Atmospheric Sciences Commons^™

Validating And Highlighting The Advantages Of The Optimal Estimation Method For Rayleigh Lidar Middle Atmospheric Temperature Retrievals, Ali Jalali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

An improved understanding of temperature variations in Earth’s middle atmosphere is important for the improvement of our understanding of climate and weather on the surface. The optimal estimation method (OEM) is an inversion modeling approach, which uses regularized nonlinear regression to retrieve, in this case, the temperature of Earth’s middle atmosphere using Rayleigh-scatter lidar measurements. The OEM regularization term is the a priori knowledge of the atmospheric temperature profile. In this thesis I use lidar temperatures in the altitude range 30–110km to construct a temperature climatology using over 500 nights of measurements obtained by the Purple Crow Lidar in London, …

Coupling Between Land–Ocean–Atmosphere And Pronounced Changes In Atmospheric/Meteorological Parameters Associated With The Hudhud Cyclone Of October 2014, Akshansa Chauhan, Rajesh Kumar, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

India is vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards associated with land, ocean, biosphere, atmosphere, and snow/glaciers. These natural hazards impact large areas and the population living in the affected regions. India is surrounded by ocean on three sides and is vulnerable to cyclonic activities. Every year cyclones hit the east and west coasts of India, affecting the population living along the coasts and infrastructure and inland areas. The extent of the affected inland areas depends on the intensity of the cyclone. On 12 October 2014, a strong cyclone “Hudhud” hit the east coast of India that caused a high …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2018, Natalie A. Umphlett

HPRCC Personnel Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Mountain Snowpack

Water Resources and Drought

Agriculture

Temperature

Precipitation

Multidecadal Variability In Climate Models And Observations, Alex Carl Oser

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change attribution and prediction using state-of-the-art models continue to garner an ever-growing focus amongst both the scientific community and public alike. Recent analyses showing discrepancies in the structure of modeled and observed decadal climate variability (DCV), therefore, have engendered efforts to not only diagnose the dynamics underpinning observed DCV, but also to characterize the behavior of DCV within climate models. In this thesis, we employ Multichannel Singular Spectrum Analysis (M-SSA) to show that while the DCV signal in observations is best described as a coherent oscillation with complex propagation across the globe, modeled DCV lacks this structure altogether. Specifically, …

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper: Remote Sensing Of The Nighttime Oh Layer During The Deepwave Campaign, Pattilyn Mclaughlin

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper [AMTM] is a remote sensing instrument developed at Utah State University to map temperature structures in the hydroxyl airglow emission at ~87 km. These maps can then be used to quantify wave field characteristics and to observe general climatology trends. Two recent campaigns that it has been involved with are the DEEPWAVE campaign in Lauder, New Zealand and the Super Soaker campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment, “DEEPWAVE” was an international measurement and modeling program intended to characterize the generation and propagation of a broad range of atmospheric gravity waves with …

Methanogens, Plausible Extraterrestrial Life Forms On Mars, And Their Tolerance To Increasing Concentrations Of Illite Clay, Chandler Kern

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Methanogens, some of Earth’s most primitive prokaryotic organisms, are candidates for possible life forms capable of inhabiting Mars. Specifically, four different species (Methanobacterium formicicum, Methanococcus maripaludis, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanothermobacter wolfeii) were analyzed for their tolerance to the presence of illite clay. Illite is a crystalline mineral that has been identified from regions of Mars’s surface. Results indicated that all four species grew with some success in the illite at different concentrations. This experimentation with methanogens’ abilities to survive and reproduce in the presence of illite allows for a more accurate understanding of the potential capability of microbial …

Earth-Observation-Based Estimation And Forecasting Of Particulate Matter Impact On Solar Energy In Egypt, Panagiotis G. Kosmopoulos, Stelios Kazadzis, Hesham El-Askary, Michael Taylor, Antonis Gkikas, Emmanouil Proestakis, Charalampos Kontoes, Mohamed Mostafa El-Khayat

