SOARS Manuscripts

Data were obtained from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) instrument on the European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) satellite and from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) on the European Space Agency's Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) to const…

The southwestern U.S. is one of many regions susceptible to the effects of our changing climate system. Numerous climate phenomena, such as the North American Monsoon and Madden-Julian Oscillation, are known to correlate with precipitation and temperature variations in the Southwest. These processes…

The development and propagation of a gust front is shown to be an integral part of a thunderstorm's life cycle in conceptual models and schematics. This outflow boundary has the potential to initiate new storms as well as inhibit or enhance existing storms. However, not every thunderstorm produces a…

The increasing desire to engage the public in science and research has advanced citizen science as a valuable and popular means to this end. Citizen science, a process by which concerned individuals, agencies, industries or community groups collaborate to monitor, track, and respond to issues of com…

The sensitivity of tropical cyclone (TC) development to environmental moisture is studied using a two-dimensional, axisymmetric model. The model is initialized with tropospheric relative humidities (RH) ranging from 0% to 100%. Generally, the moister the initial environment, the shorter the amount o…

Clouds directly affect Earth's energy budget by changing the planet's albedo and the balance of incoming and outgoing radiation. Of particular interest are marine stratocumulus (Sc), which play an important role in this balance by typically cooling the planet. To better understand Sc and their effec…

Each year, adverse weather along roadways results in over 7,000 fatalities, 673,000 injuries, nearly $9.5 billion in congestion delays, and costs shipping companies $3.5 billion. Currently, decision support systems recommend road surface treatments for snow removal operations by incorporating output…

Wind offers an inexhaustible domestic energy source with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. To maximize energy generation from wind turbines it is essential to understand the influence of inflow conditions and wakes on wind turbine energy production. In accordance with this goal, the TWICS field camp…

Monoterpenes (C₁₀H₁₆) are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) naturally emitted into the atmosphere from vegetation, especially flowering plants and conifers. VOCs play a role in controlling atmospheric chemistry and they participate in the formation of air pollutants, such as ozone. Monoterpene emiss…

Short-lived radicals play a key role in the chemistry of the lower atmosphere. They oxidize pollutants, e.g., carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH₄), making them more soluble and therefore easier to remove by wet or dry deposition. Without these radicals, tropospheric pollution would accumulate to m…

This study analyzes precipitable water vapor (PWV) in and around tropical cyclones (TC) over the Caribbean region. PWV is highly variable in time and space, and it is a potential energy source for tropical cyclone development. To characterize the PWV profile in and around TCs, observations of PWV ar…

At high latitude there is a strong coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Modeling the full coupling can require extensive computing resources, since a magnetosphere model has to be coupled to an ionosphere model. Therefore, most general-circulation models (GCMs) approximate this high-la…

Implementation of potential damage assessment tools in hurricane-prone areas is an essential aspect of communicating accurate hurricane risk information. Several indices currently exist (e.g., Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) that effectively communicate storm strength; however, they are unable …

Between January 2011 and August 2011, three of the top five worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history occurred. Some may hypothesize that this is due to climate change. To test this theory, the climate normals of possible severe thunderstorm days in the Cincinnati Metropolitan area were examined. This…

The Southeast Queensland (SEQ) region of Australia has been affected by drought conditions and critical water shortages in recent years. The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Program (QCSRP) was conducted to assess the viability of using hygroscopic seeding to enhance precipitation in the SEQ region…

While much is known about the evolution of mesoscale convective vortices (MCVs) found in the middle troposphere, less is known about the evolutions of MCVs with strong surface reflections. Over recent years, several such MCVs have impacted the central and eastern portions of the United States. While…

Studies of tropical storms recognize eye formation as an important indicator of intensification toward a mature cyclone. However, the reason why some tropical storms form eyes while others do not is not well understood. Our goal is to identify large-scale environmental conditions that favor or inhib…

Natural gas clathrate hydrate formation has been well studied, both in laboratory settings in in-situ. This study expanded on previous work by taking a novel approach to studying deep-sea hydrate formation by utilizing the principals of mass spectrometry and a high pressure/low temperature chamber t…

The 8.2 ka event, which occurred 8200 years before present, was a period of abrupt cooling that is recorded in multiple proxy records across the Northern Hemisphere. During this event, a cooling of 3.3°C ± 1.1°C, was estimated from Greenland ice cores and lasted about 150 years. Prior to the 8.2 ka …

A sudden surge or drop in wind speed, and consequently in wind power, over a brief period of time broadly defines a wind ramp (WR) event. Predicting the magnitude and timing of WR events is crucial for wind power integration into the electric grid. By exploring WR events, a better understanding of t…

Spherical centroidal Voronoi tessellations (SCVTs) are proving themselves a viable alternative to latitude-longitude grids for numerical weather prediction but require the development of new numerical schemes. SCVT-based variable-resolution grids are another area of research interest which can help …

Rapid melting of Arctic ice presents a significant positive forcing on the global climate system, highlighting the need to understand the forces determining melting rates. Black carbon (BC) deposition on Arctic snow and ice decreases surface albedo and increases surface and atmospheric warming, acce…

Observations reveal alarming drops in Arctic sea ice extent, and climate models project that further changes will occur that could have global repercussions. An important aspect of this change is the surface albedo feedback, driven by the contrast between the albedos of snow/ice and the open ocean. …

Accurate information on damage caused by landfalling hurricanes benefits decision making and response of groups such as emergency managers and insurance companies. Estimates of potential damage made in advance of landfall using readily available storm information would provide useful guidance for pr…

The Weather Researching and Forecasting (WRF) model has been used operationally to predict weather. Previous studies have mentioned the difficulty of predicting convective weather accurately in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. The focus of this study is to examine the pre-convective enviro…