Meteorology Commons^™

South Dakota Farmers’ Perceived Extreme Weather Frequency And Adaptation Measures, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted surveys of eastern South Dakota (SD) commodity crop producers with the support of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council. Using publicly available addresses of government program participants, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked to take a follow up survey. 94 were ineligible, and 350 responded for a 59% response rate. Producers could take the survey online or via …

Analysis Of Titan's Fluvial Features Using Numerical Modeling, Jeshurun Horton

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

River channels have been observed near the Huygens probe landing site on the surface of Titan, along with evidence of rounded water ice boulders transported through fluid flow. Evidence near the landing site suggests active flow of liquid methane, which has motivated the study of the effects of sediment load and channel sizes on Titan’s fluvial features. A numerical model is used to determine the viscosity, flow velocity, and critical boulder transport diameter based on channel size, slope, and a range of sediment concentrations. This model achieves two ends: first, observed boulder diameters are used to determine the ideal channel …

Atlantic Ocean Variability And European Alps Winter Precipitation, Giuseppe Formetta, Jonghun Kam, Sahar Sadeghi, Glenn Tootle, Thomas Piechota

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Winter precipitation (snowpack) in the European Alps provides a critical source of freshwater to major river basins such as the Danube, Rhine, and Po. Previous research identified Atlantic Ocean variability and hydrologic responses in the European Alps. The research presented here evaluates Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) and European Alps winter precipitation variability using Singular Value Decomposition. Regions in the north and mid-Atlantic from the SSTs were identified as being tele-connected with winter precipitation in the European Alps. Indices were generated for these Atlantic SST regions to use in prediction of precipitation. Regression and non-parametric models were developed using the …

Selected Tropical Cyclone Satellite Analyses With An Emphasis On 37 Ghz Color Composite Imagery, Margaret Kieper

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research expanded the understanding of the 37 GHz color composite imagery of tropical cyclones (using the Naval Research Lab Monterey image archive), by improved identification of precipitation types uniquely observed on this imagery, aided by creation of a conceptual model. This model distinguished between stratiform and convective rain, and identified the cyan color on this imagery as being warm rain from shallow and moderate convection, or "SAM." Patterns of SAM on this imagery uniquely identify tropical cyclone features: an early indicator of the onset of rapid intensification and early eyewall replacement cycles, both previously unobserved. These are identified by …

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

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Enhancing The Weather: Governance Of Weather Modification Activities Of The United States, Manon Simon

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In the context of climate change, weather modification by cloud seeding, and in particular, precipitation enhancement techniques, has gained a renewed attention from governments. In the United States, several states run weather modification programs to secure freshwater resources and increase both crop and hydroelectricity production. Weather modification techniques were developed post–World War II, and so were the legal arrangements that govern them. Since then, weather modification law has undergone little to no reform. California and Texas are two active users of cloud-seeding technologies but employ very different governance frameworks. This Article assesses the effectiveness of weather modification governance in these …

Deep Learning For Weather Clustering And Forecasting, Nathaniel R. Beveridge

Theses and Dissertations

Clustering weather data is a valuable endeavor in multiple respects. The results can be used in various ways within a larger weather prediction framework or could simply serve as an analytical tool for characterizing climatic differences of a particular region of interest. This research proposes a methodology for clustering geographic locations based on the similarity in shape of their temperature time series over a long time horizon of approximately 11 months. To this end an emerging and powerful class of clustering techniques that leverages deep learning, called deep representation clustering (DRC), are utilized. Moreover, a time series specific DRC algorithm …

High Altitude Ballooning As A Platform For Measuring Ozone Uptake Over Agricultural Landscapes, Thomas Sykora, Mark Potosnak

DePaul Discoveries

Measuring plant health is a key aspect in maximizing crop outputs. One often overlooked risk to crop fields is damage caused by stomatal ozone uptake; measuring this uptake is an important tool in understanding crop losses. Traditional methods for measuring plant ozone uptake are prohibitively expensive and rely on equipment that cannot easily be moved. Here, we propose high-altitude weather ballooning as a cost-effective alternative for measuring ozone uptake on a regional (~10 km) spatial scale. Ozonesounde data was obtained with weather balloons launched from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research station in Boulder, Colorado. This data was then …

Ultrahigh Resolution Ote-Ms Data For Ambient Daytime And Nighttime Aerosol And Ambient Fog Water From San Pietro Capofiume, Matthew Brege, Lynn Mazzoleni

