scholarly journals Forward modeling of regional scale tree-ring patterns in the southeastern United States and the recent influence of summer drought

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Anchukaitis ◽  
M. N. Evans ◽  
A. Kaplan ◽  
E. A. Vaganov ◽  
M. K. Hughes ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoshi Cao ◽  
James Knapp ◽  
Prem Bikkina ◽  
Richard Esposito

The states of Georgia and South Carolina emitted ∼100 million tons (Mt) of CO2 in 2019 from point sources. Integration and interpretation of subsurface data enabled identification of a previously unrecognized, regionally extensive, and thick (up to 450 m) sedimentary sequence—the Red beds of Hazlehurst (RbH)—as a potential saline reservoir for CO2 storage in the southeastern United States. Based on the renewed stratigraphic framework and structural interpretation of the RbH interval, we analyzed detailed well logs and the depositional environments to provide reconnaissance-level regional scale estimations of the storage resource. The volumetric results suggest the effective storage area (∼85,000 km2) has a maximum resource potential for 390 gigatons (Gt) of anthropogenic CO2. Petrophysical measurements suggest the permeability of RbH ranges from 0.001 to 48 mD, and the porosity ranges from 11.1 to 18.4%. Residual/capillary trapping and solubility trapping act as the main trapping mechanisms for long term storage and prevent vertical migration of CO2 into the shallow freshwater aquifers. Due to the heterogeneity observed in geophysical logs and the scarcity of well penetrations, future data collection is needed to characterize the storage aquifer and confining aquitards of a site-specific system at this stage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Marsik ◽  
Caroline G. Staub ◽  
William J. Kleindl ◽  
Jaclyn M. Hall ◽  
Chiung-Shiuan Fu ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (18) ◽  
pp. 5815-5831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Nie ◽  
Bowen Fan

AbstractExtratropical regional-scale extreme precipitation events (EPEs) are usually associated with certain synoptic perturbations superimposed on slow-varying background circulations. These perturbations induce a dynamically forced ascent that destabilizes the atmospheric stratification and stimulates deep convection, which further drives the perturbation by releasing latent heat. This study identifies the characteristics of large-scale perturbations associated with summer EPEs in two representative regions, East China (ECN) and the southeastern United States (SUS), and analyzes the roles of dynamic forcings and diabatic heating using the quasigeostrophic omega equation. Composites of 39 events in each region show that the upper-level absolute vorticity advection and tropospheric warm advection promote dynamically forced ascent in EPEs, and the moisture advection premoistens the local environment. The background circulation and synoptic perturbations in ECN and the SUS have significant differences. The background vorticity, temperature, and moisture advection form the quasi-steady mei-yu front in ECN, which provides favorable conditions for heavy rainfall. In the SUS, weaker background ascents are forced mainly through vorticity advection. In the synoptic scale, the EPEs in ECN are triggered by short-wavelength wave trains, and in the SUS the EPEs are triggered by longer wavelength potential vorticity intrusions. Although the amplitudes of the dynamically forced ascent in the two regions are similar, diabatic heating contributes much more to the vertical motion in ECN than the SUS, which indicates that there is stronger diabatic heating feedback there. The stronger diabatic heating feedback in ECN appears to be due to stronger moisture advection, convective environments with more humidity, and stronger coupling between convection and large-scale dynamics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 527 ◽  
pp. 761-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Patskoski ◽  
A. Sankarasubramanian ◽  
Hui Wang

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (19) ◽  
pp. 5021-5045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Seager ◽  
Alexandrina Tzanova ◽  
Jennifer Nakamura

Abstract An assessment of the nature and causes of drought in the southeastern United States is conducted as well as an assessment of model projections of anthropogenically forced hydroclimate change in this region. The study uses observations of precipitation, model simulations forced by historical SSTs from 1856 to 2007, tree-ring records of moisture availability over the last millennium, and climate change projections conducted for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From the perspective of the historical record, the recent drought that began in winter 2005/06 was a typical event in terms of amplitude and duration. Observations and model simulations are used to show that dry winter half-years in the Southeast are weakly associated with La Niñas in the tropical Pacific but that this link varies over time and was possibly of opposite sign from about 1922 to 1950. Summer-season precipitation variability in the Southeast appears governed by purely internal atmospheric variability. As such, model simulations forced by historical SSTs have very limited skill in reproducing the instrumental record of Southeast precipitation variability and actual predictive skill is also presumably low. Tree-ring records show that the twentieth century has been moist from the perspective of the last millennium and free of long and severe droughts that were abundant in previous centuries. The tree-ring records show a 21-yr-long uninterrupted drought in the mid-sixteenth century, a long period of dry conditions in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and that the Southeast was also affected by some of the medieval megadroughts centered in western North America. Climate model projections predict that in the near term, future precipitation in the Southeast will increase but that evaporation will also increase. The median of the projections predicts a modest reduction in the atmospheric supply of water vapor to the region; however, the multimodel ensemble exhibits considerable variation, with a quarter to a third of the models projecting an increase in precipitation minus evaporation. The recent drought, forced by reduced precipitation and with reduced evaporation, has no signature of model-projected anthropogenic climate change.


2005 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
pp. 1417-1430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Murphy ◽  
Charles E. Konrad

Abstract Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning data are used in this study to trace the daily patterns of thunderstorms in time and space across the topographically diverse southeastern United States. Four reoccurring patterns of thunderstorms (i.e., local, multilocal, regional, and widespread) are identified on the basis of the size of the region of CG lightning as well as the spatial pattern of the flashes within this region. To identify these patterns, hourly maps of CG flashes are produced over five summer seasons (June–August) and used to identify thunderstorm events on all days in which at least one CG lightning is observed. Thunderstorm events are defined by a temporally and spatially clustered hourly pattern of lightning flashes. The spatial pattern of lightning associated with each event is examined during the hour in which the flash density is the highest and is used to classify the event. The geographical and temporal patterns of each thunderstorm type are described. Also, flash densities are calculated at spatial scales ranging from 1- to 100-km radial distance. Over half of the identified thunderstorm events in the study were confined to the local scale and contained relatively few flashes. They were most common early in the morning and in the mountainous portions of the study area. Widespread events, on the other hand, showed a dense coverage of flashes within a given hour over a majority of the area. Although they occurred much less frequently (i.e., once every 8 days across most locales), they were responsible for the highest number of CG lightning flashes in the study region; furthermore, they produced the highest flash densities, both at the local and regional scale. A radar echo classification revealed that these events were not tied to mesoscale convective systems, but rather to the early afternoon development of numerous convective cell clusters and lines across the study area.


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