Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-268). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNR11542

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "December, 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Accurate representations of clouds are required in large-scale weather and climate models to make detailed and precise predictions of the Earth's weather and climate. Representations of clouds within these models are limited by the present understanding of the role of aerosols in the microphysical processes responsible for cloud formation and development. As part of a NERC funded CASE studentship with the Met Office, this thesis aims to test new aerosol-dependent mixed-phase cloud parametrizations by obtaining extensive cloud microphysical measurements in-situ and comparing and contrasting them with model simulations. Cloud particle concentrations were measured during the Ice NUcleation Process Investigation And Quantification (INUPIAQ) field campaign at Jungfraujoch in Switzerland. A new probe was used to separate droplet and small ice concentrations by using depolarisation ratio and size thresholds. Whilst the new small ice crystal and droplet number concentrations compared favourably with other instruments, the size and depolarisation ratio thresholds were found to be subjective, and suggested to vary from cloud to cloud. An upwind site was chosen to measure out-of-cloud aerosol particle concentrations during INUPIAQ. During periods where the site was out-of-cloud and upwind of Jungfraujoch, several large-scale model simulations were run using the aerosol concentrations in an aerosol-dependent ice nucleation parametrization. The inclusion of the parametrization failed to increase the simulated ice crystal number concentrations, which were several orders of magnitude below those observed in-situ at Jungfraujoch. Several possible explanations for the high observed ice crystal number concentrations at Jungfraujoch are tested using further model simulations. Further primary ice nucleation was ruled out, as the inclusion of additional ice nucleating particles in the model simulations suppressed the liquid water content, preventing the simulation of the mixed-phase clouds observed during INUPIAQ. The addition of ice crystals produced via the Hallett-Mossop process upwind of Jungfraujoch into the model only infrequently provided enough ice crystals to match the observed concentrations. The inclusion of a simple surface flux of hoar crystals into the model simulations was found to produce ice crystal number concentrations of a similar magnitude to those observed at Jungfraujoch, without depleting the simulated liquid water content. By confronting models with in-situ observations of cloud microphysical process, this thesis highlights interactions between surface ice crystals and mixed-phase clouds, and their potential impact on large-scale models.

abstract: Although there are many forms of organization on the Web, one of the most prominent ways to organize web content and websites are tags. Tags are keywords or terms that are assigned to a specific piece of content in order to help users understand the common relationships between pieces of content. Tags can either be assigned by an algorithm, the author, or the community. These tags can also be organized into tag clouds, which are visual representations of the structure and organization contained implicitly within these tags. Importantly, little is known on how we use these different tagging structures to understand the content and structure of a given site. This project examines 2 different characteristics of tagging structures: font size and spatial orientation. In order to examine how these different characteristics might interact with individual differences in attentional control, a measure of working memory capacity (WMC) was included. The results showed that spatial relationships affect how well users understand the structure of a website. WMC was not shown to have any significant effect; neither was varying the font size. These results should better inform how tags and tag clouds are used on the Web, and also provide an estimation of what properties to include when designing and implementing a tag cloud on a website. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Applied Psychology 2011