Michigan Tech Research Data

This dataset and the methods used to obtain it are described in Chapter 3 of "EXTREME MOLECULAR DIVERSITY IN BIOMASS BURNING ATMOSPHERIC ORGANIC AEROSOL OBSERVED THROUGH ULTRAHIGH RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETRY" a Dissertation prepared by Matthew Brege and submitted as a Doctoral Thesis. This work can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.37099/mtu.dc.etdr/927

Briefly, four days worth of concurrent daytime/nighttime aerosol and fog water samples were collected at San Pietro Capofiume in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy from 1-Dec to 4-Dec, 2015. The water soluble extracts of the aerosol filters and aliquots of the fog water were analyzed using ultrahigh resolution Orbitrap mass …

Exploring Environmental And Methodological Sensitivities Of Forecasted And Observed Surface Winds And Gusts Using Underutilized Datasets, Alex Roslyn Gallagher

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Accurate forecasts and reliable observations of surface mean winds and gusts inhabit a vast and essential role in meteorological applications that range from wind energy, atmospheric transport, fire weather, and hazard assessment. This dissertation aims to address and explore known shortfalls in the prediction of mean winds and gusts as well as enhance evaluation and understanding of observed surface wind measurements. A variety of forecasts, methodologies, and observational dataset, many of which have been previously un- or under-utilized, are leveraged to tackle the differing needs of assessing mean winds, gusts, and the surface environment.Detailed verifications of HRRR (version 3 and …

Theoretical And Observational Analysis Of Ice Particles For Improvement Of Ice Microphysical Models, Vanessa Przybylo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Frozen hydrometeors can grow to acquire a multitude of shapes and sizes, which influence the distribution of mass within cloud systems. Aggregates have a variety of formations based on initial ice particle size, shape, falling orientation, and the number of particles that collect. This work employs the theoretical Ice Particle and Aggregate Simulator (IPAS) as a statistical tool to repetitively collect ice crystals to derive bulk aggregate characteristics.

Weather And Crime: New York State, Yuna Kim

Student Theses

The present study assesses the degree to which temperature affects the crime rates in all 62 counties in the State of New York. Five different crimes (i.e., robbery, aggravated assault, burglary; larceny, and motor vehicle theft) for the year 2019 were selected from the Division of Criminal Justice Services of New York to be examined. The current study examined whether the rate of these crimes was associated with the changes in weather, with the assumption that higher weathers would lead to higher property and violent crimes, when controlling for the effect of various control variables. The findings suggest that the …

The Development And Evaluation Of The Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Intensification Regression Model (Atcirm), Bruno Platero Huarcaya, Lexi Cruz

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Operational track forecasts of Tropical Cyclones (TCs) have been improved substantially in recent years and nowadays are sufficiently accurate. However, intensity forecasts have not shown similar improvements, especially for rapidly intensifying storms. The improvement of intensity forecast accuracy can help authorities in risk management and decision making to prevent loss of life and property. The purpose of our project is to develop a statistical linear regression model that provides better predictions for TC intensification over the ocean. Here, different predictor variables are studied, and 2011-2017 Atlantic basin storms are investigated. The final set of predictor variables selected for the model …

Characterizing The Northern Hemisphere Circumpolar Vortex Through Space And Time, Nazla Bushra

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This hemispheric-scale, steering atmospheric circulation represented by the circumpolar vortices (CPVs) are the middle- and upper-tropospheric wind belts circumnavigating the poles. Variability in the CPV area, shape, and position are important topics in geoenvironmental sciences because of the many links to environmental features. However, a means of characterizing the CPV has remained elusive. The goal of this research is to (i) identify the Northern Hemisphere CPV (NHCPV) and its morphometric characteristics, (ii) understand the daily characteristics of NHCPV area and circularity over time, (iii) identify and analyze spatiotemporal variability in the NHCPV’s centroid, and (iv) analyze how CPV features relate …

Hydrometeorological Responses To Abrupt Land Surface Change Following Hurricane Michael, Shannon Alexis Nelson

LSU Master's Theses

While many of the destructive environmental conditions associated with tropical cyclones are well recognized, tropical cyclone-induced defoliation, a reduction in green leaves and mature vegetation, has been largely overlooked as a source of environmental stress following tropical cyclone passage. The land surface change associated with defoliation reduces evapotranspiration and shade, thus altering boundary layer moisture and energy fluxes that drive the local water cycle, for many months after tropical cyclone passage. Understanding the potential for any hydrometeorological impacts arising from such abrupt land surface change is important for guiding future post-hurricane preparedness and recovery planning in coastal communities.

