Atmospheric Sciences Commons^™

The Intensification Of Sheared Tropical Cyclones, Leon Nguyen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Environmental vertical wind shear has been shown to have a generally detrimental impact on tropical cyclone (TC) intensity change. However, many cases of rapidly intensifying (RI) sheared TCs have been observed, and TCs in moderate (5-10 m s-1) shear often have the largest intensity forecast errors. Thus, advancing the understanding of TC-shear interactions is vital to improving TC intensity forecasts, which have not seen much improvement over the past few decades. This dissertation employs both observational and high-resolution numerical modeling approaches to investigate how some TCs are able to resist shear and intensify.

Evaluating Preferred Direction Tropical Cyclone Track Variability In An Operational Global Ensemble Prediction System, Travis Elless

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ensemble forecasts of Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Sandy (2012) highlight instances where variability in tropical cyclone (TC) position forecasts are stretched along a preferred direction. The goal of this thesis is to analyze this stretching of variability in a global ensemble prediction system, particularly the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), to determine how often and under what conditions does variability stretching occur, and ultimately what feature(s) are responsible for generating this variability.

The Impacts Of Varability In Temperature And Humidity On Electricity Consumption In New York State, Eric Adamchick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A seasonal harmonic linear regression approach is presented to model the seasonal and diurnal relationships between surface weather observations and electricity load data in New York State. The relationships between dry-bulb, dew point, and wet-bulb temperatures with electricity load were evaluated using the correlation coefficient to test the strength of the relationships, while the regression slope coefficient provided an interpretable scale for those relationships. We found that the strongest seasonal and diurnal relationships occur during boreal summer from the afternoon through the overnight hours, while similar but negative relationships are observed during the winter. Using the same seasonal harmonic linear …

A Novel Approach For Identifying Cloud Clusters Developing Into Tropical Cyclones, Chaunte' W. Lacewell

Dissertations

Providing advance notice of rare events, such as a cloud cluster (CC) developing into a tropical cyclone (TC), is of great importance. Having advance warning of such rare events possibly can help avoid or reduce the risk of damages and allow emergency responders and the affected community enough time to respond appropriately. Considering this, forecasters need better data mining and data driven techniques to identify developing CCs. Prior studies have attempted to predict the formation of TCs using numerical weather prediction models as well as satellite and radar data. However, refined observational data and forecasting techniques are not always available …

Studying Air Pollutants Origin And Associated Meteorological Parameters Over Seoul From 2000 To 2009, Sunmin Park, Hesham El-Askary, Ismail Sabbah, Hanbin Kwak, Anup K. Prasad, Woo-Kyun Lee, Menas Kafatos

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

We investigate the temporal characteristics of major air pollutants collected from 44 air quality stations over the city of Seoul, Korea, namely, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, particular matter at 10 microns, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) between 2000 and 2009. The corresponding satellite datasets, namely, aerosol optical depth (AOD_sat), Ångström exponent, and fine mode fraction, collected from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) as well as the Aeronet ground aerosol optical depth (AOD_aeronet), have been analyzed. Pollutants’ seasonal effect has been inferred from the precipitation and temperature. The four pollutants under study show varying temporal characteristics with different …

Global Ozone Chemistry And Related Trace Gas Data Records For The Stratosphere (Gozcards): Methodology And Sample Results With A Focus On Hcl, H20, And 03, L. Froidevaux, J. Anderson, H. J. Wang, R. A. Fuller, M. J. Schwartz, M. L. Santee, N. J. Livesey, H. C. Pumphrey, P. F. Bernath, J. M. Russell Iii, M. P. Mccormick

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We describe the publicly available data from the Global OZone Chemistry And Related trace gas Data records for the Stratosphere (GOZCARDS) project and provide some results, with a focus on hydrogen chloride (HCl), water vapor (H₂O), and ozone (O₃). This data set is a global long-term stratospheric Earth system data record, consisting of monthly zonal mean time series starting as early as 1979. The data records are based on high-quality measurements from several NASA satellite instruments and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on SCISAT. We examine consistency aspects between the various data sets. …

Effects Of Climate Oscillations On Wind Resource Variability In The United States, B. D. Hamlington, P. E. Hamlington, S. G. Collins, S. R. Alexander, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Natural climate variations in the United States wind resource are assessed by using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOFs) to decompose wind reanalysis data. Compared to approaches that average climate signals or assume stationarity of the wind resource on interannual time scales, the CSEOF analysis isolates variability associated with specific climate oscillations, as well as their modulation from year to year. Contributions to wind speed variability from the modulated annual cycle (MAC) and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are quantified, and information provided by the CSEOF analysis further allows the spatial variability of these effects to be determined. The impacts of …

Considerations For Estimating The 20th Century Trend In Global Mean Sea Level, B. D. Hamlington, P. R. Thompson

CCPO Publications

Recent efforts in reconstructing historical sea level change have led to a range of published estimates for the global mean sea level trend over the last century. Disagreement in these estimates can be attributed to two factors: (1) differences in analysis and/or reconstruction techniques and (2) differences in tide gauge selection and quality control of the data. Here the impact of tide gauge selection is explored by calculating global mean trends using three different tide gauge data sets that have been utilized in recent reconstruction studies. The inclusion of tide gauge records that are affected by unresolved internal variability and/or …

Sea Level Trends In Southeast Asian Seas, M. W. Strassburg, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Manrung, J. Lumban-Gaol, B. Nababan, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Southeast Asian seas span the largest archipelago in the global ocean and provide a complex oceanic pathway connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Southeast Asian sea regional sea level trends are some of the highest observed in the modern satellite altimeter record that now spans almost 2 decades. Initial comparisons of global sea level reconstructions find that 17-year sea level trends over the past 60 years exhibit good agreement with decadal variability associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and related fluctuations of trade winds in the region. The Southeast Asian sea region exhibits sea level trends that vary dramatically …

A Southern Hemisphere Sea Level Pressure-Based Precursor For Enso Warm And Cold Events, B. D. Hamlington, R. F. Milliff, H. Van Loon, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Past studies have described large-scale sea level pressure (SLP) variations in the Southern Hemisphere that lead to El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm and cold events (WE and CE). By relying on this description and the importance of the related variability in the lead up to WE and CE, Southern Hemisphere SLP variations in May-June-July (MJJ) are shown here to be excellent predictors for the peak warm/cold events in sea-surface temperatures (SST) and sea level pressure that mark the mature phase of a warm/cold event in November-January of the same year. Cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOFs) are used to extract the …

Relative Drifts And Biases Between Six Ozone Limb Satellite Measurements From The Last Decade, N. Rahpoe, M. Weber, A. V. Rozanov, K. Weigel, H. Bovensmann, J. P. Burrows, A. Laeng, G. Stiller, T. Von Clarmann, E. Kyrölä, V. F. Sofieva, J. Tamminen, K. Walker, D. Degenstein, A. E. Bourassa, R. Hargreaves, P. Bernath, J. Urban, D. P. Murtagh

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

As part of European Space Agency's (ESA) climate change initiative, high vertical resolution ozone profiles from three instruments all aboard ESA's Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY) and ESA's third party missions (OSIRIS, SMR, ACE-FTS) are to be combined in order to create an essential climate variable data record for the last decade. A prerequisite before combining data is the examination of differences and drifts between the data sets. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of ozone profile differences based on pairwise collocated measurements, including the evolution of the differences with time. Such a diagnosis is helpful to identify strengths …

Retrieval And Validation Of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, And Water Vapor For The Canary Islands Ir-Laser Occultation Experiment, V. Proschek, G. Kirchengast, S. Schweitzer, J.S. A. Brooke, P. F. Bernath, C. B. Thomas, J. G. Wang, K. A. Tereszchuk, G. González Abad, R. J. Hargreaves, C. A. Beale, J. J. Harrison, P. A. Martin, V. L. Kasyutich, C. Gerbig, O. Kolle, A. Loescher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The first ground-based experiment to prove the concept of a novel space-based observation technique for microwave and infrared-laser occultation between low-Earthorbit satellites was performed in the Canary Islands between La Palma and Tenerife. For two nights from 21 to 22 July 2011 the experiment delivered the infrared-laser differential transmission principle for the measurement of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the free atmosphere. Such global and long-term stable measurements of GHGs, accompanied also by measurements of thermodynamic parameters and line-of-sight wind in a self-calibrating way, have become very important for climate change monitoring. The experiment delivered promising initial data for demonstrating the …

Decrease Of Carbon Tetrachloride (Ccl⁴) Over 2004-2013 As Inferred From Global Occultation Measurements With Ace-Fts, E. Mahieu, Peter F. Bernath, Christopher D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In this contribution, we use infrared solar occultation measurements performed by the ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) instrument onboard the SCISAT-1 Canadian satellite (Bernath et al., 2005). Since its launch in August 2003, this spectrometer has been in continuous operation with no significant degradation of its performance, and global measurements are available from late February 2004 onwards, spanning now more than a decade.

