SUB-SEASONAL FORECASTS OF ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS IMPACTING CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHERN EUROPE UTILIZING STREAMFUNCTION ANOMALIES

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow plumes of moisture that transport a large flux of water vapor into the mid-latitudes. This source of precipitation is vital for the U.S. West Coast, especially California, where seasonal precipitation is highly dependent on these ARs and accounts for up to half its annual precipitation. Due to the reliance on ARs for precipitation, effective water management has become crucial in the U.S. West as wildfires worsen and populations grow, increasing the demand on the entire region’s reservoirs. It is imperative that AR events are forecasted and communicated as early as possible. That is the goal of this thesis, to extend the prediction of ARs into the sub-seasonal timescale. Analysis of streamfunction anomalies (SFA) and the vertical integral of the divergence of geopotential flux (DGF) were done via an anomaly box off the west coast of British Columbia, with the process replicated for a climatologically similar region in the North Atlantic, showing good success to at least 40 days prior to an AR event for both San Francisco and Lisbon, Portugal. This lead time of conditions supporting ARs impacting these two regions is invaluable for forecasters and affiliated stakeholders. While this method will not forecast specific AR events, it can statistically indicate whether more ARs will be likely at the sub-seasonal time scale. The past 28 years of data (1994–2021) were analyzed for trends in SFA and DGF across both anomaly boxes.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Multi-TID detection and characterization in a dense Global Navigation Satellite System receiver network

The medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) constitute the most frequent ionospheric wave signatures. We propose a method for detecting the number of simultaneous MSTIDs from a time series of high-pass-filtered Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) maps and their parameters. The method is tested on the VTEC map corresponding to a simulated realistic scenario and on actual data from dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements gathered by +1200 GPS receivers of the GPS Earth Observation Network (GEONET) in Japan. The contribution consists of the detection of the number of independent MSTIDs from a nonuniform sampling of the ionospheric pierce points. The problem is set as a sparse decomposition on elements of a dictionary of atoms that span a linear space of possible MSTIDs. These atoms consist of plane waves characterized by a wavelength, direction, and phase on a surface defined, the part of the ionosphere sounded by the GEONET (i.e., 25°N to 50°N of latitude and 125°E to 155°E of longitude). The technique is related to the atomic decomposition and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The geophysical contribution of this paper is showing (a) the detection of several simultaneous MSTIDs of different characteristics, with a continuous change in the velocity; (b) detection of circular MSTID waves compatible by time and center with a specific earthquake; (c) simultaneous superposition of two distinct MSTIDs, with almost the same azimuth; and (d) the presence at nighttime of MSTIDs with velocities in the range 400–600 m/s.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Carbon Capture Methods Utilizing Organosulfur Compounds

abstract: The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society have recently released a detailed report on the causes and effects of global climate change.1 This report states that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due to human activity. Specifically, the burning of fossil fuels to satisfy the energy demands of rising global population has resulted in unprecedented levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. These high levels of greenhouse gasses are serving to warm the surface of the planet resulting in extreme weather events. Thus, controlling the atmospheric CO2 level is motivating a great deal of scientific research in the area of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Despite the great strides being made in the areas of alternative energy and solar-energy conversion, consumption of fossil fuels for energy generation will likely continue into the foreseeable future. This is primarily motivated by economic factors inasmuch as fossil fuels are a proven resource base with robust harvesting and distribution infrastructure.2 Presently, there are more than 8,000 stationary CO2 emission sources with an annual output of 13,466 megatons of CO2 per year.2 In this context, development of systems that ameliorate the output of greenhouse gasses from stationary CO2 sources, such as coal and natural gas burning power plants, is urgently needed. In this document the utility of sulfur nucleophiles for CCS schemes is explored. The main thrust of the research has been utilizing electrogenerated sulfur nucleophiles to capture CO2, which can be electrochemically recovered from the resulting thiocarbonates while concomitantly regenerating the masked capture agent. Further, a temperature swing CO2 capture scheme that employs benzylthiolate as the CO2 sorbent is proposed and methods of manipulating the release temperature and kinetics were investigated. These reports represent the first application of organosulfur compounds toward CCS technologies and there are a number of newly reported compounds. The appendix deviates from the theme of the first four chapters to describe the functionalization of poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) with ferrocene moieties by the copper catalyzed azide-alkyne coupling reaction. This material is discussed within the context of anion recognition and sensing applications.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Chemistry 201

Sedimentological Investigations of Paleo-Ice Sheet Dynamics in West Antarctica

Modern Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers, which both drain into Pine Island Bay, are some of the fastest moving portions of the cryosphere and may be the most unstable ice streams in Antarctica. I examined over 133 cores to conduct a detailed sedimentological facies analysis. These data, augmented by new radiocarbon and 210Pb dates, and bathymetric data, are used to reconstruct the post-LGM deglacial history of PIB and gain a better understanding of the causes of ice sheet retreat. My results record a clear retreat stratigraphy in PIB composed of, from top to base; terrigenous sandy silt (plumite), pebbly sandy mud (ice-proximal glacimarine), and till. Initial retreat from the outer-continental shelf began shortly after the LGM and before 16.4 k cal yr BP, in response to rising sea level. Bedforms in outer PIB document episodic retreat in the form of back-stepping grounding zone wedges and are associated with proximal glacimarine sediments. A sub-ice shelf facies is observed in central PIB that spans ∼12.3–10.6 k cal yr BP. Widespread impingement of warm water onto the continental shelf caused an abrupt change from sub-ice shelf sedimentation to distal glacimarine sedimentation dominated by dispersal of terrigenous silt between 7.8 and 7.0 k cal yr BP. The uppermost sediments in Pine Island Bay were hydrodynamically sorted by meltwater plumes. Inner Pine Island Bay contains several large basins that are linked by channels. The most recent release of sediment coincides with rapid retreat of the grounding line, and has an order of magnitude greater flux relative to the entire unit, indicating episodic sedimentation. This is the first identification of a meltwater-derived deposit in Antarctica and demonstrates that punctuated meltwater-intensive glacial retreat occurred at least three times throughout the Holocene in this region. Quartz sand grains were used to conduct an analysis of mode of transport for sediments in the Antarctic Peninsula region from the Eocene to present to record the onset of glaciation. Glacial transport imparts a unique suite of microtextures on quartz grains from high shear-stresses. Eocene samples are free of glacial influence. Late Eocene samples show the inception of glacially derived high-stress microtextures, marking the onset of alpine glaciation. Oligocene grains are similar to the late Eocene samples. Middle Miocene microtextures are characteristic of transport from far-field large ice sheets, originating from ice rafting from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Pliocene and Pleistocene samples indicate the existence of the northern Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet at this time, consistent with other proxies