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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Anderson, Brooke, committee member"

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    Assessing the impact of stratospheric aerosol injection on convective weather environments in the United States
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Glade, Ivy, author; Hurrell, James W., advisor; Rasmussen, Kristen L., committee member; Anderson, Brooke, committee member
    Continued climate warming, together with the overall development and implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation approaches, has prompted increasing research into the potential of proposed solar climate intervention (SCI) methods, such as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). SAI would reflect a small amount of incoming solar radiation away from the Earth to reduce warming due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Research into the possible risks and benefits of SAI relative to the risks from climate change is emerging. There is not yet, however, an adequate understanding of how SAI might impact human and natural systems. To date, little or no research has been done to examine how SAI might impact environmental conditions critical to the formation of severe convective weather over the United States (U.S.), for instance. We use parallel ensembles of Earth system model simulations of future climate change, with and without hypothetical SAI deployment, to examine possible future changes in thermodynamic and kinematic parameters critical to the formation of severe weather during convectively active seasons over the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. We find that simulated forced changes in thermodynamic parameters are significantly reduced under SAI relative to a no-SAI world, while simulated changes in kinematic parameters are more difficult to distinguish. We also find that unforced internal climate variability may significantly modulate the projected forced climate changes over large regions of the U.S.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Investigating the impact of forced and internal climate variability on future convective storm environments in subtropical South America: a large ensemble approach
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Chakraborty, Anindita, author; Rasmussen, Kristen, advisor; Hurrell, James, advisor; Anderson, Brooke, committee member
    Subtropical South America (SSA) has some of the most intense deep convection in the world. Large hail and frequent lightning are just two of the hazards that profoundly affect people, agriculture, and infrastructure in this region. Therefore, it is important to understand the future convective storm environments over SSA associated with climate change and how these large-scale environmental changes are likely to change high-impact weather events in the future. Previous studies have used convection-permitting regional models and radar data to examine convective storm environments in the current climate across different regions of South America. Here, we use a large ensemble of Earth system model simulations to quantify anthropogenically-driven future changes in large-scale convective environments, as well as how those forced changes might be modified by unforced, internal climate variability. Specifically, we examine changes in different thermodynamic parameters of relevance to severe weather events over SSA in austral spring and summer (September-February). We use daily data from a 50-member ensemble from 1870-2100 performed with version two of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2). Results indicate that no forced changes in convective environments are evident until very late in the 20th century. However, increases in convective available potential energy and atmospheric stability, as well as an increase in lower tropospheric vertical wind shear, became apparent around 1990, and these trends are projected to continue throughout the rest of this century. The implication is that future large-scale environments may be favorable for less frequent, but perhaps more intense and severe convective modes and their associated hazards. Results also demonstrate that anthropogenic changes are likely to be significantly modified, regionally, by internal climate variability.