This thesis …

Downscaling Methodology For Satellite Land Surface Temperatures Over Urban Environments, Naved Khan, Ruben Vecino

Publications and Research

The objective of this study is to develop high spatial and temporal resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST) data using a combination of Landsat 8, infrared satellite sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-16). The Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) provides higher spatial resolution (30 m) estimates of skin temperature every 16 days. MODIS makes daytime and nighttime observations of the Earth’s thermal emission at a coarser spatial resolution (1000 m), while GOES-16, which has lower spatial resolution (2 km), measures the skin temperature at a much higher temporal resolution …

The Effects Of Late Spring Frost On Forest And Landscape Health And Recovery Of The Black Rock Forest, New York, Caroline Eco, Oliver Imhans, Aaron Davitt, Andrew B. Reinmann

Publications and Research

Projected changes in climate are expected to increase the frequency of late spring frost events in the Northeast US. Such events can be harmful to trees because freezing temperatures that occur after leaf-out can damage or kill young leaves. The resultant defoliation typically forces a second flush of leaves, but delays canopy development, which in turn delays the onset of canopy carbon uptake and alters canopy thermal properties. In this study, we analyzed a recent freeze event that occurred on 8-9 May 2020 (DOY 129-130) at Black Rock Forest (BRF), which is in the Hudson Highlands of southeastern New York …

Hazardous Weather And Human Response In The Southeastern United States, Daniel Burow

Doctoral Dissertations

Effectively mitigating the human costs of future hazardous weather events requires examining meteorological threats, their long-term patterns, and human response to these events. The southeastern United States is a region that has both a high climatological risk and a high societal vulnerability to many different meteorological hazards. In this dissertation, I study hazardous weather and human response in the Southeast through three different lenses: identifying uniquely simultaneous hazards posed by tropical cyclones, assessing precipitation and synoptic weather patterns on hazardous weather days, and examining patterns in intended response to tornado watches. I find that simultaneous and collocated tornado and flash …

Vignette 12: The Blob, Nicholas Bond

Institute Publications

A marine heat wave of unprecedented severity, areal extent and duration occurred in the Northeast Pacific Ocean during 2014-2016. This event, known as the “Blob,” had a wide variety of far- ranging effects on physical, chemical, and biological ocean properties. Because the Blob was such a massive perturbation, it represents an attractively large signal for inquiry in the Salish Sea. It represents a dress rehearsal for typical conditions in future decades due to global climate change.

Applying Human Factors Heuristic Evaluation Tools To Improve Aviation Weather Displays: A Mismatch, John Kleber, Paige Lawton, Beth Blickensderfer

General Aviation Weather Display Interpretation

The evaluation of current Heuristic Evaluation Tools for use in assessing Aviation Weather Displays.

The Effect Of Initial Conditions On The Weather Research And Forecasting Model, Aaron D. Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modeling our atmosphere and determining forecasts using numerical methods has been a challenge since the early 20th Century. Most models use a complex dynamical system of equations that prove difficult to solve by hand as they are chaotic by nature. When computer systems became more widely adopted and available, approximating the solution of these equations, numerically, became easier as computational power increased. This advancement in computing has caused numerous weather models to be created and implemented across the world. However a challenge of approximating these solutions accurately still exists as each model have varying set of equations and variables to …

Multifidelity Prediction In Wildfire Spread Simulation: Modeling, Uncertainty Quantification And Sensitivity Analysis, Mario Miguel Valero, Lluís Jofre, Ricardo Torres

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Wildfire behavior predictions typically suffer from significant uncertainty. However, wildfire modeling uncertainties remain largely unquantified in the literature, mainly due to computing constraints. New multifidelity techniques provide a promising opportunity to overcome these limitations. Therefore, this paper explores the applicability of multifidelity approaches to wildland fire spread prediction problems. Using a canonical simulation scenario, we assessed the performance of control variates Monte-Carlo (MC) and multilevel MC strategies, achieving speedups of up to 100x in comparison to a standard MC method. This improvement was leveraged to quantify aleatoric uncertainties and analyze the sensitivity of the fire rate of spread (RoS) to …

Case Studies Of Alberta Clipper Systems And The Impacts On Winter Weather Road Maintenance, Cameron Wunderlin

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

Winter weather can cause profound impacts to a variety of economic sectors in the mid-latitudes. In the Great Plains of North America, one sector that is highly impacted by winter weather is road transportation. The burdens to road transportation caused by winter weather have led to the adoption of a Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) by the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT). Using both observational and numerical weather model data, NDOT-MDSS generates both winter weather forecasts and winter road maintenance recommendations. Little is known about how well NDOT-MDSS is forecasting conditions for different winter weather events. Using a case study …

