Atmospheric Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Major Sudden Stratospheric Warmings Identified In Midlatitude Mesospheric Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar Temperatures, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Chad Fish, Josh Herron

Physics Student Research

Mesospheric temperature anomalies associated with Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) have been observed extensively in the polar regions. However, observations of these anomalies at midlatitudes are sparse. The very dense 11-year data set, collected between 1993–2004, with the Rayleigh-scatter lidar at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO; 41.7°N, 111.8°W) at the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences (CASS) on the campus of Utah State University (USU), has been carefully examined for such anomalies. The temperatures derived from these data extend over the mesosphere, from 45 to 90 km. During this period extensive data were acquired during seven major SSW events. In this …

Arctic Air Pollution: New Insights From Polarcat-Ipy, Katherine S. Law, Andreas Stohl, Patricia K. Quinn, Charles A. Brock, John F. Burkhart, Jean-Daniel Paris, Gerard Ancellet, Hanwant B. Singh, Anke Roiger, Hans Schlager, Jack E. Dibb, Daniel J. Jacob, S R. Arnold, Jacques Pelon, Jennie L. Thomas

Earth Sciences

Given the rapid nature of climate change occurring in the Arctic and the difficulty climate models have in quantitatively reproducing observed changes such as sea ice loss, it is important to improve understanding of the processes leading to climate change in this region, including the role of short-lived climate pollutants such as aerosols and ozone. It has long been known that pollution produced from emissions at midlatitudes can be transported to the Arctic, resulting in a winter/spring aerosol maximum known as Arctic haze. However, many uncertainties remain about the composition and origin of Arctic pollution throughout the troposphere; for example, …

Investigating Mesospheric Gravity Wave Dynamics Over Mcmurdo Station, Antarctica (77° S), Jonathan Pugmire, Michael J. Taylor, Yucheng Zhao, Dominique Pautet

Graduate Student Posters

The ANtarctic Gravity Wave Instrument Network (ANGWIN) is an NSF sponsored international program designed to develop and utilize a network of gravity wave observatories using existing and new instrumentation operated at several established research stations around the continent. The primary goal is to better understand and quantify large-scale gravity wave climatology and their effects on the upper atmosphere over Antarctica. ANGWIN currently comprises research measurements from five nations (U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan, and Brazil) at seven international stations. Utah State University’s Atmospheric Imaging Lab operates an all-sky CCD, all-sky infrared imagers and an Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) imager at …

The National Science Foundation's Coupling, Energetics And Dynamics Of Atmospheric Regions (Cedar) Student Community, Leda Sox, Timothy Duly, Barbara Emery

Physics Student Research

The National Science Foundation sponsors Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Workshops, which have been held every summer, for the past 27 years. CEDAR Workshops are on the order of a week long and at various locations that are close to university campuses where CEDAR type scientific research is done. Although there is no formal student group within the CEDAR community, the workshops are very student-focused. Roughly half the Workshop participants are students. There are two Student Representatives on the CEDAR Science Steering Committee (CSSC), the group of scientists who organize the CEDAR Workshops. Each Student Representative is …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2014, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Drought Conditions

Agriculture

Horticulture

Recreation and Tourism

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Soil Moisture Conditions

Comparison Of Upper Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide From Mopitt, Ace-Fts, And Hippo-Qcls, Sara Martínez-Alonzo, Merritt N. Deeter, Helen M. Worden, John C. Gille, Louisa K. Emmons, Laura L. Pan, Mijeong Park, Gloria L. Manney, Peter F. Bernath, Chris D. Boone

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Products from the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument are regularly validated using in situ airborne measurements. However, few of these measurements reach into the upper troposphere, thus hindering MOPITT validation in that region. Here we evaluate upper tropospheric (~500 hPa to the tropopause) MOPITT CO profiles by comparing them to satellite Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) retrievals and to measurements from the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research Pole to Pole Observations (HIPPO) Quantum Cascade Laser Spectrometer (QCLS). Direct comparison of colocated v5 MOPITT thermal infrared-only retrievals, v3.0 ACE-FTS retrievals, and HIPPO-QCLS measurements shows …

Langmuir Probe Instrument Suite For Mesosphere Turbulence Experiment Mission, Adam Blake

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Langmuir probe technique is the predominant in-situ plasma diagnostic technique, and is arguably the only measurement technique that is universally own on every sounding rocket investigation. Earth's mesosphere region (80-120 km) is a host of many dynamic phenomena such as the noctilucent clouds, breaking gravity waves, inversion layers, settlement of mesospheric smoke particles, etc. As such it is critical to have a comprehensive suite of plasma diagnostics that can unambiguously measure various plasma parameters.

This thesis deals with the development and testing of three different Langmuir probe implementations suitable for investigation of the mesosphere which are to be launched …

Challenges Associated With Space Weather Analysis And Prediction, John Lanicci

Space Traffic Management Conference

The term “space weather” is typically used to describe environmental conditions in the region extending from the sun’s surface, through the interplanetary medium, to the earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere, with a focus on those conditions that can affect the earth, its technological systems, and population. Space weather conditions are monitored continuously by a number of agencies around the world. These agencies use both satellite- and ground-based measurements to build analyses and employ predictive models that form the basis for impacts-based products dealing with myriad users in satellite operations, the utility industry, aviation, and satellite-based communications, to name a …

Incoherent Scatter Radar Observations Of Dynamic Ion Composition Changes At High Latitudes During Geomagnetic Storms, Bryan C. Wright

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Two new methods are developed for estimating F region ion composition from field-aligned incoherent scatter radar (ISR) measurements. These methods address incoherent scatter spectra temperature-mass ambiguities by self-consistently modeling ion temperature profiles as a function of electric fields and plasma interactions with the neutral atmosphere. These two new methods improve on previous, similar work developed in Zettergren et al. [2010,2011] by incorporating more accurate physical models and improving the estimation procedures. These techniques enable studies of ionospheric composition during highly disturbed conditions and are suitable for data collected with short integration times (2-10 minutes). The improved models incorporate the effects …

Reply To ‘Co2 Emissions From Crop Residue-Derived Biofuels’, Adam Liska, Haishun Yang, Matthew P. Pelton, Andrew E. Suyker

Adam Liska Papers

The soil organic carbon (SOC) model that we used was parameterized with data from arable land under normal farming conditions in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, but the equation is insensitive to changes in tillage, soil texture and moisture. The model has reasonable accuracy, however, in predicting changes in SOC, residue remaining and CO₂ emissions from initial SOC, carbon inputs from residue, and daily temperature; the shoot-to-root ratio used in the geospatial simulation was 0.29 (that is, root carbon is 29% of total aboveground carbon), which did not underestimate carbon input to soil (Supplementary Figure 2 in Ref. …

Turbulence Transport Throughout The Heliosphere, Laxman Adhikari

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Interactive Comment On “Iodine Oxide In The Global Marine Boundary Layer” By C. Prados-Roman Et Al., Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Epa's Proposed Greenhouse Gas Regulation For Power Plants: How Does It Work And What Will It Mean For Nevada?, Adele C. Morris

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

In June, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed important new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from existing U.S. power plants. The new regulation is the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s climate policy. If the controversial rule is finalized as planned next year, it will cover about a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This lecture will explain the legal, environmental, and economic issues posed by the rule and highlight the important role for states in implementing it. The lecture will also review the implications and options for achieving the emissions target the EPA set for Nevada.