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This study estimates the impact of dust aerosols on surface solar radiation and solar energy in Egypt based on Earth Observation (EO) related techniques. For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of monthly mean and daily post processed satellite remote sensing observations from theMODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), radiative transfer model (RTM) simulations utilizing machine learning, in conjunction with 1-day forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). As cloudy conditions in this region are rare, aerosols in particular dust, are the most common sources of solar irradiance attenuation, causing performance issues in the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power …

Impacts Of Pacific Ssts On Atmospheric Circulations Leading To California Winter Precipitation Variability: A Diagnostic Modeling, Boksoon Myoung, Sang-Wook Yeh, Jinwon Kim, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

One of the primary meteorological causes of the winter precipitation deficits and droughts in California (CA) is anomalous developments and maintenance of upper-tropospheric ridges over the northeastern Pacific. In order to understand and find the key factors controlling the winter precipitation variability in CA, the present study examines two dominant atmospheric modes of the 500 hPa geopotential height in the Northern Hemisphere using an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) and their associated large-scale circulation patterns for the last 41 winters (1974/75–2014/15). Explaining 17.5% of variability, the second mode (EOF2) shows strong anti-cyclonic circulations in the North Pacific and cyclonic circulations in …

Water, Energy, And Carbon Footprints Of Bioethanol From The U.S. And Brazil, Mesfin Mekonnen, Thiago L. Romanelli, Chittaranjan Ray, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Adam Liska, Christopher M. U. Neale

Adam Liska Papers

Driven by biofuel policies, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase domestic energy supply, global production and consumption of bioethanol have doubled between 2007 and 2016, with rapid growth in corn-based bioethanol in the U.S. and sugar cane-based bioethanol in Brazil. Advances in crop yields, energy use efficiency in fertilizer production, biomass-to-ethanol conversion rates, and energy efficiency in ethanol production have improved the energy balance and GHG emission reduction potential of bioethanol. In the current study, the water, energy, and carbon footprints of bioethanol from corn in the U.S. and sugar cane in Brazil were assessed. The …

Fine-Scale Droplet Clustering In Atmospheric Clouds: 3d Radial Distribution Function From Airborne Digital Holography, Michael L. Larsen, Raymond Shaw, Alexander Kostinski, Susanne Glienke

Department of Physics Publications

The extent of droplet clustering in turbulent clouds has remained largely unquantified, and yet is of possible relevance to precipitation formation and radiative transfer. To that end, data gathered by an airborne holographic instrument are used to explore the three-dimensional spatial statistics of cloud droplet positions in homogeneous stratiform boundary-layer clouds. The three-dimensional radial distribution functions g(r) reveal unambiguous evidence of droplet clustering. Three key theoretical predictions are observed: the existence of positive correlations, onset of correlation in the turbulence dissipation range, and monotonic increase of g(r) with decreasing r. This implies that current theory captures the essential processes contributing …

Observations Of Reduced Turbulence And Wave Activity In The Arctic Middle Atmosphere Following The January 2015 Sudden Stratospheric Warming, Colin C. Triplett, Aroh Barjatya, Jintai Li, Richard L. Collins, Gerald A. Lehmacher, David C. Fritts, Boris Strelnikov, Franz-Josef Lübken, Brentha Thurairajah, V. Lynn Harvey, Donald L. Hampton, Roger H. Varney

Publications

Measurements of turbulence and waves were made as part of the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (MTeX) on the night of 25–26 January 2015 at Poker Flat Research Range, Chatanika, Alaska (65°N, 147°W). Rocket-borne ionization gauge measurements revealed turbulence in the 70- to 88-km altitude region with energy dissipation rates between 0.1 and 24 mW/kg with an average value of 2.6 mW/kg. The eddy diffusion coefficient varied between 0.3 and 134 m²/s with an average value of 10 m²/s. Turbulence was detected around mesospheric inversion layers (MILs) in both the topside and bottomside of the MILs. These …

Elevated Black Carbon Concentrations And Atmospheric Pollution Around Singrauli Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (India) Using Ground And Satellite Data, Ramesh Singh, Sarvan Kumar, Abhay K. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The tropospheric NO₂ concentration from OMI AURA always shows high concentrations of NO₂ at a few locations in India, one of the high concentrations of NO2 hotspots is associated with the locations of seven coal-fired Thermal Power plants (TPPs) in Singrauli. Emissions from TPPs are among the major sources of black carbon (BC) soot in the atmosphere. Knowledge of BC emissions from TPPs is important in characterizing regional carbonaceous particulate emissions, understanding the fog/haze/smog formation, evaluating regional climate forcing, modeling aerosol optical parameters and concentrations of black carbon, and evaluating human health. Furthermore, elevated BC concentrations, over the …

