Atmospheric Sciences Commons^™

Droughtscape- Winter 2013, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

CONTENTS

Director’s report...................................................................................1

Climatological overview of drought in 2012 ...................................... 2

Climatological overview of drought, Oct.-Dec. 2012.........................5

Impacts of drought in 2012 ................................................................. 6

Drought planning webinars scheduled for ranch advisors ..............10

UNL honors NDMC for exceptional service ...................................10

Report from the emerging community of drought planners ...........11

Feb. 6 webinar on drought simulations ............................................ 11

Climate Masters course starting ......................................................12

Climate Change in the Midwest book includes drought ................12

Video highlights from coverage of drought of 2012..........................13

U.S. Drought Monitor Forum 2013 .................................................. 13

UN’s High Level Meeting on National Drought Policy .................... 14

NDMC collaboration with India, Czech …

Numerical Investigations Of Convective Initiation In Barbados, Kim Whitehall, Sen Chiao, Margarette Mayers-Als

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Localized convection in Barbados accounts for hazardous conditions and a significant percentage of the island’s annual rainfall. The feature results in rainfall accumulations exceeding 50 mm in 3 hours or less, over isolated locations. Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) simulations are conducted for a rapid convective initiated and heavy precipitation event of 26 August 2008 over Barbados. The simulation results from the 1 km grid resolution domain depict that the shallow topography on the island plays a significant role in enhancing convective activity under weak synoptically disturbed conditions. The model results also demonstrate that the driving forces for the …

Rose: Roadmaps Towards Sustainable Energy Futures And Climate Protection: A Synthesis Of Results From The Rose Project, Elmar Kriegler, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Enrica Decian, Robert J. Brecha, Wenying Chen, Aleh Cherp, Jae Edmonds, Kejun Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, Fabio Sferra, Massimo Tavoni, Ottmar Edenhofer

Physics Faculty Publications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Exploring energy demand and supply uncertainty: An exploration of uncertainty on drivers of energy demand and supply is indispensable for better understanding the prospects of long-tern climate stabilization. The RoSE study is the first of its kind to systematically explore the impact of economic growth, population and fossil fuel scarcity, in scenarios with and without climate policy, using a model ensemble. A feature of RoSE is the participation of five established integrated assessment modelling teams from three important regions in international climate policy negotiations: the EU, the USA and China.

Economic growth: Neither slow nor rapid economic growth …

Implementation And Model To Model Intercomparison Of 12 Heat Stress Metrics, Jonathan Robert Buzan

Open Access Theses

Earth system models simulate the dynamics of the most complex systems on our planet with some success. Despite the overwhelming sophistication of these models, which include dynamical interactions of ocean, atmosphere, vegetation, ice, and land-surface properties, they fail to include the most important element. People. Humans are also a complex physical-biological system and coupling of human physiology within an Earth Systems Modeling framework is challenging. This thesis presents results that tackle one particular component of human physiological climate interaction--a representation of heat stress on human physiology. Twelve different metrics were implemented and analyzed. These metrics represent a variety of philosophical …

Metr 323: Physical Meteorology—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Jun Wang

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Hands-on out-door activities are added into a course that is designed to teach students atmospheric physics ranging form solar light transfer to cloud and precipitation formation in the atmosphere. Statistical analysis and anonymous survey are conducted to benchmark the improvement in students' learning. Results show that these hands-on activities increase the student's interest and understanding in the course materials, and also improve the overall students' satisfaction for the course.

Chemical Consequences Of Chicxulub Impact Ejecta Reentry, Devon Donald Parkos

Open Access Theses

The Chicxulub impact 66.0 million years ago initiated the second biggest extinction in the Phanerozoic Eon. The global reentry of material ejected by the impact generated a strong pulse of thermal radiation that wiped out much of the terrestrial biota. The cause of the marine extinction, however, has remained elusive. This report shows that reentering ejecta produces enough NOx to acidify the upper ocean and cause a massive marine extinction. Using non-equilibrium chemically reacting flow simulations coupled with atmospheric transport modeling, it is determined that enough NOx reached the stratosphere and precipitated to overpower the carbonate buffer and acidify the …

Uncertainties In Modelling Heterogeneous Chemistry And Arctic Ozone Depletion In The Winter 2009/2010, I. Wohltmann, T. Wegner, R. Müller, R. Lehmann, M. Rex, G. L. Manney, M. L. Santee, P. Bernath, O. Suminska-Ebersoldt