Hazardous Weather Communication En Español: Challenges, Current Resources, And Future Practices, Joseph E. Trujillo-Falcón, Orlando Bermúdez, Krizia Negrón-Hernández, John Lipski, Elizabeth Leitman, Kodi Berry

NOAA Technical Reports and Related Materials

According to recent Census data, the Hispanic or Latino population represents nearly 1 in 5 Americans today, where 71.1% of these individuals speak Spanish at home. Despite increased efforts among the weather enterprise, establishing effective risk communication strategies for Spanish-speaking populations has been an uphill battle. No frameworks exist for translating weather information into the Spanish language, nor are there collective solutions that address this problem within the weather world. The objective of this article is threefold. First, the current translation issue in Spanish is highlighted. Through research conducted at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, situations are revealed where regional …

Reginald Sutcliffe And The Invention Of Modern Weather Systems Science, Jonathan E. Martin

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Despite being perhaps the foremost British meteorologist of the twentieth century, Reginald Sutcliffe has been understudied and underappreciated. His impact continues to this day every time you check the weather forecast. Reginald Sutcliffe and the Invention of Modern Weather Systems Science not only details Sutcliffe’s life and ideas, but it also illuminates the impact of social movements and the larger forces that propelled him on his consequential trajectory. Less than a century ago, a forecast of the weather tomorrow was considered a practical impossibility. This book makes the case that three important advances guided the development of modern dynamic meteorology, …

Ccsfs/Ksc Total Lightning Warning Radii Optimization For Merlin Using Preexisting Lightning Areas, Kimberly G. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to optimize lightning warning radii specifications for the 45th Space Wing (45 SW), thus reducing the number of unnecessary warnings that delay ground processing needed for space launch execution at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This thesis sought to answer two key research questions addressing: 1) What radius reduction effectively balances both safety and operations and do reduction recommendations from previous research align with results from the new detection system? 2) What insights can be gained from comparing measurement results for seasonal lightning events as well as lightning types? This …

Correction Of Back Trajectories Utilizing Machine Learning, Britta F. Gjermo Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this work was to analyze 24-hour back trajectory performance from a global, low-resolution weather model compared to a high-resolution limited area weather model in particular meteorological regimes, or flow patterns using K-means clustering, an unsupervised machine learning technique. The duration of this study was from 2015-2019 for the contiguous United States (CONUS). Three different machine learning algorithms were tested to study the utility of these methods improving the performance of the CFS relative to the performance of the RAP. The aforementioned machine learning techniques are linear regression, Bayesian ridge regression, and random forest regression. These results mean …

Behavior Of Lightning In Developing Storms, Erick A. Tello

Theses and Dissertations

Air Force weather squadrons issue a warning when lightning activity is observed within 5 nautical miles (NM) of protected areas. Upon receiving this warning, personnel outdoors are expected to pause work and move inside. Studies sponsored by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) have concluded that the 5 NM warning radius can be safely reduced for well-developed storms. This thesis investigates whether radii for storms in early development can also be reduced. Our research develops algorithms to partition lightning sensor data into storms. Next, storms are filtered to their earliest lightning events, and the study calculates distances between successive early …

The Effect Of Barometric Pressure, Temperature, And Precipitation On Preterm Labor In Expecting Women In South Carolina, Allison K. Fletcher

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Each year, approximately 9.9% of infants in the United States are born prematurely at less than 37 weeks of gestation with unidentified causes. From 2014 to 2016, the total preterm birth rate rose 3%, and late preterm birth rates rose almost 4%. One source of preterm labor that has been examined in recent years is its potential correlation with meteorological phenomena, including barometric pressure, temperature, and precipitation. In September of 2019, birth data recording 322 deliveries from two South Carolina hospitals was collected along with weather data on the given dates. The changes in temperature, barometric pressure, and precipitation for …

Aviation Human-In-The-Loop Simulation: Best Practices For Subjective Performance Measurement, John Kleber, Beth Blickensderfer

Aviation Weather Training Research

Subjective performance measurements are a useful tool for researchers and instructors to evaluate tasks that are difficult to quantify with objective data pulled from a simulator or the physiological data of pilots. Subjective performance measurements are non-intrusive measures typically conducted by human raters. Some recommendations for utilizing subjective measures include reducing the workload of the human raters, concealing the aim of the experiment from participants, utilizing multiple raters to evaluate each participant, providing raters with proper training, developing error-resistant rater forms and, including both subjective and objective measures when possible.