American Meteorological Society Research Articles

AMS Journals Welcome Review Articles

Denotes content that is immediately available upon publication as open access.© 2018 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).

A Long-Lasting Vortex Rossby Wave–Induced Rainband of Typhoon Longwang (2005)

© 2018 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Yanluan Lin, yanluan@tsinghua.edu.cnA supplement to this article is available online (10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0122.2)

American Meteorological Society: 100 Years of Supporting the Scientific Community

Abstract Over the past century, the atmospheric and related sciences have seen incredible advances in our understanding of Earth’s environment and our ability to monitor and predict its behavior. These advances have had a profound impact on society and have been integrated into every aspect of daily life. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has been instrumental in supporting these advances throughout its first 100 years of existence as a scientific and professional society serving the community of professionals in the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. AMS has provided opportunities for researchers and practitioners to share their scientific findings and build fruitful collaborations to further the science and its application. Through strategic initiatives at key points in its history, AMS has pushed the science forward—highlighting areas ripe for development, creating frameworks for interdisciplinary interactions, and providing innovative approaches to the dissemination of research results. As a society made up of the scientific community and led by many of the most prominent scientists of their time, AMS has been able to respond to, and often anticipate, the needs of its community.

Social Sciences, Weather, and Climate Change

Few currently deny that extreme weather and climate change are among the most pressing problems of our times. There is also general agreement that humans are intrinsically part of the problem and of the solution. For the past hundred years, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has supported weather and climate science, but only recently has it included the social sciences. In this chapter we review a few trends in the social science of climatic impact currently informing understanding of human interactions with weather, hazards, and climate change, including the science of science use, vulnerability and adaptation, and climatic change, health, and security. We argue that the social sciences have been steadily growing within AMS journals and have made an impact on the field (especially after the launching of a specific journal focusing on impact—Weather, Climate, and Society) but still have much room to grow within AMS to represent the many areas of social studies of weather and climate in the literature. One grand challenge that remains is to increase the usability and use of AMS-produced knowledge to inform decision-making in mitigating and responding to climatic change.

100 Years of Progress in Atmospheric Observing Systems

AbstractAlthough atmospheric observing systems were already an important part of meteorology before the American Meteorological Society was established in 1919, the past 100 years have seen a steady increase in their numbers and types. Examples of how observing systems were developed and how they have enabled major scientific discoveries are presented. These examples include observing systems associated with the boundary layer, the upper air, clouds and precipitation, and solar and terrestrial radiation. Widely used specialized observing systems such as radar, lidar, and research aircraft are discussed, and examples of applications to weather forecasting and climate are given. Examples drawn from specific types of chemical measurements, such as ozone and carbon dioxide, are included. Sources of information on observing systems, including other chapters of this monograph, are also discussed. The past 100 years has been characterized by synergism between societal needs for weather observations and the needs of fundamental meteorological research into atmospheric processes. In the latter half of the period, observing system improvements have been driven by the increasing demands for higher-resolution data for numerical models, the need for long-term measurements, and for more global coverage. This has resulted in a growing demand for data access and for integrating data from an increasingly wide variety of observing system types and networks. These trends will likely continue.

Anthropogenic Enhancement of Moderate-to-Strong El Niño Events Likely Contributed to Drought and Poor Harvests in Southern Africa During 2016

"Anthropogenic Enhancement of Moderate-to-Strong El Niño Events Likely Contributed to Drought and Poor Harvests in Southern Africa During 2016" published on Jan 2018 by American Meteorological Society.

100 Years of Progress in Tropical Cyclone Research

AbstractA century ago, meteorologists regarded tropical cyclones as shallow vortices, extending upward only a few kilometers into the troposphere, and nothing was known about their physics save that convection was somehow involved. As recently as 1938, a major hurricane struck the densely populated northeastern United States with no warning whatsoever, killing hundreds. In the time since the American Meteorological Society was founded, however, tropical cyclone research blossomed into an endeavor of great breadth and depth, encompassing fields ranging from atmospheric and oceanic dynamics to biogeochemistry, and the precision and scope of forecasts and warnings have achieved a level of success that would have been regarded as impossible only a few decades ago. This chapter attempts to document the extraordinary progress in tropical cyclone research over the last century and to suggest some avenues for productive research over the next one.

Human Influence on the Record-breaking Cold Event in January of 2016 in Eastern China

© 2018 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).A supplement to this article is available online (10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0095.2)

AMS Discontinuing Expedited Contribution Article Type

Denotes content that is immediately available upon publication as open access.© 2017 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).

AMS Discontinuing Expedited Contribution Article Type

Denotes content that is immediately available upon publication as open access.© 2017 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).

AMS Discontinuing Expedited Contribution Article Type

Denotes content that is immediately available upon publication as open access.© 2017 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).

Real-Time Determination of Earth Radiation Budget Spectral Signatures for Nonlinear Unfiltering of Results from MERBE

AbstractAmong the best ways to gain more certainty in climate model prediction is to compare and constrain simulations with worldwide satellite measurements of the Earth radiation budget (ERB) short- and longwave radiant fluxes (SW and LW), which drive climate processes. Recent calls to ensure orbital ERB measurements track true climate, rather than instrument changes, led to the creation of the Moon and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (MERBE). This independent project is recalibrating multiple existing ERB devices from different international space agencies so they adhere to common SI-traceable radiometric standards, by regularly sampling the unaltering constants of lunar reflectivity/emissivity, thus ensuring no artificial trends exist. This work details the use of MODTRAN to give an instantaneous SW and LW Earth spectrum for all scenes viewed by devices in the project, to then be used with instrument spectral responses for unfiltering radiances. In the majority of cases when data from a collocated imager are available, a dual-layer unfiltering is also performed separately on cloudy and cloud-free areas, yielding clear and overcast ERB spectral results. Additionally, use is made of improved in-flight methods to derive spectral responses from a previous American Meteorological Society study, and comparisons between Earth MERBE radiances from two identical devices operating on Terra/Aqua are shown along with results from the CERES project. These demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in relative accuracy for edition 1 MERBE results over CERES and show that the latest CERES data are less accurate and stable than claimed.

AMS Discontinuing Expedited Contribution Article Type

Denotes content that is immediately available upon publication as open access.© 2018 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).

Corrigendum

© 2017 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).Corresponding author: Robert C. Wills, rcwills@uw.edu

СОПОСТАВЛЕНИЕ ВАРИАЦИЙ ТЕМПЕРАТУРЫ ВОЗДУХА НА АФРИКАНСКОМ КОНТИНЕНТЕ И ИНТЕНСИВНОСТИ ШУМАНОВСКОГО РЕЗОНАНСА ПО ДОЛГОВРЕМЕННЫМ НАБЛЮДЕНИЯМ В AНТАРКТИКЕ

СОПОСТАВЛЕНИЕ ВАРИАЦИЙ ТЕМПЕРАТУРЫ ВОЗДУХА НА АФРИКАНСКОМ КОНТИНЕНТЕ И ИНТЕНСИВНОСТИ ШУМАНОВСКОГО РЕЗОНАНСА ПО ДОЛГОВРЕМЕННЫМ НАБЛЮДЕНИЯМ В AНТАРКТИКЕ

The West Wide Drought Tracker: Drought Monitoring at Fine Spatial Scales

© 2017 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).* DeceasedCORRESPONDING AUTHOR: John T. Abatzoglou, jabatzoglou@uidaho.edu

SHARPpy: An Open-Source Sounding Analysis Toolkit for the Atmospheric Sciences

Abstract With a variety of programming languages and data formats available, widespread adoption of computing standards by the atmospheric science community is often difficult to achieve. The Sounding and Hodograph Analysis and Research Program in Python (SHARPpy) is an open-source, cross-platform, upper-air sounding analysis and visualization package. SHARPpy is based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Storm Prediction Center’s (NOAA/SPC) in-house analysis package, SHARP, and is the result of a collaborative effort between forecasters at the SPC and students at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology. The major aim of SHARPpy is to provide a consistent framework for sounding analysis that is available to all. Nearly all routines are written to be as consistent as possible with the methods researched, tested, and developed in the SPC, which sets this package apart from other sounding analysis tools. SHARPpy was initially demonstrated and released to the atmospheric community at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting in 2012, and an updated and greatly expanded version was released at the AMS Annual Meeting in 2015. Since this release, SHARPpy has been adopted by a variety of operational and research meteorologists across the world. In addition, SHARPpy’s open-source nature enables collaborations between other developers, resulting in major additions to the program.

Most Americans Want to Learn More about Climate Change

Abstract As American Meteorological Society (AMS) members who study Americans’ understanding of climate change and who are engaged in programs to educate Americans about climate change, we want our AMS colleagues to realize their key role in public education. In this article we make the case that 1) AMS members are well positioned to play important leadership roles in educational outreach on climate change, 2) the public wants to learn more about climate change, 3) there is a need for more effective public engagement efforts, and 4) we have successful outreach and educational models that we can start using today.

Of kangaroo rats and gypsum gravel: Probing the extremes of aeolian transport in the present and the past

A whirlwind is “a small-scale, rotating column of air” ([American Meteorological Society, 2012a][1]): a terse definition for some of the most intriguing and terrifying phenomena in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. Whirlwinds fall into two classes: those that hang from cumulus clouds (tornadoes

Defining Hazards

Abstract State hazard mitigation plans guide state and local agencies in actions they may take to reduce their vulnerability to extreme events. However, because they are written for a general audience, they must be written in a way for a layperson to understand. In many cases, the people writing these plans are not meteorologists or do not have access to meteorological expertise. Consequently, descriptions of hazards may be taken from websites, other documents, or perhaps authoritative sources. This leads to inconsistencies in the way hazards are portrayed in the plans, which increases the difficulty of translating proposed actions to local governments or to other states. This article delves into the issue of these variances and how it affects those who write state hazard mitigation plans. For this brief text, the hazards discussed in state plans that fall in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP)’s region are covered with a comparison of definitions from the National Weather Service (NWS) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). States within the SCIPP region include Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. This study found that it is more common for states to use key words from NWS and AMS hazard definitions than to use exact definitions. The goal of this article is to prompt a discussion about the inconsistency of terminology used in state hazard mitigation plans and to spread awareness of this issue so that future plans can keep their unique elements while providing a better description and understanding of the included hazards.