Quantification Of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Effects On The Microphysical Structure Of Continental Thunderstorms Using Polarimetric Radar Observations, Kun-Yuan Lee

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

Aerosols serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are crucial to the microphysical structure of thunderstorms. They can also alter the rate of cloud microphysical processes, the moisture profile and the local temperature as a result of latent heating/cooling in the early stage of thunderstorm development. Continental thunderstorms are characterized by high complexity and are highly influenced by environmental conditions. The purpose of this study is to determine the influences of CCN concentration on the microphysics of continental thunderstorms, using a sample of storms from northwestern Oklahoma. The Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) at Vance Air Force Base (KVNX) was upgraded …

The Nebraska Mesonet: Technical Overview Of An Automated State Weather Network, Martha Shulski, Stonie Cooper, Glen Roebke, Allen L. Dutcher

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Nebraska Mesonet was established in 1981 as one of the nation’s first automated state weather networks. ‘‘Automated’’ is defined by the nature of the observations being made and recorded by machine, as opposed to observations made and recorded manually. At the time of inception, the five observing locations were geared toward servicing agricultural production applications. The Nebraska Mesonet has grown to 69 stations (as of 2018) and is now a multipurpose environmental observing network under the Nebraska State Climate Office (NSCO). The network is composed of environmental observation stations, sited using best practices for mesoscale and microscale environment situations. …

Short-Term Wind Speed Forecasting Via Stacked Extreme Learning Machine With Generalized Correntropy, Xiong Luo, Jiankun Sun, Long Wang, Weiping Wang, Wenbing Zhao, Jinsong Wu, Jenq-Haur Wang, Zijun Zhang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Recently, wind speed forecasting as an effective computing technique plays an important role in advancing industry informatics, while dealing with these issues of control and operation for renewable power systems. However, it is facing some increasing difficulties to handle the large-scale dataset generated in these forecasting applications, with the purpose of ensuring stable computing performance. In response to such limitation, this paper proposes a more practical approach through the combination of extreme-learning machine (ELM) method and deep-learning model. ELM is a novel computing paradigm that enables the neural network (NN) based learning to be achieved with fast training speed and …

A Statistical Analysis Of Steve, Bea Gallardo‐Lacourt, Y. Nishimura, E. Donovan, G. W. Gillies, W. E. Archer, Omar A. Nava, E. L. Spanswick

Faculty Publications

There has been an exciting recent development in auroral research associated with the discovery of a new subauroral phenomenon called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). Although STEVE has been documented by amateur night sky watchers for decades, it is as yet an unidentified upper atmosphere phenomenon. Observed first by amateur auroral photographers, STEVE appears as a narrow luminous structure across the night sky over thousands of kilometers in the east‐west direction. In this paper, we present the first statistical analysis of the properties of 28 STEVE events identified using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) …

On The Existence Of Ionospheric Feedback Instability In The Earth’S Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System, Anatoly V. Streltsov, Evgeny V. Mishin

Publications

The ionospheric feedback instability (IFI) has been considered one of the main generation mechanisms for large-amplitude ultralow frequency waves and small-scale field-aligned currents in the auroral and subauroral regions for more than 40 years. Sydorenko and Rankin (2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073415) have recently challenged the very existence of the IFI for any realistic geophysical conditions in the Earth's ionosphere-magnetosphere system. Because this conclusion contradicts numerous theoretical, numerical, and experimental works successfully used IFI to explain and predict results from observations for more than four decades, it deserves special attention. We show that this conclusion is mainly based on the specific ionospheric …

On The Asymmetry Between Upward And Downward Field-Aligned Currents Interacting With The Ionosphere, A. V. Streltsov

Publications

The paper presents results from the numerical study of the magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions driven by the large-scale electric field in the magnetically conjugate, high-latitude regions of northern and southern hemispheres. Simulations of the two-fluid MHD model demonstrate that these interactions can lead to a generation of a system of small-scale, intense field-aligned currents with a significant difference in size and amplitude between the upward and downward currents. In particular, in both hemispheres, the downward currents (where the electrons are flowing from the ionosphere) become more narrow and intense than the adjacent upward currents. At high latitudes, the field-aligned currents are closely …

Mulholland Leading Volunteer Effort To "Measure The Muck" In Chesapeake Bay Oct. 27, News @ Odu

News Items

No abstract provided.

