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Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Results And Implications For Space Weather Forecasting Of Periodic Mesoscale Solar Wind Structures Responsible For Radiation Belt Particle Loss, Grace Gratton Aug 2026

Results And Implications For Space Weather Forecasting Of Periodic Mesoscale Solar Wind Structures Responsible For Radiation Belt Particle Loss, Grace Gratton

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Highly dynamic and structured mesoscale solar wind continually buffets Earth's magnetosphere, the moon, and Mars. These mesoscale structures cause several significant risks to spacecraft and astronauts, including driving radiation belt depletion and amplifying the hazards of CMEs and SIRs through upstream solar wind preconditioning. Characterizing the solar origins and solar wind properties of geoeffective mesoscale structures is essential for eventually forecasting their arrival and space weather impact at various satellites. In this interdisciplinary work, we leverage modeling and data analysis to characterize a series of events observed by the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) instrument – in …


The Petm: A Window Into Earth's Future Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski May 2025

The Petm: A Window Into Earth's Future Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is not just an event that occurred in Earth’s distant past (~55 million years ago) but is a crucial lesson for today’s meteoric climate change. The PETM offers a historical parallel of rapid flux of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that caused global warming, ocean acidification, dramatic changes in weather, and extinctions. This global warming event was the result of 20,000 years of “rapid” warming (in geological terms) however, we are experiencing rates of warming that are 5-10x higher than PETM levels. We are not experiencing rapid warming today, in comparison to the past, we …


The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski May 2025

The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

For most of human history, climate has shaped our lives, while our influence on it remained minimal. However, the notion that early humans had no measurable impact on the climate before industrialization is inaccurate. Early in human history, activities – such as the rise of agriculture, the growth of civilizations, periods of conflict, and pandemics – altered greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. These changes contributed to significant periods of climate change long before the burning of fossil fuels set us on the path to today’s global climate crisis.


The Role Of The Neutral Wind In Observations Of High-Latitude Ionospheric Energy Transfer, Andrew M. Pepper May 2025

The Role Of The Neutral Wind In Observations Of High-Latitude Ionospheric Energy Transfer, Andrew M. Pepper

All Dissertations

Joule heating results from the collisional interaction between ions and neutrals and serves as a crucial mechanism for energy transfer between Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere-thermosphere system, particularly at high latitudes. This dissertation investigates the modulation of Joule heating by altitude-resolved neutral winds, electric fields, and conductivity variations through multi-instrument observational analysis and modeling that incorporates both in-situ and ground-based sources to measure the main drivers of ion-neutral coupling. The observations presented consistently demonstrate a dual regulatory effect of the neutral wind on energy deposition that varies systematically with both geomagnetic activity level and proximity to auroral boundaries. In regions characterized …


Characterizing The Earth's Magnetosheath With In Situ Measurements, Hector A. Salinas Jan 2025

Characterizing The Earth's Magnetosheath With In Situ Measurements, Hector A. Salinas

Physics Dissertations - Archive

Earth’s magnetosheath is a region of shocked plasma that mediates energy and momentum transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere. The dynamics and thus the plasma structures of this region are highly dependent on upstream solar wind conditions. As such, the region is often characterized as a turbulent environment, with the most intense periods of turbulence occurring often under quasi-parallel bow shock conditions. This magnetosheath turbulence displays as variable and large-scale fluctuations with in-situ measurements. Given that turbulence is a characteristic feature of the magnetosheath, this dissertation asks two questions: (1) How are plasma structures inside the sheath affected …


Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques, Ruthba Yasmin May 2024

Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques, Ruthba Yasmin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

This thesis aims to develop a hybrid physics-incorporated neural network model (PINN) for classifying geomangnetic substorms in Earth's Magnetosphere. The model is trained using a comprehensive list of substorm onsets, ground magentometer data from a global network, and solar wind parameters from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. Two different neural network architectures are used, and the physics model used for training is called WINDMI. The magnetic field components on the ground, which are a function of the ionospheric currents, are captured by the SML index. The methodology involves using 60-minute data segments preceding an event to train the hybrid …


Error Analysis Of Numerical Weather Prediction Forecasts And Remotely Sensed Air Properties, Caleb R. Sease Apr 2024

Error Analysis Of Numerical Weather Prediction Forecasts And Remotely Sensed Air Properties, Caleb R. Sease

Honors Theses

Communication and sensing technologies are influenced by atmospheric properties such as the air’s index of refraction, humidity, and temperature in the marine atmospheric surface layer (MASL). Recent research has demonstrated that radar can remotely sense the index of refraction in the MASL and, sometimes, numerical weather prediction models (NWP) can be used to aid this process. These developments are important because they allow for larger spatial coverage and finer temporal resolution than is possible with in-situ atmospheric sensors. More recently, on-going research is working toward extending this remote sensing capability to humidity using refraction as an intermediary. In order to …


Translation Speed Influence On Tropical Cyclone Storm Tide And Surge Generation Along The Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Samantha L. Camarda Nov 2023

Translation Speed Influence On Tropical Cyclone Storm Tide And Surge Generation Along The Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Samantha L. Camarda

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines tropical cyclone translation speed as a factor in storm tide and surge height upon landfall on the United States Gulf Coast. Understanding the effect of translation speed on peak storm tide/surge height is needed to better prepare for and predict future damage from tropical cyclone events. Tropical cyclone data are taken from hourly interpolated best-track HURDAT2 data from 1970–2021. This study uses the HURDAT2 hourly interpolated observation data points (24-hours) pre-landfall to landfall. Translation speed is calculated based on the distance traversed between hourly points. Peak storm tide and storm surge data are taken from SURGEDAT from …


Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian Oct 2023

Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian

I-GUIDE Forum

Given multi-model ensemble climate projections, the goal is to accurately and reliably predict future sea-level rise while lowering the uncertainty. This problem is important because sea-level rise affects millions of people in coastal communities and beyond due to climate change's impacts on polar ice sheets and the ocean. This problem is challenging due to spatial variability and unknowns such as possible tipping points (e.g., collapse of Greenland or West Antarctic ice-shelf), climate feedback loops (e.g., clouds, permafrost thawing), future policy decisions, and human actions. Most existing climate modeling approaches use the same set of weights globally, during either regression or …


The Impact Of Sea-Level Rise In Numerically Modeled Landfalling Hurricanes: Katrina And The Gulf Coast., Serenity Nadirah Mercuri May 2022

The Impact Of Sea-Level Rise In Numerically Modeled Landfalling Hurricanes: Katrina And The Gulf Coast., Serenity Nadirah Mercuri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With climate change, landfalling hurricanes become an increasing threat to coastal regions. However, the interactions between the coastal landscape and landfalling hurricanes are often overlooked when addressing sea-level rise outside of inundation and independent of sea surface temperature. This study analyzed the potential impacts regarding structure and intensity as a result of sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico using the WRF-ARW numerical model coupled with a 1D ocean model. Analysis showed that 10 m windspeed from landfall forward was higher in modified coastlines, and minimum sea-level pressure post-landfall was consistently lower for modified runs where storms maintain a higher …


Application Of Autoencoders For Latent Pattern Analysis In Image Time Series, Jiena He Aug 2020

Application Of Autoencoders For Latent Pattern Analysis In Image Time Series, Jiena He

Sustainability and Social Justice

The Earth system is considered to possess certain modes - preferred patterns of variability that can represent the latent structure of the climate system, also known as teleconnections. There are approaches to discover these patterns, Principal Components Analysis and Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnection (EOT) analysis. However, while the latter is very effective, it is computationally intensive. An autoencoder is an unsupervised neural network that learns an efficient neural representation of input data. It is considered as a dimensionality reduction tool that is highly similar to PCA and EOT. The hidden layer of an autoencoder represents the most significant information of the …


Book Review: Fundamentals Of International Aviation, Alan Bender Jun 2018

Book Review: Fundamentals Of International Aviation, Alan Bender

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Not applicable.


Apathy And Concern Over The Future Habitability Of Earth: An Introductory College Assignment Of Forecasting Co2 In The Earth’S Atmosphere, Benjamin J. Burger Nov 2017

Apathy And Concern Over The Future Habitability Of Earth: An Introductory College Assignment Of Forecasting Co2 In The Earth’S Atmosphere, Benjamin J. Burger

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Non-science, first year regional undergraduate students from rural Utah communities participated in an online introductory geology course and were asked to forecast the rise of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. The majority of students predicted catastrophic rise to 5,000-ppm sometime over the next 3,100 years, resulting in an atmosphere nearly uninhabitable to human life. However, the level of concern the students exhibited in their answers was not directly proportional with their timing in their forecasted rise of CO2. This study showcases the importance of presenting students with actual data and using data to develop student forecasted models. …


Reducing Pollen Dispersal Using Forest Windbreaks, Carol Auer, Thomas Meyer, Vernie Sagun Jul 2016

Reducing Pollen Dispersal Using Forest Windbreaks, Carol Auer, Thomas Meyer, Vernie Sagun

Plant Science Articles

The adoption of genetically engineered (GE) crops has created a demand for practical methods to mitigate pollen dispersal and gene flow. The goal of this project was to measure the ability of a narrow forest windbreak to reduce downwind pollen fluxes from switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a North American grass and model biofuels feedstock. Switchgrass fields were established in two identical plots where one had a forest windbreak and the other was in an open (control) site. Switchgrass reproduction, pollen dispersal, wind speed, and wind direction were measured over two years. Daily release of switchgrass pollen peaked at 11:00-13:30 …


Comparison Of Combustion Efficiency To In-Situ Atmospheric Ammonia Measurements From A Miniature Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer In The La Basin, Taylor Krause, Barry L. Lefer, Timothy H. Betram, Steven R. Schill May 2016

Comparison Of Combustion Efficiency To In-Situ Atmospheric Ammonia Measurements From A Miniature Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer In The La Basin, Taylor Krause, Barry L. Lefer, Timothy H. Betram, Steven R. Schill

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) has been shown to impact the environment and threaten both human and animal health, especially in heavily populated urban areas, yet to date there remains a paucity of direct measurements. Recent studies have suggested that ammonia may be generated as a byproduct of fossil fuel emissions due to highly active catalytic converters in light-duty gasoline vehicles. To investigate this relationship, an airborne miniature Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (miniCIMS) was used to directly measure atmospheric ammonia and combustion reaction products in the Southern California LA Basin, during the 2015 NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP). The …


A Computational Tool For Evaluating Thz Imaging Performance In Brownout Conditions At Land Sites Throughout The World, Seth L. Marek Mar 2009

A Computational Tool For Evaluating Thz Imaging Performance In Brownout Conditions At Land Sites Throughout The World, Seth L. Marek

Theses and Dissertations

This study quantifies terahertz (THz) or sub-millimeter imaging performance during simulated rotary-wing brownout or whiteout environments based on geographic location and recent/current atmospheric weather conditions. The atmospheric conditions are defined through the Air Force Institute of Technology Center for Directed Energy (AFIT/CDE) Laser Environmental Effects Definition and Reference or LEEDR model. This model enables the creation of vertical profiles of temperature, pressure, water vapor content, optical turbulence, and atmospheric particulates and hydrometeors as they relate to line-by-line layer extinction coefficient magnitude at wavelengths from the UV to the RF. Optical properties and realistic particle size distributions for the brownout and …