Meteorology Commons^™

Representation Of Ethiopian Wet Spells In Global And Nested Models, Mark Jury, Sen Chiao

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Weather forecast and reanalysis models exhibit different performance in daily rainfall estimation over the Ethiopian highlands, 2000–2012, with ECMWF closer to observations than other models. Background is given to illustrate the Hadley circulation and easterly jets over Ethiopia, using sections on 37°E in July–August 2011. ECMWF reanalysis has a narrow band of rainfall >15 mm/day on 10°N, consistent with TRMM satellite estimates, associated with a steep gradient in meridional wind. MERRA and GFS models have a wider band of rainfall and weaker gradients in meridional winds. The contrasting background states influence a nested WRF model simulation of heavy rain in …

Prescribed Burning Of Logging Slash In The Boreal Forest Of Finland: Emissions And Effects On Meteorological Quantities And Soil Properties, A. Virkkula, J. Levula, T. Pohja, P. Aalto, P. Keronen, S. Schobesberger, Craig Clements, L. Pirjola, A. Kieloaho, L. Kulmala, H. Aaltonen, J. Patoskoski, J. Pumpanen, J. Rinne, T. Ruuskanen, M. Pihlatie, H. Mannien, V. Aaltonen, H. Junninen, T. Petaja, J. Backman, M. Dal Maso, T. Nieminen, T. Olsson, T. Grönholm, J. Aalto, T. Virtanen, M. Kajos, V. Kerminen, D. Shultz, J. Kukkonen, M. Sofiev, G. De Leeuw, J. Back, P. Hari, M. Kulmala

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

A prescribed fire experiment was conducted on 26 June 2009 in Hyytiälä, Finland, to study aerosol and trace gas emissions from prescribed fires of slash fuels and the effects of fire on soil properties in a controlled environment. A 0.8 ha forest near the SMEAR II measurement station (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations) was cut clear; some tree trunks, all tree tops and branches were left on the ground and burned. The amount of burned organic material was ~46.8 tons (i.e., ~60 tons ha−1). The flaming phase lasted 2 h 15 min, the smoldering phase 3 h. Measurements were conducted …

Investigating The Effect Of The ‘‘Land Between The Lakes’’ On Storm Patterns, Joshua D. Durkee, Ahmed M. Degu, Faisal Hossain, Rezaul Mahmood, Jesse Winchester, Themis Chronis

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

The artificially created region around the ‘‘Land between the Lakes’’ (LBL) in Kentucky represents unique land use and land cover (LULC) heterogeneities. Over a distance of 100 km, the LULC comprises artificially created open water bodies (i.e., two parallel large run-on-river dams separated by the LBL), mountainous terrain, forest cover, and extensive agricultural land. Such heterogeneities increase (decrease) moisture supply and sensible heat, resulting in a differential air mass boundary that helps to initiate (inhibit) convection. Hence, the LBL can potentially modify precipitation formation. Historical anecdotes reveal a tendency for storms to dissipate or reintensify near the LBL. The specific …

A Comparison Of The Mm5 And The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System Simulations For Land--Atmosphere Interactions Under Varying Soil Moisture, Astrid Suarez, Rezaul Mamood, Arturo I. Quintanar, Adriana Beltran-Prezekurat, Roger Pielke Sr.

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

A comparison between two mesoscale models, Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) version 4.4 coupled with the Land-Ecosystem--Atmosphere Feedback Model (LEAF2) and Penn State/NCAR’s Mesoscale Model (MM5) coupled with NOAH Land Surface Model, was conducted in order to assess the sensitivity of forecasted planetary boundary layer (PBL) variables to anomalous initial volumetric soil moisture conditions. The experiments were conducted using three synoptic events: June 11, 17 and 22, 2006. For each event, one control run and six additional simulations were completed using RAMS and MM5. In each of the events, initial volumetric soil moisture was increased and decreased …

Winter Wind Chill Climatology For The High Plains Region, Holly B. Lussenden, Natalie A. Umphlett, Martha D. Shulski, Daniel Ebert

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

During the winter months in the High Plains region of the United States, wind chill temperatures can reach dangerous levels for humans and animals. Knowing the frequency in which extreme wind chill temperatures occur could help forecasters know when to issue wind chill advisories and also the general public understand just how rare, or common, certain wind chill temperatures are. A climatology spanning a 37-year period was created using data from 57 stations in and around the plains portion of the High Plains region from the Integrated Surface Hourly Database at National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). These climatologies were completed …

Climate Masters Of Nebraska: An Innovative Action-Based Approach For Climate Change Education, Tapan Pathak, Tonya Bernadt, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Climate Masters of Nebraska is an innovative educational program that strategically trains community volunteers about climate change science and corresponding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an interactive and action-based teaching environment. As a result of the program, 91% of participants indicated that they made informed changes in their lives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 500 hours of volunteer work was reported by participants as an outreach for greenhouse gas emission reduction. The program can be easily replicated to other locales with an effective planning and with small leadership team.