Eddy Flux Measurements Of Sulfur Dioxide Deposition To The Sea Surface, Jack G. Porter, Warren J. De Bruyn, Eric S. Saltzman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Deposition to the sea surface is a major atmospheric loss pathway for many important trace gases, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2). The air–sea transfer of SO2 is controlled entirely on the atmospheric side of the air–sea interface due to high effective solubility and other physical– chemical properties. There have been few direct field measurements of such fluxes due to the challenges associated with making fast-response measurements of highly soluble trace gases at very low ambient levels. In this study, we report direct eddy covariance air–sea flux measurements of SO2, sensible heat, water vapor, and momentum. The measurements were made over …

Turbulence Induced Cloud Voids: Observation And Interpretation, Katarzyna Karpinska, Jonathan F. E. Bodenschatz, Szymon P. Malinowski, Jakub L. Nowak, Steffen Risius, Tina Schmeissner, Raymond Shaw, Holger Siebert, Hengdong Xi, Haitao Xu, Eberhard Bodenschatz

Department of Physics Publications

The phenomenon of cloud voids, i.e., elongated volumes inside a cloud that are devoid of droplets, was observed with laser sheet photography in clouds at a mountain-top station. Two experimental cases, similar in turbulence conditions yet with diverse droplet size distributions and cloud void prevalence, are reported. A theoretical explanation is proposed based on the study of heavy inertial sedimenting particles inside a Burgers vortex. A general conclusion regarding void appearance is drawn from theoretical analysis. Numerical simulations of polydisperse droplet motion with realistic vortex parameters and Mie scattering visual effects accounted for can explain the presence of voids with …

Estimation Of Atmospheric Turbulence Using Differential Motion Of Extended Features In Time-Lapse Imagery, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Jack E. Mccrae, Christopher A. Rice, Ryan A. Wood, Conner E. Murphy, Steven T. Fiorino

Faculty Publications

We address the design, development, and testing of a pointer/tracker as a probe beam for the purpose of making high-speed, aero-optical measurements of the flow over a scaled beam director turret. The tracker uses retro-reflection of the probe beam off of a Reflexite annulus surrounding the turret. The constraints of the design required a near-total-commercial off the shelf system that could be quickly installed and removed in a rented aircraft. Baseline measurements of environmental vibrations are used to predict pointing performance; mitigation of line-of-sight jitter on the probe beam is achieved through passive isolation and the design of relay optics. …

October Science Pub: Using Technology To Map The Effects Of Sea Level Rise, Amy Matzke-Fawcett

News Items

No abstract provided.

Molecular And Physical Characteristics Of Aerosol At A Remote Free Troposphere Site: Implications For Atmospheric Aging, Simeon Schum, Bo Zhang, Katja Džepina, Paolo Fialho, Claudio Mazzoleni, Lynn Mazzoleni

Department of Chemistry Publications

Aerosol properties are transformed by atmospheric processes during long-range transport and play a key role in the Earth's radiative balance. To understand the molecular and physical characteristics of free tropospheric aerosol, we studied samples collected at the Pico Mountain Observatory in the North Atlantic. The observatory is located in the marine free troposphere at 2225m above sea level, on Pico Island in the Azores archipelago. The site is ideal for the study of long-range-transported free tropospheric aerosol with minimal local influence. Three aerosol samples with elevated organic carbon concentrations were selected for detailed analysis. FLEXPART retroplumes indicated that two of …

