal deposition. While decades of research have shown that viruses have significant impacts in the oceans, and infect a wide range of organisms from bacteria to whales, there is still little known about the impacts of viruses on the mesozooplankton community. As copepods are the most abundant mesozooplankton group, this study sought to characterize the viruses present in natural populations of the calanoid copepods Acartia tonsa and Labidocera aestiva in …

Extracting More Data From Lidar In Forested Areas By Analyzing Waveform Shape, Thomas Adams, Peter Beets, Christopher Parrish

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) in forested areas is used for constructing Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), estimating biomass carbon and timber volume and estimating foliage distribution as an indicator of tree growth and health. All of these purposes are hindered by the inability to distinguish the source of returns as foliage, stems, understorey and the ground except by their relative positions. The ability to separate these returns would improve all analyses significantly. Furthermore, waveform metrics providing information on foliage density could improve forest health and growth estimates. In this study, the potential to use waveform LiDAR was investigated. Aerial waveform …

Ice Supersaturation And Cirrus Clouds In Hippo Global Campaign #1-5, Minghui Diao, Mark Zondlo

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

No abstract available.

03 Characteristics Of The Quasi-16 Day Wave In The Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere (Mlt): A Review Over An Equatorial Station Thumba (8.50n, 76.50e), Siddarth Shankar Das

Modern Climatology

To understand the climate variability and weather prediction in the Earth’s atmosphere, measurements of winds, temperature and wave activities are very crucial. The Earth’s atmosphere is believed to act as a source and sink for the waves of a broader spectrum with periods from few seconds to years. Generally, the Earth’s atmosphere is stably stratified except the planetary boundary layer and thus makes a reasonable assumption for the presence of atmospheric waves. A barotropic atmosphere in a resting basic state is able to support these spectra of waves. These waves move diagonally upward or downward and horizontally. The mean zonal …

An Ecological Assessment Of A Juvenile Estuarine Sportfish, Common Snook (Centropomus Undecimalis), In A Tidal Tributary Of Tampa Bay, Florida, Adam Benjamin Brame

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, is an estuarine dependent sport fish that relies upon subtidal wetlands as nursery habitat. Despite the economic and recreational significance of this species, there are portions of its life history and biology that are poorly understood, particularly its early life history. Understanding juvenile snook use of wetland habitats is crucial given the rapid loss and degradation of these areas to anthropogenic impacts. Young-of-the-year snook were collected in pond and creek habitats of a single wetland system to assess early life ecology and habitat use. Proxies of habitat quality were used to determine which habitats …

Tracing The Transport Of Colored Dissolved Organic Matter In Water Masses Of The Southern Beaufort Sea: Relationship With Hydrographic Characteristics, A. Matsuoka, A. Bricaud, Ronald Benner, J. Para, R. Sempéré, L. Prieur, S. Bélanger, M. Babin

Faculty Publications

Light absorption by colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) [aCDOM(λ)] plays an important role in the heat budget of the Arctic Ocean, contributing to the recent decline in sea ice, as well as in biogeochemical processes. We investigated aCDOM(λ) in the Southern Beaufort Sea where a significant amount of CDOM is delivered by the Mackenzie River. In the surface layer, aCDOM(440) showed a strong and negative correlation with salinity, indicating strong river influence and conservative transport in the river plume. Below the mixed layer, a weak but positive correlation between aCDOM(440) and salinity was observed above the upper halocline, resulting from …

01 Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Climatology, Yuriy Kuleshov

Modern Climatology

Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Climatology:

Each year, around 80 tropical cyclones (TCs) form around the world, with about one-third of them in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) (Gray, 1979). Tropical cyclones within the South Indian Ocean (SIO) and the South Pacific Ocean (SPO) are frequent and intense, and they dramatically affect maritime navigation and the lives of communities in coastal areas. Australia and the island nations are affected each year by TCs. In extreme cases they can have devastating consequences on life, property and the economic well-being of the communities directly affected and the country as a whole, as in the …

Unveiling Assigned Amount Unit (Aau) Trades: Current Market Impacts And Prospects For The Future, Elizabeth Lokey Aldrich, Cassandra L. Koerner

CAES Energy Policy Institute Faculty Publications and Presentations

The sale of assigned amount units (AAUs) from countries whose emissions have declined since their baseline year under the Kyoto Protocol has led critics to be skeptical of carbon markets due to the lack of actual emission reductions that occur as a result of these trades. This policy review describes the historical context of AAU trading, current market price and volumes, and environmental and economic impacts of the current AAU trading rules. Options for how to handle current, and prevent the creation of future, surplus AAUs are discussed.

Evaluating Modeled Intra- To Multidecadal Climate Variability Using Running Mann–Whitney Z Statistics, Steven A. Mauget, Eugene C. Cordero, Patrick T. Brown

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

An analysis method previously used to detect observed intra- to multidecadal (IMD) climate regimes was adapted to compare observed and modeled IMD climate variations. Pending the availability of the more appropriate phase 5 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP-5) simulations, the method is demonstrated using CMIP-3 model simulations. Although the CMIP-3 experimental design will almost certainly prevent these model runs from reproducing features of historical IMD climate variability, these simulations allow for the demonstration of the method and illustrate how the models and observations disagree. This method samples a time series’s data rankings over moving time windows, converts those ranking sets …

12 On The Relationship Between Boundary Layer Convergence And Cloud-To-Ground Lightning, Michael L. Gauthier

Modern Climatology

It is generally accepted that significant electrification, and subsequent lightning generation, in clouds is attained via non-inductive charging (NIC) when sufficient numbers of ice crystals collide with graupel particles in the presence of supercooled liquid water [e.g. Saunders et al., 1991; Jayaratne et al., 1983; Takahashi, 1978]. As these particle scale interactions are driven by vertical motions it can be argued that, under appropriate thermodynamical and microphysical conditions, any process that enhances updraft strength should also enhance the storms ability to generate lightning. Constrained by mass continuity, updrafts leading to deep moist convection are necessarily associated with sub-cloud horizontal mass …

Application Of A Mini-Unmanned Aircraft System For In Situ Monitoring Of Fire Plume Thermodynamics Properties, Caroline Keifer, Craig Clements, Brian Potter

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Direct measurements of wildland fire plume properties are rare because of difficult access to regions near the fire front and plume. Moisture released from combustion, in addition to added heat, can enhance buoyancy and convection, influencing fire behavior. In this study, a mini unmanned aircraft system (miniUAS) was used to obtain in situ measurements of temperature and relative humidity during a prescribed fire. The miniUAS was successfully maneuvered through the plume and its associated turbulence and provided observations of temperature and humidity profiles from near the centerline of the plume. Within the plume, the water vapor mixing ratio increased by …

14 Rainfall Prediction Using Teleconnection Patterns Through The Application Of Artificial Neural Networks, Gholam Abbas Fallah-Ghalhari

Modern Climatology

All aspects of human life are, directly or indirectly, affected by climatic processes. This effect is especially noticeable in such fields as agriculture, irrigation, economy, telecommunications, transportation, traffic, air pollution and military industries (Haltiner & Williams 1980). A number of researchers have studied the possibility of forecasting rainfall several months in advance using climate indices such as SOI, PDOI and NPI (e.g. Silverman and Dracup 2000). A well-known atmospheric phenomenon is the Southern Oscillation (SO). The SO is an atmospheric see-saw process in the tropical Pacific sea level pressure between the eastern and western hemispheres associated with the El Niño …

13 Synthesizing High-Resolution Climatological Wind Fields With A Mesoscale Atmospheric Boundary Layer Model Forced With Local Weather Observations, Guillermo J. Berri

Modern Climatology

The region of the La Plata River in southeastern South America (see Fig. 1) concentrates important economic and social activities since one third of the population of Argentina and more than one half the population of Uruguay live there. Large urban complexes, different commercial activities and important industries are located along its shores. In addition, the La Plata River and its tributary the Paraná River are main ship tracks with some of the largest ports of the southern cone of South America. Therefore, the region is of vital importance for the two countries. The La Plata River is a large …

10 Cenozoic Climatic Record For Monsoonal Rainfall Over The Indian Region, Mohan Kuppusamy, Prosenjit Ghosh

Modern Climatology

Atmospheric carbon dioxide level is one of the major drivers responsible for the global temperature change (Lacis et al., 2010). The role of carbon dioxide as an important greenhouse gas, and its contribution towards regulation of global surface temperature has been recognized for over a century (Arrhenius, 1896; Chamberlin, 1899; Royer, 2006). The ice core records along with other proxy based records provides an evidence signifying a strong coupling between CO2 and global temperature for at least the last ~65 m.y. (million years) (Petit et al., 1999; Siegenthaler et al., 2005, Zachos et al., 2001). The intensification of convective hydrological …

09 Paleotempestology: Reconstructing Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Tracks In The Pre-Hurdat Era, Jill S.M. Coleman, Steven A. Lavoie

Modern Climatology

The study of past tropical cyclone activity by means of geological proxies and/or historical documentary records is known as paleotempestology. This scientific discipline has become prominent over the course of the last decade partially in response to the recent increase in tropical cyclone count and intensity in the North Atlantic basin witnessed since 1995. The field has also developed due to the socioeconomic impacts of tropical cyclones particularly along vulnerable coastal regions. During the twenty-five years prior to the start of the most recent increase in hurricane activity, major (Category 3, 4, or 5) hurricanes were less frequent than in …

08 Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Sea Surface Temperature In The Yellow Sea And East China Sea Over The Past 141 Years, Daji Huang, Xiaobo Ni, Qisheng Tang, Xiaohua Zhu, Dongfeng Xu

Modern Climatology

The Yellow Sea and East China Sea (YES) are marginal seas in the northwest Pacific. There is in fact a smaller sea, the Bohai Sea, to the north of the Yellow Sea. For most discussions in the chapter, we shall treat the Bohai Sea as part of the Yellow Sea. The YES is one of the mostly intensively utilized sea in the world, for example, heavy fishery and marine aquaculture. The use of the YES is closely related to its climate variability, though it is not well-know because until now there has been a lack of adequate observational data. To …

07 Climatology Of The Northern-Central Adriatic Sea, Aniello Russo, Sandro Carniel, Mauro Sclavo, Maja Krzelj

Modern Climatology

It is well know that the ocean processes exert a great influence on global climate as well as affect the local climate of coastal areas (Russo et al., 2002). Within the Mediterranean region (see Fig. 1a), the presence of the Adriatic Sea influences the atmospheric properties of the surrounding regions over long and short time-scales, and has obviously a relevant influence on human activities and ecosystems (Boldrin et al., 2009).

06 Climatology Of The U.S. Inter-Mountain West, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert R. Gillies

Modern Climatology

The Inter-Mountain West (IMW) of North America is a region that lies between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the west (Fig. 1). The climate of the IMW is generally semi-arid but this varies by location and elevation. An estimated 50- 80% of the IMW’s streams and rivers are fed by mountain snowpack (Marks and Winstral 2001), while the majority of the streams and rivers flow into desert sinks or closed-basin lakes such as the Great Salt Lake (Fig. 1). These streams and rivers create some agriculturally productive areas in the otherwise dry …

05 The South American Monsoon System: Climatology And Variability, Viviane B.S. Silva, Vernon E. Kousky

Modern Climatology

A typical Monsoon System is characterized by a reversal in the low-level wind direction between summer and winter seasons, and distinct wet (summer) and dry (winter) periods. The changes in low-level atmospheric circulation are related to changes in the thermal contrast between oceans and continents. During summer, the air over continents is warmer and more convectively unstable than air over adjacent oceanic regions. Consequently, lower pressure occurs over land and higher pressure occurs over nearby oceanic areas. This pressure pattern causes low-level moist air to converge onto the land, resulting in precipitation, especially during the late afternoon and evening hours. …

04 Thunderstorm And Lightning Climatology Of Australia, Yuriy Kuleshov

Modern Climatology

Thunderstorms are spectacular but hazardous weather phenomena and the associated lightning and wind gusts can be very hazardous to people, buildings, and industry and utility assets. The thunderstorm hazards in Australia are in most respects similar to those in other countries, but some are worthy of special comment. In some instances, the effects of lightning initiated bushfires are so extreme that they are classified as natural disasters. The wildfires started by lightning are known locally in Australia as bushfire and grass fires, and these can cause extensive damage and loss of life. The ignition is caused by the lightning current …

02 Indian Monsoon Depression: Climatology And Variability, Jin-Ho Yoon, Wan-Ru Huang

Modern Climatology

The monsoon climate is traditionally characterized by large amount of seasonal rainfall and reversal of wind direction (e.g., Krishnamurti 1979). Most importantly this rainfall is the major source of fresh water to various human activities such as agriculture. The Indian subcontinent resides at the core of the Southeast Asian summer monsoon system with the monsoon trough extended from northern India across Indochina to the Western Tropical Pacific (WTP). Large fraction of annual rainfall occurs during the summer monsoon season, i.e., June – August1, with two distinct maxima. One is located over the Bay of Bengal with rainfall extending northwestward into …

Modern Climatology - Full Text, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert R. Gillies