In this work high-resolution numerical simulation (Large-Eddie Simulation, LES) has been used to study the characteristic factors causing and influencing the development of moist convective clouds. Through this work a 1D cloud-model was derived from first principles to represent the vertical profile of individual convective clouds. A microphysics framework was implemented to ensure identical behaviour in LES and cloud-model integration where the microphysical processes represented are numerically integrated using a novel adaptive step microphysics integration which uses the physical speed at which a process takes place to adjust the integration step size (in space and time). This work also introduces a simple representation of cloud-droplet formation which allows for super-saturation to exist in-cloud and through this provide more physical representation of the in-cloud state. Together with high-resolution simulation of isolated individual and interacting multiple clouds in environmental conditions leading to shallow convection, the 1D cloud-model was used to infer that the principal influence on moist convective clouds is the entrainment of air from a cloud’s immediate environment which is significantly different from the environmental mean state. This suggests that convection parameterisations must represent the influence of moist convective downdrafts to properly predict the vertical structure of convective clouds so as to correctly predict the cloud-top height and vertical transport. Finally it was found that cloud-base radius is not in itself adequate as a means of classification for defining cloud-types as clouds with the same cloud-base radius showed large variation (≈ 600m) in cloud-top height. Based on simulations of individual convective clouds it was found that 3D simulations are necessary to capture the full dynamic behaviour of convective clouds (2D axisymmetric simulations have too little entrainment) and that agreement with the 1D cloud-model could only be found when entrainment was diagnosed from simulation instead of being parameterised by the traditional Morton-Turner model and only for 2D axisymmetric simulations, suggesting that the 1D cloud-model will require further extension or the diagnosis of entrainment improved.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:33:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:04:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:33:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:04:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Os aerossóis e nuvens desenvolvem um papel muito importante nos processos climáticos terrestres por meio das suas contribuições diretas e indiretas no balanço radiativo da atmosfera. A dificuldade na previsão dos processos de mudanças climáticas estão associadas às incertezas na distribuição e propriedades dos aerossóis e nuvens, assim como em suas interações em escala global. Tendo como principal objetivo desenvolver estudos que ajudem na diminuição dessas incertezas, a NASA, em parceria com a agência espacial francesa CNES, desenvolveu a missão do Satélite CALIPSO, que possui a bordo um sistema Lidar denominado CALIOP capaz de estudar o perfil e a distribuição vertical dos aerossóis e nuvens e os processos de interação entre eles. Uma vez que as propriedade ópticas medidas pelo CALIOP são recuperadas utilizando um complexo conjunto de algoritmos, torna-se necessário o desenvolvimento de estudos e metodologias de validação para inferir qual a acurácia das medidas desse sistema. Nesse contexto, foi desenvolvida uma metodologia de avaliação e validação dos valores de Razão Lidar utilizados a priori pelos algoritmos do CALIOP utilizando dois instrumentos de sensoriamento remoto instalados em solo, um sistema Lidar de retroespalhamento elástico instalado no IPEN - São Paulo e o fotômetro solar da rede AERONET instalado em cinco diferentes localidades, Rio Branco - Acre (RB), Alta Floresta - Mato Grosso (AF), Cuiabá - Mato Grosso (CB), Campo Grande - Mato Grosso do Sul (CG) e São Paulo - São Paulo (SP). Foram determinados os dias de medidas correlativas entre os sistemas em solo e o CALIOP e analisados os dados para os dias de medidas com condições livre de nuvens e com trajetórias de massas de ar se deslocando das regiões de medidas do satélite para as regiões de medidas pelos instrumentos fixos. Foram calculados novos valores de Razão Lidar obtidos pelo Modelo Aeronet/Caliop (Modelo A/C) proposto. Esses valores mostraram-se coerentes com aqueles utilizados inicialmente pelo algoritmo do sistema CALIOP. Realizando uma comparação quantitativa, obteve-se uma diferença percentual de 2,17 ± 30,12%, esse valor mostra-se compatível com outros valores obtidos na literatura de validação desse sistema Lidar a bordo do Satélite CALIPSO. Essa subestimação nos valores de Razão Lidar utilizados pelo CALIOP pode estar ocorrendo devido um problema no processo de calibração dos dados do sistema CALIOP, uma vez que o território brasileiro se encontra na região da Anomalia do Atlântico Sul (SAA). A diferença percentual dos valores de Razão Lidar utilizados pelo CALIOP com aqueles obtido por meio de medidas com o sistema Lidar do IPEN forneceram valores de 2,34 ± 17,53%, demonstrando que o modelo de validação proposto é aceitável e acurácia nos valores de Razão Lidar utilizados a priori pelo CALIOP está dentro das margens de incerteza de 30%. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

The gas kinetic temperature (T-K) of various interstellar environments is often inferred from observations that can deduce level populations of atoms, ions, or molecules using spectral line observations; H I 21 cm is perhaps the most widely used, and has a long history. Usually the H I 21 cm line is assumed to be in thermal equilibrium. and the populations are given by the Boltzmann distribution. A variety of processes, many involving Ly alpha, can affect the 21 cm line. Here we show how this is treated in the spectral simulation code Cloudy, and present numerical simulations of environments where this temperature indicator is used, with a detailed treatment of the physical processes that determine level populations within H-0. We discuss situations where this temperature indicator traces TK, cases where it fails, as well as the effects of Lya pumping on the 21 cm spin temperature. We also show that the Lya excitation temperature rarely traces the gas kinetic temperature.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Meteorology. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Lindgren. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 202-207. / Ph.D.

<p> An investigation of the effects of cumulus clouds on solar radiation was carried out during the 1977 field season at McMaster University, Hamilton. The measurement of total incoming solar radiation, direct beam radiation and the diffuse flux calculated as a residual, were used to draw inferences regarding the transmission properties of cumulus clouds, both on a daily basis and for different cloud fields, The diffuse flux, showing the greatest variability, was sub-divided into three components and each were evaluated under unobscured and obscured sun conditions. Measured values were compared with those derived for a model atmosphere.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)