Numerical Simulation Of The Long-Range Propagation Of Gravity Wave Packets At High Latitudes, C. J. Heale, J. B. Snively, M. P. Hickey

Publications

We use a 2-D, nonlinear, time-dependent numerical model to simulate the propagation of wave packets under average high latitude, winter conditions. We investigate the ability of waves to propagate large horizontal distances, depending on their direction of propagation relative to the average modeled ambient winds. Wave sources were specified to represent the following: (1) the most common wave parameters inferred from observations of Nielsen et al. (2009) ((18 km λᵪ , 7.5 min period), (2) waves consistent with the average phase speed observed (40 m/s) but outlying horizontal wavelength and period values (40 km λᵪ , 17 min period), and …

New Measurements Of Mcmurdo Gravity Wave Parameters, Jonathan Pugmire, Michael J. Taylor

Graduate Student Presentations

The ANtarctic Gravity Wave Instrument Network (ANGWIN) is an NSF sponsored international program designed to develop and utilize a network of gravity wave observatories using existing and new instrumentation operated at several established research stations around the continent. The primary goal is to better understand and quantify large-scale gravity wave climatology and their effects on the upper atmosphere over Antarctica. ANGWIN currently comprises research measurements from five nations (U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan, and Brazil) at seven international stations. Utah State University’s Atmospheric Imaging Lab operates all-sky infrared and CCD imagers and an Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) imager at several …

Droughtscape, Fall 2014, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report

Upcoming events

Drought and climate summary

Drought impacts

Drought planning in Brazil

Ethiopian workshop

Visiting scholar

Help for South Plains ranchers

Wind River tribal workshop

Inter Tribal Buffalo Council

South Dakota ranch workshops

Towards A Paradigm Shift In The Modeling Of Soil Organic Carbon Decomposition For Earth System Models, Yujie He

Open Access Dissertations

Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon pools and contain approximately 2200 Pg of carbon. Thus, the dynamics of soil carbon plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and climate system. Earth System Models are used to project future interactions between terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate. However, these models often predict a wide range of soil carbon responses and their formulations have lagged behind recent soil science advances, omitting key biogeochemical mechanisms. In contrast, recent mechanistically-based biogeochemical models that explicitly account for microbial biomass pools and enzyme kinetics that catalyze soil carbon decomposition produce notably different results and …

Aircraft-Based Measurements For The Identification And Quantification Of Sources And Sinks In The Carbon Cycle, Dana R Caulton

Open Access Dissertations

Improved quantification of carbon-cycle sources and sinks is an important requirement for determining mitigation strategies and modeling future climate interactions. Analytically robust measurements require high-precision instrumentation and thoughtful experimental design to produce rigorous and reproducible results despite complex and quickly changing meteorological and environmental conditions. Here, an aircraft platform equipped with a high-precision cavity ring-down spectrometer for CO₂, CH₄ and H₂O quantification was used to acquire data from previously un-sampled sources. The aircraft mass-balance technique was used to quantify CH4 emissions from natural gas well pads in the drilling stage, which were 2-3 orders of …

Spatial And Temporal Characteristics Of Polarimetric Tornadic Debris Signatures, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke, Sabrina T. Jauernic

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Nonmeteorological scatter, including debris lofted by tornadoes, may be detected using the polarimetric radar variables. For the 17 months from January 2012 to May 2013, radar data were examined for each tornado reported in the domain of an operational polarimetric Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D). Characteristics of the tornadic debris signature (TDS) were recorded when a signature was present. Approximately 16% of all tornadoes reported in Storm Data were associated with a debris signature, and this proportion is shown to vary regionally. Signatures were more frequently seen with tornadoes that were rated higher on the enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, with …

Application Of High-Resolution Spectral Absorbance Measurements To Determine Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentration In Remote Areas, Armine Avagyan, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, Lars Kutzbach

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurate quantification of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in surface and soil pore waters is crucial for understanding changes in water resources under the influence of climate and land use changes. Sampling and laboratory analysis of DOC content at a sufficient temporal frequency are especially difficult to achieve for natural DOC sources like the extensive boreal and arctic mire landscapes due to their remoteness. Therefore, the goals of this paper are (1) to investigate the performance of a portable, high-resolution ultraviolet–visible light spectroscopic method for determining the DOC content of surface and soil pore water samples from a boreal mire complex …