Meteorology Commons^™

Water Vapor And Temperature Comparisons Between Airs/Amsu-A And In Situ Aircraft Observations From 87°N To 67°S And Sensitivities To Spatial And Temporal Differences, Minghui Diao, Loayeh Jumbam, Justin Sheffield, Eric Wood, Mark Zondlo

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

No abstract available.

Droughtscape- Fall 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

CONTENTS

Director’s report ....................... 1

Updated resources ................... 1

Drought outlook and review... 2

2012 and past droughters..... 4

Summer impacts summary.... 6

Urban planners and drought..... 9

USDM wins CLEAN seal... 10

Meixiu Yu's Chinese SPEI... 11

Ethiopian project..... 12

Mexican VegDRI.... 13

Drought monitor sculpture.... 14

Sensitivity Of Limiting Hurricane Intensity To Ocean Warmth, James B. Elsner, Sarah Strazzo, Jill C. Trepanier, Thomas H. Jagger

Publications

No abstract provided.

Retrieval Of Sub-Pixel-Based Fire Intensity And Its Application For Characterizing Smoke Injection Heights And Fire Weather In North America, David Peterson

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

For over two decades, satellite sensors have provided the locations of global fire activity with ever-increasing accuracy. However, the ability to measure fire intensity, know as fire radiative power (FRP), and its potential relationships to meteorology and smoke plume injection heights, are currently limited by the pixel resolution. This dissertation describes the development of a new, sub-pixel-based FRP calculation (FRP_f) for fire pixels detected by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detection algorithm (Collection 5), which is subsequently applied to several large wildfire events in North America. The methodology inherits an earlier bi-spectral algorithm for retrieving sub-pixel …

The Weather And Climate Of West Virginia, Kevin Law, H. Michael Mogil

Kevin Law

West Virginia is a geographically small state with a distinctive climate. The article describes the climatological patterns of the state plus describes some historical weather events.

Coastal Hurricane Damage Assessment Via Wavelet Transform Of Remotely Sensed Imagery, Ricky Carl Crowsey

Dissertations

This dissertation uses post storm imagery processed using wavelet transforms to investigate the capability of wavelet transform-based methods to classify post storm damage of residential areas. Five level Haar, Meyer, Symlets, and Coiflets wavelet transform decompositions of the post storm imagery are inputs to damage classification models of post hurricane and tornado damage. Hurricanes Ike, Rita, Katrina, and Ivan are examined as are the 2011 Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes.

Wavelet transform-based classification methods yielded varying classification accuracies for the four hurricanes examined, ranging from 67 percent to 89 percent classification accuracy for classification models informed by samples from the storms …

Droughtscape- Summer 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Contents

Director’s report ....................... 1

Drought expanse....................... 1

Upcoming ranch workshops.... 3

Drought outlook and review ... 4

Spring impacts summary ......... 6

Hawaii impact workshops........ 9

Remote sensing of drought.... 10

China workshop ...................... 12

Estimating Annual Precipitation For The Colorado River Basin Using Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Estimating long-lead time precipitation under the stress of increased climatic variability is a challenging task in the field of hydrology. A modified Support Vector Machine (SVM) based framework is proposed to estimate annual precipitation using oceanic-atmospheric oscillations. Oceanic-atmospheric oscillations, consisting of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) for a period of 1900–2008, are used to generate annual precipitation estimates with a 1 year lead time. The SVM model is applied to 17 climate divisions encompassing the Colorado River Basin in the western United States. The overall results revealed that …

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

Reproduction Of Twentieth Century Intradecadal To Multidecadal Surface Temperature Variability In Radiatively Forced Coupled Climate Models, Patrick T. Brown, Eugene C. Cordero, Steven A. Mauget

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

[1] Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 3 simulations that included time-varying radiative forcings were ranked according to their ability to consistently reproduce twentieth century intradecadal to multidecadal (IMD) surface temperature variability at the 5° by 5° spatial scale. IMD variability was identified using the running Mann-Whitney Z method. Model rankings were given context by comparing the IMD variability in preindustrial control runs to observations and by contrasting the IMD variability among the ensemble members within each model. These experiments confirmed that the inclusion of time-varying external forcings brought simulations into closer agreement with observations. Additionally, they illustrated that the magnitude of …

Reproduction Of Twentieth Century Intradecadal To Multidecadal Surface Temperature Variability In Radiatively Forced Coupled Climate Models, Patrick T. Brown, Eugene C. Cordero, Steven A. Mauget

Eugene C. Cordero

[1] Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 3 simulations that included time-varying radiative forcings were ranked according to their ability to consistently reproduce twentieth century intradecadal to multidecadal (IMD) surface temperature variability at the 5° by 5° spatial scale. IMD variability was identified using the running Mann-Whitney Z method. Model rankings were given context by comparing the IMD variability in preindustrial control runs to observations and by contrasting the IMD variability among the ensemble members within each model. These experiments confirmed that the inclusion of time-varying external forcings brought simulations into closer agreement with observations. Additionally, they illustrated that the magnitude of …

Droughtscape- Spring 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Contents

Director’s report......................1

Climate Masters ..................... 1

Ranch plan workshop ............. 3

Winter climate summary ........ 4

Winter impacts summary ....... 6

Zhao research.........................9

Getachew research ..............10

Other international news......12

Wardlow move ..................... 13

IPCC disaster report .............14

Water And Energy Balance Response Of A Riparian Wetland To The Removal Of Phragmites Australis, Phillip Mykleby

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

Vegetation and climate both play integral roles in water availability, particularly for arid to semi-arid regions. Changes in these variables can lead to extreme shortages in water for regions that rely on water for crop irrigation (i.e., the Great Plains). The objective of this study is to evaluate the impacts of vegetation on water availability in the Republican River basin in central Nebraska. Decreases in streamflow have been observed in the river basin for many years and, as a result, an invasive riparian plant species (Phragmites australis) is being removed in an effort to reduce evapotranspiration and reclaim …

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

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

No abstract available.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

Eugene C. Cordero

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 …

Spatio-Temporal Variability Of Daily And Weekly Precipitation Extremes In South America, Shiraj Khan, Gabriel Kuhn, Auroop Ganguly, David Erickson Iii, George Ostrouchov

Auroop R. Ganguly

Spatial and temporal variability of precipitation extremes are investigated by utilizing daily observations available at 2.5° gridded fields in South America for the period 1940–2004. All 65 a of data from 1940–2004 are analyzed for spatial variability. The temporal variability is investigated at each spatial grid by utilizing 25-a moving windows from 1965–2004 and visualized through plots of the slope of the regression line in addition to its quality measure (R²). The Poisson-generalized Pareto (Poisson-GP) model, which is a peaks over threshold (POT) approach, is applied to weekly precipitation maxima residuals based on the 95%-quantile threshold, while daily data are …

Droughtscape- Winter 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Drought Planning for Kansas Ranchers Jan. 21

South Hoping La Niña Dryness Stays Away

2011 Brought Record-Breaking Extent of D4

Reported Impacts Ease as Growing Season Ends

Disaster Planning in Nanjing at Hohai U

Ag, Fire and Water Supply Topped 2011 Impacts

Simulation Of Coastal Inundation Instigated By Storm Surge And River Discharge In The Chesapeake Bay Using Sub-Grid Modeling Coupled With Lidar Data, J. D. Loftis, H. V. Wang

Presentations

Sub-grid modeling is a novel method by which water level elevations on the sub-grid level can be obtained through the combination of water levels and velocities efficiently calculated at the coarse computational grid, the discretized bathymetric depths, and local friction parameters without resorting to solve the full set of equations. Sub-grid technology essentially allows velocity to be determined rationally and efficiently at the sub-grid level. This salient feature enables coastal flooding to be addressed in a single cross-scale model from the ocean to the upstream river channel without overly refining the grid resolution. To this end, high-resolution DEMs will be …

A Synoptic Perspective Of The Record 1-2 May 2010 Mid-South Heavy Precipitation Event, Joshua D. Durkee, Lee Campbell, Kyle Berry, Dustin Jordan, Gregory Goodrich, Rezaul Mahmood, Stuart Foster

HPRCC Personnel Publications

During 1–2 May 2010, a series of strong thunderstorms led to 41, 57, and 43 tornado, severe wind, and severe hail reports, respectively, across portions of the southern United States. In addition to severe weather, these storms also distributed recordsetting rainfall amounts across the mid-South region, which contributed to historic flooding across portions of central and western Kentucky and Tennessee (Fig. 1). This heavy precipitation event was sampled by multiple surface observational networks, including (but not limited to) 48 research-grade automated stations from the Kentucky Mesonet (www.kymesonet .org), first-order automated stations from the National Weather Service (NWS; www.ncdc.noaa.gov /oa/ncdc.html), and …

National Integrated Drought Information System Central U.S. 2012 Drought Assessment, Natalie Umphlett, Michael S. Timlin, Brian Fuchs, Wendy Ryan, Nolan Doesken, Jim Angel, Olivia Kellner, Harry J. Hillaker, Mary Knapp, Xiaomao Lin, Stu Foster, Jeff Andresen, Aaron Pollyea, Greg Spoden, Pat Guinan, Adnan Akyüz, Jeffrey C. Rogers, Laura M. Edwards, Tony Bergantino

National Drought Mitigation Center: Publications

Conditions leading into 2012 gave scant indication of what was to come for a 15-state region in the central United States, extending from Colorado, Wyoming, and North Dakota on the west to Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan on the east.

The drought of 2012 was the first since 1988 that impacted almost the entire Corn Belt. It intensified quickly, catching many by surprise.

We hope to learn from this event to help better plan and prepare for the next drought. The full central U.S. 2012 drought assessment, “From too much to too little,” aims to identify the events of 2012 and …

From Too Much To Too Little: How The Central U.S. Drought Of 2012 Evolved Out Of One Of The Most Devastating Floods On Record In 2011, Brian Fuchs, Natalie Umphlett, Michael S. Timlin, Wendy Ryan, Nolan Doesken, Jim Angel, Olivia Kellner, Harry J. Hillaker, Mary Knapp, Xiaomao Lin, Stu Foster, Jeff Andresen, Aaron Pollyea, Greg Spoden, Adnan Akyuz, Jeffrey C. Rogers, Laura M. Edwards, Dennis Todey, Tony Bergantino

National Drought Mitigation Center: Publications

Table of Contents

Section 1: Introduction....................................................................... 1

Section 2: Regional Drought Perspective................................. 2

Section 3: State Drought Perspectives........................................ 3

Section 3.1: Colorado........................................................................... 20

Section 3.2: Illinois.................................................................. 25

Section 3.3: Indiana................................................. 29

Section 3.4: Iowa...................... 36

Section 3.5: Kansas............................................................... 42

Section 3.6: Kentucky............................................................................ 46

Section 3.7: Michigan.............................. 52

Section 3.8: Minnesota............................................................ 58

Section 3.9: Missouri..................................................... 63

Section 3.10: Nebraska................................................. 67

Section 3.11: North Dakota............................................ 73

Section 3.12: Ohio................................................... 79

Section 3.13: South Dakota..................................... 85

Section 3.14: Wyoming........................................... 96

Section 4: Conclusions.............................................................. 99