Visualizing Extreme Precipitation For Climate Storytelling, Rachel Phinney

Honors Theses

Precipitation can have adverse effects in the climate ecosystem. Too much can impose concerns such as flooding and landslides, resulting in damaged property, agricultural losses, and loss of life. Too little, and drought becomes an issue, inducing wildfires, poor air quality, agricultural losses, and health degradation. The contiguous United States has experienced an increase in precipitation since 1900, and much of this has occurred in the most recent decades. By the end of the 21st Century, it is expected that more winter and spring precipitation will occur over the northern portion of the U.S., and less in the southwest. While …

Droughtscape- 2018 Fall, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Contents

From the director.............. 2

Drought greatly improves in Southern Plains and South............. 3

Texas, Missouri, and Colorado logged late-summer impacts.............. 5

Memory, remote sensing and a new research methodology............. 8

Navigating the U.S. Drought Monitor......... 9

Planners discuss the barriers to effective drought mitigation planning............ 12

Exploring climate issues from a county management perspective.............. 13

Strategic Framework for Drought Risk Management and Enhancing Resilience in Africa..................... 14

Mena global policy forum looks from data to mitigation............. 15

About us............17

State-by-state drought classification table developed by NDMC graduate student........19

Overcoming Early Career Barriers To Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research, Christopher J. Hein, John E. Ten Hoeve, Sathya Gopalakrishnan, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Climate-change impacts are among the most serious and complex challenges facing society, affecting both natural and social systems. Addressing these requires a new paradigm of interdisciplinary collaboration which incorporates tools, techniques, and insights from across the social, natural, and engineering sciences. Yet, a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic hurdles need to be overcome to conduct successful, integrated interdisciplinary research. The results of a bibliometric analysis and survey of early to mid-career scientists from 56 countries who were involved with the interdisciplinary DISsertations initiative for the advancement of Climate Change ReSearch (DISCCRS) emphasize the particular challenges faced by early career …

Dispersion Aerosol Indirect Effect In Turbulent Clouds: Laboratory Measurements Of Effective Radius, K. K. Chandrakar, Will Cantrell, A. Kostinski, Raymond Shaw

Department of Physics Publications

Cloud optical properties are determined not only by the number density n_d and mean radius ṝ of cloud droplets but also by the shape of the droplet size distribution. The change in cloud optical depth with changing n_d, due to the change in distribution shape, is known as the dispersion effect. Droplet relative dispersion is defined as d=σ_r / ṝ . For the first time, a commonly used effective radius parameterization is tested in a controlled laboratory environment by creating a turbulent cloud. Stochastic condensation growth suggests d independent of n_d for a nonprecipitating cloud, …

Momentum Flux Spectra Of A Mountain Wave Event Over New Zealand, Katrina Bossert, David C. Fritts, Christopher J. Heale, Stephen D. Eckermann, John M. C. Plane, Jonathan B. Snively, Bifford P. Williams, Iain M. Reid, Damian J. Murphy, Andrew J. Spargo, Andrew D. Mackinnon

Publications

During the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) 13 July 2014 research flight over the South Island of New Zealand, a multiscale spectrum of mountain waves (MWs) was observed. High-resolution measurements of sodium densities were available from ~70 to 100 km for the duration of this flight. A comprehensive technique is presented for obtaining temperature perturbations, T′, from sodium mixing ratios over a range of altitudes, and these T′ were used to calculate the momentum flux (MF) spectra with respect to horizontal wavelengths, λH, for each flight segment. Spectral analysis revealed MWs with spectral power centered at λH of ~80, …

Evaluation Of The Bsc-Dream8b Regional Dust Model Using The 3d Livas-Calipso Product, Dimitra Konsta, Ioannis Binietoglou, Antonis Gkikas, Stavros Solomos, Eleni Marinou, Emmanouil Proestakis, Sara Basart, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Hesham El-Askary, Vassilis Amiridis

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The ability of regional atmospheric models to accurately represent long-range transport of dust is crucial for describing dust effects on radiation and clouds and for reducing their uncertainties on these processes. The optimized CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) pure-dust product that provides the three-dimensional patterns of dust and its transport pathways is a unique tool that can address the aforementioned model's issues. In this study we use the CALIPSO dust extinction profiles as a tool for examining the performance of the regional dust model BSC-DREAM8b in space and time, for the period 2009–2013 over Northern Africa, the …