Droughtscape, Winter 2014, Kelly Smith

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

Contents

Director’s report

Outlook & quarterly review . 2

Drought in 2013 review.

Quarterly impacts review . 5

Impacts in 2013 review.

Belmont Forum research0

USDM change maps 11

Central Asia drought planning

Kansas RC&D planning

Publication compares plans

Drought for planners webinar

Soil moisture networks

Kansas farm and ranch planning

$500 to develop leadership

Kids seek solutions

Plains symposium April 1-4

A Molecular-Level Approach For Characterizing Water-Insoluble Components Of Ambient Organic Aerosol Particulates Using Ultrahigh-Resolution Mass Spectrometry, A. S. Willoughby, A. S. Wozniak, Patrick G. Hatcher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The chemical composition of organic aerosols in the atmosphere is strongly influenced by human emissions. The effect these have on the environment, human health, and climate change is determined by the molecular nature of these chemical species. The complexity of organic aerosol samples limits the ability to study the chemical composition, and therefore the associated properties and the impacts they have. Many studies have addressed the watersoluble fraction of organic aerosols and have had much success in identifying specific molecular formulas for thousands of compounds present. However, little attention is given to the water-insoluble portion, which can contain most of …

Distinguishing Molecular Characteristics Of Aerosol Water Soluble Organic Matter From The 2011 Trans-North Atlantic Us Geotraces Cruise, A. S. Wozniak, A. S. Willoughby, S. C. Gurganus, Patrick G. Hatcher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The molecular characteristics of aerosol organic matter (OM) determines to a large extent its impacts on the atmospheric radiative budget and ecosystem function in terrestrial and aquatic environments, yet the OM molecular details of aerosols from different sources are not well established. Aerosol particulate samples with North American-influenced, North African-influenced, and marine (minimal recent continental influence) air mass back trajectories were collected as part of the 2011 trans-North Atlantic US GEOTRACES cruise and analyzed for their water soluble OM (WSOM) molecular characteristics using electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis (PCA) separated the samples into …

Global Stratospheric Fluorine Inventory For 2004-2009 From Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Ace-Fts) Measurements And Slimcat Model Simulations, A. T. Brown, M. P. Chipperfield, N. A. D. Richards, C. Boone, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Fluorine-containing species can be extremely effective atmospheric greenhouse gases. We present fluorine budgets using organic and inorganic species retrieved by the ACE-FTS satellite instrument supplemented with output from the SLIMCAT 3-D chemical transport model. The budgets are calculated between 2004 and 2009 for a number of latitude bands: 70-30 °N, 30-00 °N, 00 °N-30 °S, and 30-70°S. At lower altitudes total fluorine profiles are dominated by the contribution from CFC-12, up to an altitude of 20 km in the extra-tropics and 29 km in the tropics; above these altitudes the profiles are dominated by hydrogen fluoride (HF). Our data show …

Derivation Of Tropospheric Methane From Tccon Ch4 And Hf Total Column Observations, K. M. Saad, D. Wunch, P. Bernath, C. Boone, B. Connor, N. M. Deutscher, D.W.T. Griffith, R. Kivi, J. Notholt, C. Roehl, M. Schneider, V. Sherlock, P. O. Wennberg

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) is a global ground-based network of Fourier transform spectrometers that produce precise measurements of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of atmospheric methane (CH₄). Temporal variability in the total column of CH₄ due to stratospheric dynamics obscures fluctuations and trends driven by tropospheric transport and local surface fluxes that are critical for understanding CH₄ sources and sinks. We reduce the contribution of stratospheric variability from the total column average by subtracting an estimate of the stratospheric CH₄ derived from simultaneous measurements of hydrogen fluoride (HF). HF provides a proxy for …

Horizontal Divergence Of Typhoon-Generated Gravity Waves In The Upper Troposphere And Lower Stratosphere (Utls) And Its Influence On Typhoon Evolution, Seung Hee Kim, H.-Y. Chun, W. Jang

