SOARS Manuscripts

This study investigates two approaches for determining the height of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL): analyzing radio occultation (RO) observations and using NOAA's Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model. The first approach determines the ABL height by examining radio wave bending angle profiles from t…

In an attempt to better understand how summer rainfall in the Southern Rocky Mountains region may be changing due to Global Warming, simulations from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Nested Regional Climate Model (NRCM) for summer 1970 and summer 2020 were compared and contrasted.…

Terrestrial vegetation engages in important feedbacks with the carbon cycle and the climate system. The National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Community Land Model version 3.5 coupled to carbon/nitrogen cycling (CLM-CN 3.5) was compared to satellite observations of Normalized Difference V…

The North American Monsoon dominates over northwest Mexico during the summer and many people both depend on and can be endangered by increasing rains. Atmospheric General Circulation models have not been able to accurately simulate monsoonal rains due to the poor representation of lower-tropospheric…

The hydroxyl radical (OH) is an important chemical species. It is the primary oxidizing agent in the troposphere, reacting with many pollutants and consequently maintaining the purity of the air. It also plays an important role in the formation of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), which is important to aerosol…

Many transport and dispersion (T&D) models need prevailing winds and source location to forecast concentration and dosage fields. Therefore, the models use observational data or mesoscale-model-generated forecast winds as the prevailing winds. This research examines how errors in these input wind fi…

Hydrologic controls on ecosystem behavior (e.g. rainfall, runoff, infiltration, and soil moisture variability) have yet to be determined within the Trout Creek Watershed, located within the Manitou Springs Experimental Forest. Determining the major hydrological components and how they influence this…

There is a significant lack of data about present day stress fields in Antarctica. Stresses provide valuable information data about the forces acting on the plates. In Antarctica, stresses may be related to ridge forces such as rifting and/or uplifting, to ice loading/unloading related processes, or…

Plate tectonic setting and magmatic activity are intimately related, as evidenced by the fact that 95% of all magma generation (by volume) occurs along active continental margins. However, in Cenozoic western North America magmatism occurred over 1000 km from the active continental margin, even afte…

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) or ground based LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is a relatively new technology that digitally maps geological outcrops at a (mm-cm) resolution. This paper reports the results of a trial TLS project that has two main aims: collecting scans for monitoring gully ero…

To fully understand the nature of stars we must first know their internal structure. If this were known we could better understand how and why stars, more importantly our sun behave the way they do. The internal structure and the internal distribution of angular momentum of our sun are known. There …

In this study, we compare precipitable water vapor (PWV) values from two different observing techniques over the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and United States regions, including ground-based GPS water vapor sensing and COSMIC radio occultation (RO) measurements, as well as global analyses from NC…

The Storm Peak Aerosol and Cloud Characteristics Study (SPACCS) was conducted from March 24 to April 15 of 2008 at the Storm Peak Laboratory, located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains (40.45N, 106.73W) at an elevation of 3200m. The study objectives included measurements of aerosol concentrations, size…

Santa Cruz Island is arguably the most visited island in the Galapagos. The coastal zone of Puerto Ayora, Academy Bay, Santa Cruz Island is susceptible to changes from land-ocean interactions, climate shifts and human activities. Human activities from urbanization, tourism and waste production are a…

[1] Total electron content (TEC) exhibits significant variations in both space and time depending upon latitude, longitude, solar cycle, UTC, and season; these variations can have potentially negative effects on communication and navigation systems. Recently, three models have provided accurate resu…

Present and future generations can benefit from the preparation of contemporary communities for the impacts of changing climate conditions. This project explored future access to water on the Northeast Kansas Kickapoo Reservation and introduced scientific climate model projections from the National …

The propagation of a precipitating trade wind cumulus cloud was documented by a ground-based S-band weather radar combined with data from the GPS Advanced Upper-air Sounding (GAUS) system on January 19, 2005. Radar reflectivity and Doppler velocities were compared with GAUS soundings to study how th…

Any change in tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall could positively and/or adversely impact the well-being of humans worldwide. This first global 10-year Rainfall Climatology and Persistence (R-CLIPER) model TC rainfall study seeks to enhance the basic understanding of TC contribution to annual global rai…

Chemical constituents are transported from the boundary layer to the upper troposphere via deep convection. Once in the upper troposphere these constituents have longer lifetimes and are readily advected. Vertical transport of these constituents is important because they affect the Earth's radiation…

In essence, the task at hand is to successfully analyze landslide behavior by using a deterministic analysis of rainfall thresholds. An alternative approach for defining rainfall thresholds uses deterministic models for rainfall infiltration and slope stability testing. Deterministic modeling is bel…

As climate change more media attention, public interest in the possible connection between rising global temperatures and the severity of tropical cyclones is increasing. Research into this relationship is also increasing, but incorporating student research experiences on these topics into secondary…

We present a new analytical model of atmospheric waves in the equatorial area that filters out inertia-gravity waves, to gain insight on the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). Since the MJO is a climate phenomenon, one would like to study it using climate models, which are performed exclusively with t…

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) established with 90% confidence that anthropogenic climate change will result in a warmer world. In order to more fully understand possible future climate, past analogues of warm periods should be analyzed. The Pliocene epoch is an appropriate ana…

Heat waves can have devastating impacts on society, but a current weakness with the analysis and modeling of heat waves is the negligible use of the Statistical Theory of Extreme Values. This is a branch of statistics more appropriate for studying extreme events such as heat waves, floods, etc. For …

An upwelling of basaltic magma 29 million years ago caused the earth's crust to spread apart and create a region known today as the Rio Grande Rift (RGR). The RGR extends from central Colorado through New Mexico to northern Mexico, near El Paso. The RGR has different geologic features that distingui…