Theses and Dissertations - Department of Atmospheric Science
Recent Submissions
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Quantifying internal climate variability and its changes using large-ensembles of climate change simulations
Increasing temperatures over the last 50 years have led to a multitude of studies on observed and future impacts on surface climate. However, any changes on the mean need to be placed in the context of its variability to ... -
Towards using neural networks for geoscientific discovery
How can we use computational methods to extract physically meaningful patterns from geoscientific data? This question has been asked in some form for decades within the geoscientific community, with many landmark discoveries ... -
On intensity change and the effects of shortwave radiation on tropical cyclone rainbands
In this dissertation, the effects of shortwave radiation and the diurnal cycle of radiation on tropical cyclone rainbands are explored. In order to improve short term forecasts of tropical cyclone intensity and size, a ... -
Quantifying and understanding current and future links between tropical convection and the large-scale circulation
Tropical deep convection plays an important role in the variability of the global circulation. The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a large tropical organized convective system that propagates eastward along the equator. ... -
Environmental controls and aerosol impacts on tropical sea breeze convection
Nearly half of the world's human population resides within 150 km of the ocean, and this coastal population is expected to continue increasing over the next several decades. The accurate prediction of convection and its ... -
Cloud property retrievals using polarimetric radar: untangling signals of pristine ice and snow
Ice and mixed phase clouds are critical components of Earth's climate system via their strong controls on global precipitation distribution and radiation budget. Their microphysical properties have been characterized ... -
Airborne radar quality control and analysis of the rapid intensification of Hurricane Michael (2018)
Improvements made by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in track forecasts have outpaced advances in intensity forecasting. Rapid intensification (RI), an increase of at least 30 knots in the maximum sustained winds of a ... -
Daytime evolution of oxidized reactive nitrogen in western U.S. wildfire smoke plumes: in situ and satellite observations
The Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) deployed the NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft in summer 2018 across the western U.S. to sample wildfire smoke during its first day of ... -
Intraseasonal and diurnal variations of precipitation features observed during DYNAMO
The diurnal cycle (DC) of rainfall over the tropical oceans and within the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) has been investigated in numerous studies, but there has been limited research on how the DC of precipitation and ... -
Synoptic through mesoscale environments of South American thunderstorms
Subtropical South America east of the Andes Mountains is a global hotspot for deep convection owing to frequent mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) that contribute to over 90% of the region's rainfall and produce severe ... -
Investigating emissions and evolution of reactive nitrogen in western U.S. wildfire smoke plumes
Wildfires are an important source of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the atmosphere. Large wildfires are becoming more frequent in the western U.S. and smoke from large western U.S. wildfires is becoming a proportionately larger ... -
Characteristics of current and future flood-producing storms in the continental United States
Understanding the changes to extremes in the hydrologic cycle in a future, warmer climate is important for better managing water resources and preventing detrimental impacts to society. The goal of this dissertation is to ... -
Axisymmetric and asymmetric processes contributing to tropical cyclone intensification and expansion
This dissertation endeavors to advance our understanding of tropical cyclones (TCs) by investigating axisymmetric and asymmetric processes contributing to TC intensification and expansion. Chapter 2 examines the extreme ... -
Projecting end-of-century human exposure to eastern Colorado tornadoes and hailstorms: meteorological and societal perspectives
The eastern half of Colorado is one of the most active areas for hailstorms and tornadoes in the U.S. An average of 39 tornadoes and 387 severe hail reports are tallied each year over this domain, and a number of damaging ... -
Observations of aerosol particles and deep convective updrafts and the modeling of their interactions
Within cloud updrafts, cloud droplets form on aerosol particles that serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Varying the concentrations of CCN alters the concentrations of cloud droplets, which in turn modifies subsequent ... -
Ketones in the troposphere: studies of loss processes, emissions, and production
Ketones play an important role in atmospheric chemistry of the troposphere because they are oxidized VOCs that are both relatively abundant with sufficiently long-lifetimes to be distributed regionally. Ketone photolysis ... -
Origins and impacts of tropopause layer cooling in tropical cyclones
Remote sensing data from GPS radio occultation reveal temperatures lower than climatological average over a layer several kilometers deep near the tropopause above tropical cyclones (TCs). This signal, here referred to as ... -
From forests to the remote ocean to smoke plumes: aerosol microphysics in diverse environments
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document. -
Response of convective cold pools and precipitation to changes in soil moisture
In Part 1 of this dissertation, we examine the role of soil moisture in modulating convective cold pool properties. This investigation is performed within an idealized modeling framework featuring a cloud-resolving model ... -
Variability in observed remote marine aerosol populations and implications for haze and cloud formation
In many oceanic regions of the planet, once pristine environments are known to have a high degree of sensitivity to changing aerosol populations and perturbations from anthropogenic emissions. However, difficulties in ...
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