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The characteristics of horizontal divergence induced by typhoon-generated gravity waves (HDTGWs) and the influence of HDTGW on typhoon evolution are investigated based on the simulation results of Typhoon Saomai (2006) using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The power spectral density of HDTGW shows dominant powers at horizontal wavelengths of 20-30 km and at periods of less than 1 h. This is associated with gravity waves generated by vigorous convective clouds in an inner core region of the typhoon. However, the domain-averaged HDTGW in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere had a spectral peak at 24 h, which is …

Airborne Measurements Of Aerosols And Carbon Dioxide During A Prescribed Fire Experiment At A Boreal Forest Site, Aki Virkkula, Toivo Pohja, Pasi Aalto, Petri Keronen, Siegfried Schobesberger, Craig Clements, Tuukka Petäjä, Juha Nikmo, Markku Kulmala

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

During a prescribed fire experiment, CO2 and particle number concentrations, light scattering and absorption coefficients were measured from a Cessna 172 airplane. Peak number concentrations were (3 ± 1) x 106 cm–3 and they decreased faster than what can be explained by coagulation alone. The single-scattering albedo of particles grew from the values of 0.4 ± 0.1 closest to the emissions to the values of 0.8 ± 0.1 at the distance of 400 m from the emissions. The mean Ângström exponent of absorption, 1.70 ± 0.24, is in line with the published spectral absorption values of wood-smoke aerosol. The estimated …

Ice Crystal Formation And Evolution In Five Campaigns: Start08, Hippo Global, Dc3, Predict And Torero, Minghui Diao, Joshua Digangi, Anthony O’Brien, Mark Zondlo

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

In order to understand the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds, it is important to understand the formation and evolution of the environments where ice crystals form and reside on the microscale (~100 m). Uncertainties remain in simulating/parameterizing the evolution of ice crystals, which require more analyses in the Lagrangian view. However, most in situ observations are in the Eulerian view and are restricted from examining the lifecycle of cirrus clouds. In this work, a new method of Diao et al. GRL (2013)* is used to separate out five phases of ice crystal evolution, using the horizontal spatial relationships between ice …

Keeney, Sean Carpenter (Sc 1259), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1259. “My Experience of ‘Andrew,’” by Sean Keeney, Dade County, Florida, relating the effect on him and his family of Hurricane Andrew, which struck the area on 24 August 1992. Includes biographical data on Keeney.

Adjusted Tornado Probabilities, Holly M. Widen, James B. Elsner, Cameron Amrine, Rizalino B. Cruz, Erik Fraza, Laura Michaels, Loury Migliorelli, Brendan Mulholland, Michael Patterson, Sarah Strazzo, Guang Xing

Publications

Tornado occurrence rates computed from the available reports are biased low relative to the unknown true rates. To correct for this low bias, the authors demonstrate a method to estimate the annual probability of being struck by a tornado that uses the average report density estimated as a function of distance from nearest city/town center. The method is demonstrated on Kansas and then applied to 15 other tornado-prone states from Nebraska to Tennessee. States are ranked according to their adjusted tornado rate and comparisons are made with raw rates published elsewhere. The adjusted rates, expressed as return periods, arestates, including …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2013, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Soil Moisture

September Flooding in Colorado

Early October Blizzard

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook

Sfa Weather Station-November 2013, Arthur Temple College Of Forestry And Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State University

Weather Station Data

No abstract provided.

Observed Versus Gcm-Generated Local Tropical Cyclone Frequency: Comparisons Using A Spatial Lattice, Sarah Strazzo, Daniel J. Halperin, James Elsner, Tim Larow, Ming Zhao

Publications

Of broad scientific and public interest is the reliability of global climate models (GCMs) to simulate future regional and local tropical cyclone (TC) occurrences. Atmospheric GCMs are now able to generate vortices resembling actual TCs, but questions remain about their fidelity to observed TCs. Here the authors demonstrate a spatial lattice approach for comparing actual with simulated TC occurrences regionally using observed TCs from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) dataset and GCM-generated TCs from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) High Resolution Atmospheric Model (HiRAM) and Florida State University (FSU) Center for Ocean–Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) …

Disher, John Lee, 1938-2019 (Sc 1183), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1183. Letter from John Lee Disher of Summerville, South Carolina, to his sister Nancy Disher Baird, Bowling Green, Kentucky, describing the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo.