Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

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 …

Spectral Analysis Of Traffic Accidents In New York's Capital Region, Michael Barr

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In this paper we estimate the spectral density of traffic accident events in the Capital Distict, NY area using a band-pass filter known as the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko Fourier Transform (KZFT). The source data is provided by Moosavi, et al. (2019) and originally captured from various public entities and sensors in the road network. Spectral density estimation with KZFT suppresses noise to reveal the constituent frequencies embedded in the noisy signal. Signal reconstruction based on KZFT produces an approximate weekly accident arrivals for this noisy signal, or in other words a pattern which is proportionate to the event expectation viewed over a …

Modeling Flood Risks For Small-Scale Coastal Watershed Across Shared Socioeconomic Pathway Scenarios, Sebastian Loschner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Coastal flooding, driven by the mixture of natural processes and human activities such as precipitation, waves, sea level rise, and urbanization, remains a growing concern. While recent flood-risk studies use IPCC's Shared Socioeconomic Pathways with climate projections to assess future flood exposure, smaller coastal watersheds, < 120,000 acres, remain insufficiently studied. Projected sea level rise is expected to intensify these impacts in smaller systems, potentially causing more severe flooding than reported for larger watersheds. To address this gap, this study used the SRH-2D model integrated with Aquaveo's Surface-water Modeling System to simulate flooding in the lower Fish River basin, Alabama. A coastal watershed sensitive to both riverine and tidal influences. Simulations tested different sea levels based on SSP scenarios corresponding to low, moderate, and high emissions for the years 2050 and 2100. Results indicate that the midcentury scenarios remained even in inundation extent and volume, between 9.9-10.4% compared to the 2020 baseline, the latter scenarios had a wider range in results of between 25.9-50.3% compared to the same baseline. Across scenarios, the most vulnerable and inundated areas of the smaller coastal watershed were the narrow points where upstream flow convene with downstream backwater. These findings highlight the need for futuristic location-specific flood mitigation strategies.

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

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

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

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 …

Unh/Noaa Joint Hydrographic Center 2025 Performance And Progress Report Executive Summary, Larry A. Mayer

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

Kelp Guardians Can Save The World: A Food Sovereignty Lab Report Of The Ghvtlh-K’Vsh Shu'-Srnelh-'I~ (Kelp Guardians) California Sea Grant, Delaney A. Schroeder-Echavarria

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

As partners of the Ghvtlh-k’vsh Shu'-srnelh-'i~ (Kelp Guardians) California Sea Grant project, the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute has actively engaged with local educators, Tribal organizations, and Tribal Nations to create youth-centered curricula, researched through a community-based participatory research lens. This is demonstrated through an innovative approach to recruiting and retaining Indigenous youth and community interest in coastal and marine ecosystems and resources by connecting with Indigenous cultural practices, Indigenous sciences, and community-based programs to encourage future careers. The Kelp Guardians project is led by the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation (TDN or Nation) and includes various …

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

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 …

Hydrologic Impact Index For The Pinhoti Hiking Trail, Allie Field

Theses

Author note: The author of this thesis is also published under the name Allie Bobo.

This study aimed to identify flood-prone areas along the Pinhoti Trail and Chinnabee Silent Trail in the Talladega National Forest. Using the Hydrology Flood Index layer that was created using several essential data layers, the research aimed to provide campers, hikers, nature enthusiasts, and trail maintenance teams with information about areas at a higher risk of flash flooding. The Hydrology Flood Index layer rates the risk of flooding on a scale of 1 to 4, with level 1 indicating a low risk of flooding and …

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

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 …

Understanding The Impacts Of Topobathymetric Data On Storm Surge Model Predictions, Sydni Crain

Master's Theses

The topobathymetric characteristics of a region are regularly altered by natural and anthropogenic causes. This directly impacts the resulting storm surge during a hurricane. The primary goal of this research was to gain a better understanding of the impact that topography and bathymetry have on storm surge models, particularly the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) Model. Hurricane Zeta (2020) and Hurricane Ida (2021) were chosen as case studies; therefore, the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was chosen as the study site. This research was completed by comparing ADCIRC storm surge results which were based on older, lower-resolution data with results derived from more …

Use Of Consumer Grade Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (Suas) For Mapping Storm Damage In Forested Environments, James Dewey Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Storm damages to forested environments pose significant challenges to landowners, land managers, and conservationists alike. Damage scope and scale assessments can be difficult, costly, and time consuming with conventional pedestrian survey techniques. Consumer grade sUAS technology offers an efficient, cost-effective way to accurately assess storm damage in small to moderate sized survey areas (less than 10 km²). Data were collected over a 0.195 km² area of damaged timber within the Kisatchie National Forest in Central Louisiana using a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone. Collected imagery was processed into an orthomosaic using Agisoft Metashape Professional with a resulting ground sampling distance …

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

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 …

The Long-Run Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Infant Mortality, Isabel Miranda

Master's Theses

In the United States alone, each tropical cyclone causes an average of $14.6 billion worth of damages. In addition to the destruction of physical infrastructure, natural disasters also negatively impact human capital formation. These losses are often more difficult to observe, and therefore, are over looked when quantifying the true costs of natural disasters. One particular effect is an increase in infant mortality rates, an important indicator of a country’s general socioeconomic level. This paper utilizes a model created by Anttila-Hughes and Hsiang, that takes advantage of annual variation in tropical cyclones using annual spatial average maximum wind speeds and …

Book Review: Fundamentals Of International Aviation, Alan Bender

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Not applicable.

Shifting Niche Space In Coastal Landscapes: Spatio-Temporal Patterns Driving Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Kristin Elise Demarco

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Identifying distributions of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) across the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) coastal landscape necessitates describing ecological processes in estuarine gradients. SAV assemblages are ecological indicators of aquatic ecosystem health; spatial and temporal distributions are strongly correlated to environmental conditions. Many wildlife species, including waterfowl, are dependent on SAV and seeds in NGOM coastal marshes for food and habitat. To understand SAV distributions at multiple spatial and temporal scales a multi-tiered project was designed to collect SAV presence, species assemblage, and cover data, and cores to describe seed food. The first tier sampled inter-annually in the growing seasons …

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. …

Multi-Modal And Short-Range Transmission Loss In Ice-Covered, Near-Shore Arctic Waters, Miles B. Penhale

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In the past century, extensive research has been done regarding the sound propagation in arctic ice sheets. The majority of this research has focused on low frequency propagation over long distances. One of the most commonly used excitation methods for air-ice-water layers has been explosives. However, environmental regulation has become more stringent, disallowing the use of almost all explosive excitation types. Due to changing climate conditions in these environments, new experimentation is warranted to determine sound propagation characteristics in, through, and under thin ice sheets, in shallow water, over short distances. In April, 2016 several experiments were conducted approximately 2 …

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

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 …

Sfa Weather Station-January 2015, Arthur Temple College Of Forestry And Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State University

Weather Station Data

No abstract provided.

Air-Quality And Climatic Consequences Of Bioenergy Crop Cultivation, William Christian Porter

Dissertations and Theses

Bioenergy is expected to play an increasingly significant role in the global energy budget. In addition to the use of liquid energy forms such as ethanol and biodiesel, electricity generation using processed energy crops as a partial or full coal alternative is expected to increase, requiring large-scale conversions of land for the cultivation of bioenergy feedstocks such as cane, grasses, or short rotation coppice. With land-use change identified as a major contributor to changes in the emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), many of which are known contributors to the pollutants ozone (O₃) and fine particulate matter …

Effects Of Hru Size On Prms Performance In 30 Western U.S. Basins, Madeline Olena Steele

Dissertations and Theses

Semi-distributed hydrological models are often used for streamflow forecasting, hydrological climate change impact assessments, and other applications. In such models, basins are broken up into hydrologic response units (HRUs), which are assumed to have a relatively homogenous response to precipitation. HRUs are delineated in a variety of ways, and the procedure used may impact model performance. HRU delineation procedures have been researched, but it is still not clear how important these subdivision schemes are or which delineation methods are most effective. To start addressing this knowledge gap, this project investigated whether or not HRU size has a significant effect on …

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 …