Evaluation of a present-day climate simulation with a new coupled atmosphere-ocean model GENMOM

We present a new, non-flux corrected AOGCM, GENMOM, that combines the GENESIS version 3 atmospheric GCM (Global Environmental and Ecological Simulation of Interactive Systems) and MOM2 (Modular Ocean Model version 2) nominally at T31 resolution. We evaluate GENMOM by comparison with reanalysis products (e.g., NCEP2) and three models used in the IPCC AR4 assessment. GENMOM produces a global temperature bias of 0.6 °C. Atmospheric features such as the jet stream structure and major semi-permanent sea level pressure centers are well simulated as is the mean planetary-scale wind structure that is needed to produce the correct position of stormtracks. Most ocean surface currents are reproduced except where they are not resolvable at T31 resolution. Overall, GENMOM captures reasonably well the observed gradients and spatial distributions of annual surface temperature and precipitation and the simulations are on par with other AOGCMs. Deficiencies in the GENMOM simulations include a warm bias in the surface temperature over the southern oceans, a split in the ITCZ and weaker-than-observed overturning circulation

Global climate simulations at 3000-year intervals for the last 21,000 years with the GENMOM coupled atmosphere–ocean model

We apply GENMOM, a coupled atmosphere–ocean climate model, to simulate eight equilibrium time slices at 3000-year intervals for the past 21,000 years forced by changes in Earth–Sun geometry, atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), continental ice sheets, and sea level. Simulated global cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is 3.8°C and the rate of post-glacial warming is in overall agreement with recently published temperature reconstructions. The greatest rate of warming occurs between 15 and 12 ka (2.4°C over land, 0.7°C over oceans, and 1.4°C globally) in response to changes in radiative forcing from the diminished extent of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) ice sheets and increases in GHGs and NH summer insolation. The modeled LGM and 6 ka temperature and precipitation climatologies are generally consistent with proxy reconstructions, the PMIP2 and PMIP3 simulations, and other paleoclimate data–model analyses. The model does not capture the mid-Holocene “thermal maximum” and gradual cooling to preindustrial (PI) global temperature found in the data. Simulated monsoonal precipitation in North Africa peaks between 12 and 9 ka at values ~50% greater than those of the PI, and Indian monsoonal precipitation peaks at 12 and 9 ka at values ~45% greater than the PI. GENMOM captures the reconstructed LGM extent of NH and Southern Hemisphere (SH) sea ice. The simulated present-day Antarctica Circumpolar Current (ACC) is ~48% weaker than the observed (62 versus 119 Sv). The simulated present-day Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) of 19:3 ± 1:4 Sv on the Bermuda Rise (33°N) is comparable with observed value of 18:7 ± 4:8 Sv. AMOC at 33°N is reduced by ~15% during the LGM, and the largest post-glacial increase (~11 %) occurs during the 15 ka time slice

Airborne multiwavelength High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) observations during TCAP 2012 : Vertical profiles of optical and microphysical properties of a smoke/urban haze plume over the northeastern coast of the US

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.We present measurements acquired by the world's first airborne 3 backscatter (β) + 2 extinction (α) High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2). HSRL-2 measures particle backscatter coefficients at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, and particle extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm. The instrument has been developed by the NASA Langley Research Center. The instrument was operated during Phase 1 of the Department of Energy (DOE) Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) in July 2012. We observed pollution outflow from the northeastern coast of the US out over the western Atlantic Ocean. Lidar ratios were 50-60 sr at 355 nm and 60-70 sr at 532 nm. Extinction-related Ångström exponents were on average 1.2-1.7, indicating comparably small particles. Our novel automated, unsupervised data inversion algorithm retrieved particle effective radii of approximately 0.2 μm, which is in agreement with the large Ångström exponents. We find good agreement with particle size parameters obtained from coincident in situ measurements carried out with the DOE Gulfstream-1 aircraft.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

New ADS Functionality for the Curator

In this paper we provide an update concerning the operations of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), its services and user interface, and the content currently indexed in its database. As the primary information system used by researchers in Astronomy, the ADS aims to provide a comprehensive index of all scholarly resources appearing in the literature. With the current effort in our community to support data and software citations, we discuss what steps the ADS is taking to provide the needed infrastructure in collaboration with publishers and data providers. A new API provides access to the ADS search interface, metrics, and libraries allowing users to programmatically automate discovery and curation tasks. The new ADS interface supports a greater integration of content and services with a variety of partners, including ORCID claiming, indexing of SIMBAD objects, and article graphics from a variety of publishers. Finally, we highlight how librarians can facilitate the ingest of gray literature that they curate into our system.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of Library and Information Services in Astronomy VIII, Strasbourg, Franc

2008: Distributed energy balance modelling of South Cascade Glacier, Washington and assessment of model uncertainty