Recent Increase Of Ethane Detected In The Remote Atmosphere Of The Northern Hemisphere, Bruno Franco, Whitney Bader, Benoît Bovy, Emmanuel Mahieu, Emily V. Fischer, Kimberly Strong, Stephanie Conway, James W. Hannigan, Eric Nussbaumer, Peter F. Bernath, Chris D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Ethane (C₂H₆) has a large impact on tropospheric composition and air quality because of its involvement in the global VOC (volatile organic compound) – HO_x – NO_x chemistry responsible for generating and destroying tropospheric ozone. By acting as a major sink for tropospheric OH radicals, the abundance of C₂H₆ influences the atmospheric content of carbon monoxide and impacts the lifetime of methane. Moreover, it is an important source of PAN, a thermally unstable reservoir for NOx radicals.

On a global scale, the main sources of C₂H₆ are leakage from the production, transport of natural gas loss, biofuel consumption …

Assessment Of Water Vapor Isotopologue Measurements By Ace-Fts And Odin-Smr, Ralf Bauer, Patrick Sheese, Kaley Walker, Joachim Urban, Donal Murtagh, Chris Boone, Peter Bernath, Gloria Manney

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Knowing the isotopic composition of trace gases can improve our understanding of processes in the Earth's atmosphere causing isotopic fractionation. In many studies, isotopologue (molecules of identical chemical but different isotopic composition) amounts are primarily discussed as δ values, which are defined relative to a standard, e.g.:

Ace-Fts And Haloe Observations Of Hydrogen Fluoride (Hf) And Their Comparison With Slimcat Chemical Transport Model Calculations, Jeremy Harrison, Martyn Chipperfield, Chris Boone, Peter Bernath, Lucien Froidevaux, John Anderson, James Russell Iii

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The majority of fluorine in the atmosphere has resulted from the anthropogenic emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Most tropospheric fluorine is present in its emitted 'organic' form due to the molecules having long lifetimes (up to a decade or longer). Thus they are able to reach the stratosphere where they are broken down, liberating fluorine. The principal degradation products are carbonyl fluoride (COF2), carbonyl chloride fluoride (COClF), and hydrogen fluoride (HF); of these HF is the most abundant. In fact at the top of the stratosphere most of the fluorine is present as HF, which, due …

Spatial Analyses On Seismo-Ionospheric Precursors Observed By Gim Tec And Demeter During The 2008 M8.0wenchuan Earthquake, Jann-Yenq Liu, Yuh-Ing Chen, Cheng-Chi Huang, Michel Parrot, Sergey Pulintets, Dimitar Ouzounov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

An abstract of the "Spatial analyses on seismo-ionospheric precursors observed by GIM TEC and DEMETER during the 2008 M8.0Wenchuan earthquake" paper presented at EGU General Assembly in 2015.

On The Detection And Monitoring Of The Transport Of An Asian Dust Storm Using Multi-Sensor Satellite Remote Sensing, Hesham El-Askary, S. K. Park, M. H. Ahn, A. Prasad, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Dynamical and physical features of a long range transported dust event originating in China affecting Korea early March 2008 are examined using an integrative multi-sensor and multi-algorithm approach. Aerosol loadings and their size mode were analyzed over both ocean and land surfaces using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD), employing standard dark target (DT) and deep blue (DB) algorithms, and the Ångström exponent (AE). Anthropogenic absorbing aerosols and smoke were found to be significant over the Indochina Peninsula, the Philippines and southern China, while a mixture of dust and pollution were predominant over central to northern …

Aerosol Optical Properties Over Mount Song, A Rural Site In Central China, Lunche Wang, Wei Gong, Ramesh P. Singh, Xiangao Xia, Huizheng Che, Ming Zhang, Hong Lin

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Seasonal variations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström exponent (α), single scattering albedo (SSA), water vapor content (WVC), aerosol size distribution and refractive index at Mount Song, a rural site in Central China are analyzed using ground-based sunphotometer data for the period April 2012 to May 2014 for the first time. The results show that the area is highly polluted even the major anthropogenic emission sources are far away. Seasonal mean AOD is high (0.72 ± 0.52) during summer (June–August) season and low (0.51 ± 0.38) during autumn (September–November) season. The monthly mean α is very low (0.81 ± 0.30) …

Laboratory And Field Investigation Of Mixing, Morphology And Optical Properties Of Soot And Secondary Organic Aerosols, Noopur Sharma

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Soot/ black carbon particles are believed to be the second largest anthropogenic contributor to the Earth’s radiative forcing, and are emitted from combustion processes. Freshly emitted soot has a fractal-like structure in which monomers are arranged into branched chain-like configuration. In the atmosphere, soot mixes with and is processed by interacting with other co-existing particle and vapors. The processing that soot undergo after emission alters its morphology; for example, condensation of vapors results into coated, mixed or compacted soot depending upon the environmental conditions. Changes in soot morphology have a strong and direct influence on its optical properties.

The unique …