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Stratospheric chemistry and denitrification are simulated for the Arctic winter 2009/2010 with the Lagrangian Chemistry and Transport Model ATLAS. A number of sensitivity runs is used to explore the impact of uncertainties in chlorine activation and denitrification on the model results. In particular, the efficiency of chlorine activation on different types of liquid aerosol versus activation on nitric acid trihydrate clouds is examined. Additionally, the impact of changes in reaction rate coefficients, in the particle number density of polar stratospheric clouds, in supersaturation, temperature or the extent of denitrification is investigated. Results are compared to satellite measurements of MLS and …

Metr 200: Weather And Climate—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio is meant to be an assessment of how well the objectives of METR 200 (Weather and Climate) are being attained by students in several classifications of academic major. Students from a wide range of backgrounds enroll in this course as a general science elective, and for many, it will be the only science course taken in college. Thus, it is important that course material be sufficiently accessible for all students, while providing meaningful information which will be applicable by students of all backgrounds once they leave the course. In this portfolio, an analysis will be presented showing …

Turbulent Collision-Coalescence In Maritime Shallow Convection, A. A. Wyszogrodzki, W.W. Grabowski, L. P. Wang, Orlando Ayala

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

This paper discusses cloud simulations aiming at quantitative assessment of the effects of cloud turbulence on rain development in shallow ice-free convective clouds. Cloud fields from large-eddy simulations (LES) applying bin microphysics with the collection kernel enhanced by cloud turbulence are compared to those with the standard gravitational collection kernel. Simulations for a range of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations are contrasted. Details on how the parameterized turbulent collection kernel is used in LES simulations are presented. Because of the disparity in spatial scales between the bottom-up numerical studies guiding the turbulent kernel development and the top-down LES simulations of …

Terpene And Terpenoid Emissions And Secondary Organic Aerosol Production, Rosa M. Flores

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Approximately 90% of fine aerosol in the Midwestern United States has a regional component with a sizable fraction attributed to secondary production of organic aerosol (SOA). The Ozark Forest is an important source of biogenic SOA precursors like isoprene (> 150 mg m^-2 d^-1), monoterpenes (10-40 mg m^-2 d^-1), and sesquiterpenes (10-40 mg m^-2d^-1). Anthropogenic sources include secondary sulfate and nitrate and biomass burning (51-60%), vehicle emissions (17-26%), and industrial emissions (16-18%). Vehicle emissions are an important source of volatile and vapor-phase, semivolatile aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons that are important …

Investigations Of Cloud Microphysical Response To Mixing Using Digital Holography, Matthew Jacob Beals

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Cloud edge mixing plays an important role in the life cycle and development of clouds. Entrainment of subsaturated air affects the cloud at the microscale, altering the number density and size distribution of its droplets. The resulting effect is determined by two timescales: the time required for the mixing event to complete, and the time required for the droplets to adjust to their new environment. If mixing is rapid, evaporation of droplets is uniform and said to be homogeneous in nature. In contrast, slow mixing (compared to the adjustment timescale) results in the droplets adjusting to the transient state of …

Production Mechanisms, Number Concentration, Size Distribution, Chemical Composition, And Optical Properties Of Sea Spray Aerosols, Nicholas Meskhidze, Markus D. Petters, Kostas Tsigaridis, Tim Bates, Colin O'Dowd, Jeff Reid, Ernie R. Lewis, Brett Gantt, Magdalena D. Anguelova, Prakash V. Bhave, Andrew Wozniak

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

(First paragraph)

The impact of sea spray aerosols on global climate remains one of the most uncertain components of the aerosol–radiation–climate problem, but has received less attention than the impacts of terrestrial and anthropogenic aerosols. The last decade has produced a large body of information regarding the sources and composition of marine aerosols, resulting in a reassessment of the complex role that sea spray particles play in climate and various geophysical phenomena. As sea spray aerosol contributes substantially to the preindustrial, natural background which provides the baseline on top of which anthropogenic forcing should be quantified, and because the ocean …

Quantifying The Impact Of Boreal Forest Fires On Tropospheric Oxidants Over The Atlantic Using Aircraft And Satellites (Bortas) Experiment: Design, Execution And Science Overview, P. I. Palmer, M. Parrington, J. D. Lee, A, C. Lewis, A. R. Rickard, P. F. Bernath, T. J. Duck, D. L. Waugh, D. W. Tarasick, S. Andrews

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We describe the design and execution of the BORTAS (Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites) experiment, which has the overarching objective of understanding the chemical aging of air masses that contain the emission products from seasonal boreal wildfires and how these air masses subsequently impact downwind atmospheric composition. The central focus of the experiment was a two-week deployment of the UK BAe-146-301 Atmospheric Research Aircraft (ARA) over eastern Canada, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Atmospheric ground-based and sonde measurements over Canada and the Azores associated with the planned …

Validation Of Stratospheric And Mesospheric Ozone Observed By Smiles From International Space Station, Y. Kasai, H. Sagawa, D. Kreyling, E. Dupuy, P. Baron, J. Mendrok, K Suzuki, T. O. Sato, T. Nishibori, S. Mizobuchi, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We observed ozone O₃ in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~ 12-96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O₃ line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O₃ at various local times. We assessed the quality of the vertical …

A Modeling Investigation Of Human Exposure To Select Traffic-Related Air Pollutants In The Tampa Area: Spatiotemporal Distributions Of Concentrations, Social Distributions Of Exposures, And Impacts Of Urban Design On Both, Haofei Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing vehicle dependence in the United States has resulted in substantial emissions of traffic-related air pollutants that contribute to the deterioration of urban air quality. Exposure to urban air pollutants trigger a number of public health concerns, including the potential of inequality of exposures and health effects among population subgroups. To better understand the impact of traffic-related pollutants on air quality, exposure, and exposure inequality, modeling methods that can appropriately characterize the spatiotemporally resolved concentration distributions of traffic-related pollutants need to be improved. These modeling methods can then be used to investigate the impacts of urban design and transportation management …

Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions From A Waste Lagoon, Arturo I. Quintanar, Rezaul Mamood, Nanh Lovanh, Justin M. Rawley, Evi Becerra-Acosta, John H. Loughrin

HPRCC Personnel Publications

A cost-effective approach was used to investigate the relationship between emission of the greenhouse gases (GHG), namely, CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O and energy fluxes from a swine waste lagoon. Energy fluxes were calculated using the Penman method. The energy fluxes showed a diurnal pattern as expected of such fluxes. We found that air temperature and latent energy, lagoon surface temperature and solar radiation, as well as air temperature and wind speed can be used to predict for CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions, respectively. Comparison of observed and predicted …

Climate Change: What Does It Mean For Nebraska?, Martha D. Shulski, Natalie A. Umphlett, Tapan B. Pathak, Kenneth G. Hubbard

HPRCC Personnel Publications

Because Nebraska’s location on the North American continent is far removed from large bodies of water, Nebraskans experience a strong continental type climate. As such, residents do not benefit from the moderating influence of the ocean, and temperatures can have wide swings from day to day and season to season. Typical characteristics for a continental climate at this latitude are large temperature variability with warm summers dominated by convective thunderstorms, and cold winters influenced by snow and wind from mid-latitude cyclones.

Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Snowfall In Central New York - A Lake Effect Dominated Region, Justin Joseph Hartnett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Central New York is located in one of the snowiest regions in the United States, with the city of Syracuse, New York the snowiest metropolis in the nation. Snowfall in the region generally begins in mid-November and lasts until late-March. Snow accumulation occurs from a multitude of conditions: frontal systems, mid-latitude cyclones, Nor'easters, and most notably lake-effect storms. Lake effect snowfall (LES) is a difficult parameter to forecast due to the isolated and highly variable nature of the storm. Consequently, studies have attempted to determine changes in snowfall for lake-effect dominated regions. Annual snowfall patterns are of particular concern as …

High-Latitude Short-Period Mesospheric Gravity Wave Dynamics And Winter Climatology, Michael Negale, Kim Nielsen, Michael J. Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Margit Dyrland

Physics Student Research

Short-period gravity wave observations over the Arctic region are few and their impact on the Arctic mesosphere lower thermosphere region via momentum deposition is of high interest. The Mesospheric Airglow Imaging and Dynamics project was initiated in January 2011 to investigate the presence and dynamics of these waves over the interior of Alaska. Observations were made from Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) using an all-sky imager. This site provides an exceptional opportunity to establish a long-term climatology of short-period gravity waves in the Arctic Region. We present summary measurements of prominent gravity waves over two consecutive winters and compare their …

Harmonized Dataset Of Ozone Profiles From Satellite Limb And Occultation Measurements, V. F. Sofieva, N. Rahpoe, J. Tamminen, E. Kyrölä, N. Kalakoski, M. Weber, A. Rozanov, C. Von Savigny, A Laeng, T. Von Clarmann, P. Bernath, R. J. Hargreaves

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a HARMonized dataset of OZone profiles (HARMOZ) based on limb and occultation measurements from Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS and SCIAMACHY), Odin (OSIRIS, SMR) and SCISAT (ACE-FTS) satellite instruments. These measurements provide high-vertical-resolution ozone profiles covering the altitude range from the upper troposphere up to the mesosphere in years 2001-2012. HARMOZ has been created in the framework of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative project. The harmonized dataset consists of original retrieved ozone profiles from each instrument, which are screened for invalid data by the instrument teams. While the original ozone profiles are presented in different …