Modern Climatology

Climatology, the study of climate, is no longer regarded as a single discipline that treats climate as something that fluctuates only within the unchanging boundaries described by historical statistics. The field has recognized that climate is something that changes continually under the influence of physical and biological forces and so, cannot be understood in isolation but rather, is one that includes diverse scientific disciplines that play their role in understanding a highly complex coupled “whole system” that is the Earth’s climate. The modern era of climatology is echoed in this book. On the one hand it offers a broad synoptic …

11 Climate Change: Is It More Predictable Than We Think?, Rafail V. Abramov

Modern Climatology

The global climate systemties togethermany physical variables, such as flow velocity, density, pressure, temperature, to name a few. The core equations of the climate system are the primitive evolution equations of the atmosphere and ocean (Lions et al., 1992a;b; 1993a;b; 1995; Majda, 2003), which directly involve the flow velocity (or, alternatively, streamfunction and vorticity), density and pressure. To incorporate the effects of other relevant physical processes which supply the energy to or draw it from the motion of the flow, the primitive equations are coupled to other physical processes through temperature, water vapor, ocean surface pressure, and other variables. The …

Multi-Decadal Drought Cycles In The Great Basin Recorded By The Great Salt Lake: Modulation From A Transition-Phase Teleconnection, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert R. Gillies, Thomas Reichler

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

This study investigates the meteorological conditions associated with multidecadal drought cycles as revealed by lake level fluctuation of the Great Salt Lake (GSL). The analysis combined instrumental, proxy, and simulation datasets, including the Twentieth Century Reanalysis version 2, the North American Drought Atlas, and a 2000-yr control simulation of the GFDL Coupled Model, version 2.1 (CM2.1). Statistical evidence from the spectral coherence analysis points to a phase shift amounting to 6–9 yr between the wet–dry cycles in the Great Basin and the warm–cool phases of the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO). Diagnoses of the sea surface temperature and atmospheric …

Coral Recruitment To Two Vessel Grounding Sites Off Southeast Florida, Usa, Alison L. Moulding, Vladimir N. Kosmynin, David S. Gilliam

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Over the last two decades, more than 10 major vessel groundings have occurred on coral reefs offshore southeast Florida. Lack of any published information on coral settlement, post-settlement survival, and juvenile coral growth in the southeast Florida region inhibits efforts to determine if coral populations will be able to effectively re-establish themselves. The goal of this study was to examine these processes to obtain background data needed to determine the potential for natural recovery. Over a three year period annual coral recruitment, juvenile growth, and mortality rates were measured in 20 permanent quadrats at each of two ship grounding and …

A Retrospective Analysis Of Sustainable Oyster Harvest From The Louisiana State Primary Seed Grounds, 1999-2010: A Shell-Neutral Modeling Approach, Thomas M. Soniat, Mahdi Abdelguerfi, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Eileen E. Hofmann, Shengru Tu, Nathan Cooper, Janak Dahal, John Finigan, Benjamin S. Eberline, Jerome F. La Peyre, Megan K. La Peyre, Keith B. Ibos, Brian Lezina, Patrick Banks

CCPO Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Variations Of Hdo And Hdo/H2o Ratios In The Upper Troposphere And Lower Stratosphere Derived From Ace-Fts Satellite Measurements, William J. Randel, Elisabeth Moyer, Mijeong Park, Eric Jensen, Peter Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

High-quality satellite observations of water and deuterated water in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) are used to map global climatological behavior. Spatial and temporal variability in these data suggest that convection plays a significant role in setting water vapor isotopic composition in these regions. In many instances, enhancements in HDO/H₂O (i.e., δD) are closely tied to patterns of climatological deep convection and uncorrelated with water vapor, although convection appears to have different isotopic effects in different locations. The ACE-FTS data reveal seasonal variations in the tropics …

The Response Of Calcareous Nannofossil Communities To Environmental Variation During The Late Middle Eocene At Blake Nose, Western North Atlantic, Odp Leg 171b, Johnathon P. Kell

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

Ocean Drilling Program Leg 171B Hole 1051B penetrated a continuous sequence of upper middle Eocene pelagic sediment dominated by rich calcareous nannofossil assemblages. Samples were taken at 10 cm spacing from a 20.2 meter section of the upper middle Eocene. This interval of pelagic sediment had previously been interpreted to represent ~500ky. Our revised age model, using additional data, indicates this section represents ~842ky.

The Eocene Epoch was characterized by one of the most dramatic climatic transitions in the last 65 my, changing the greenhouse earth of the early Eocene to the icehouse world of early Oligocene. Here changes in …