[1] We have developed a physically based, distributed surface energy balance model to simulate glacier mass balance under meteorological and climatological forcing. Here we apply the model to estimate summer ablation on South Cascade Glacier, Washington, for the 2004 and 2005 mass balance seasons. To arrive at optimal mass balance simulations, we investigate and quantify model uncertainty associated with selecting from a range of physical parameter values that are not commonly measured in glaciological mass balance field studies. We optimize the performance of the model by varying values for atmospheric transmissivity, the albedo of surrounding topography, precipitationelevation lapse rate, surface roughness for turbulent exchange of momentum, and snow albedo aging coefficient. Of these the snow aging parameter and precipitation lapse rates have the greatest influence on the modeled ablation. We examined model sensitivity to varying parameters by performing an additional 10 3 realizations with parameters randomly chosen over a ±5% range centered about the optimum values. The best fit suite of model parameters yielded a net balance of À1.69 ± 0.38 m water equivalent (WE) for the 2004 water year and À2.10 ± 0.30 m WE up to 11 September 2005. The 2004 result is within 3% of the measured value. These simulations account for 91% and 93% of the variance in measured ablation for the respective years

Exploring Adaptive Management for Greater Sage Grouse in Northern Montana in the Face of Climate Change

A collaboration has begun in Montana among several state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations interested in the management of greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in a > 5,000,000-ac (> 20,234-ha) landscape including the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The first step was conducting personal interviews with field biologists and managers in the general area to assess what management actions they are making. Using this information, we conducted an on-line survey to further identify those actions and how they are made. Finally, almost 40 managers and scientists met to discuss whether an adaptive management approach might be useful to gain an understanding of the interaction among habitats and management actions and how this will be affected by annual weather and climate patterns. A conceptual model of how these factors affect the life cycle of grouse has been drafted, and we are gathering comments on it. The intent is for that to be used as an ecological response model for assessing the effects of possible climate change scenarios. Future work will entail: (1) further delineation of management actions and the social networks associated with them, (2) building and evaluating a working model using rapid prototype methods, (3) conducting futures analyses of associated landscapes, (4) continuing to foster collaborative effort, and (5) working one-onone with managers to evaluate model and adaptive management applicability using such tools as LCMAP (Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal)

Agriculture Irrigation and Water Use

The 17 Western States, plus Arkansas, Florida, and Louisiana, account for 91 percent of all U.S. irrigated acreage, with the Western States alone contributing over 85 percent. This report integrates data on the distribution, characteristics, uses, and management of water resources from a wide variety of data sources. The report includes charts and tables on water use in irrigation; farm data comparing selected characteristics of irrigated and nonirrigated farms; and data on water application systems, sources of water, pump energy expenses by energy type, values of irrigated and nonirrigated land, and cash rents

Aerosol plume transport and transformation in high spectral resolution lidar measurements and WRF-Flexpart simulations during the MILAGRO Field Campaign

The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) experiences high loadings of atmospheric aerosols from anthropogenic sources, biomass burning and wind-blown dust. This paper uses a combination of measurements and numerical simulations to identify different plumes affecting the basin and to characterize transformation inside the plumes. The High Spectral Resolution Lidar on board the NASA LaRC B-200 King Air aircraft measured extinction coefficients and extinction to backscatter ratio at 532 nm, and backscatter coefficients and depolarization ratios at 532 and 1064 nm. These can be used to identify aerosol types. The measurement curtains are compared with particle trajectory simulations using WRF-Flexpart for different source groups. The good correspondence between measurements and simulations suggests that the aerosol transport is sufficiently well characterized by the models to estimate aerosol types and ages. Plumes in the basin undergo complex transport, and are frequently mixed together. Urban aerosols are readily identifiable by their low depolarization ratios and high lidar ratios, and dust by the opposite properties. Fresh biomass burning plumes have very low depolarization ratios which increase rapidly with age. This rapid transformation is consistent with the presence of atmospheric tar balls in the fresh plumes

Susceptibility of cat fleas (siphonaptera: Puclicidae) to fipronil and imidacloprid using adult and larval bioassays

© 2014 Entomological Society of America This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] monitoring of the susceptibility offleas to insecticides has typically been conducted by exposing adults on treated surfaces. Other methods such as topical applications of insecticides to adults and larval bioassays on treated rearing media have been developed. Unfortunately, baseline responses of susceptible strains of cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouchè), except for imidacloprid, have not been determined for all on-animal therapies and new classes of chemistry now being used. However, the relationship between adult and larval bioassays of fleas has not been previously investigated. The adult and larval bioassays of fipronil and imidacloprid were compared for both field-collected isolates and laboratory strains. Adult topical bioassays of fipronil and imidacloprid to laboratory strains and field-collected isolates demonstrated that LD50s of fipronil and imidacloprid ranged from 0.11 to 0.40 nanograms per flea and 0.02 to 0.18 nanograms per flea, respectively. Resistance ratios for fipronil and imidacloprid ranged from 0.11 to 2.21. Based on the larval bioassay published for imidacloprid, a larval bioassay was established for fipronil and reported in this article. The ranges of the LC50s of fipronil and imidacloprid in the larval rearing media were 0.07-0.16 and 0.11-0.21 ppm, respectively. Resistance ratios for adult and larval bioassays ranged from 0.11 to 2.2 and 0.58 to 1.75, respectively. Both adult and larval bioassays provided similar patterns for fipronil and imidacloprid. Although the adult bioassays permitted a more precise dosage applied, the larval bioassays allowed for testing isolates without the need to maintain on synthetic or natural hosts.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio