In order to understand the atmospheric branch of the earth's hydrologic cycle on the global scale, an atmospheric moisture balance is diagnostically analyzed from the January and July data of the OSU atmospheric general circulation model, which has been integrated for thirty-nine months of simulation with seasonally-varying sea-surface temperature and solar insolation. The model hydrologic processes analyzed for the balance include the surface evaporation, the precipitation by large-scale and cumulus condensation, the vertical transport by large-scale and cumulus mass fluxes, and the horizontal transport of water vapor. The large-scale transports include the contributions from the standing and transient components of motion. Also analyzed are the potential and stream functions of horizontal transport, and the statistics of seasonal and interannual variabilities of the global and hemispheric effects of the hydrologic processes. As a result of these analyses, the hydrologic cycle is constructed and understood for both January and July of the model. Large-scale vertical transport moistens the upper layer; the standing and transient motions contribute mostly in the tropics and higher latitudes, respectively. Large-scale horizontal transport moistens the continental atmosphere except for the relatively small transport from the continents to the oceans by the standing motion in the upper layer; the runoff occurs in the model to balance the marine transport but seasonal trends exist such that snow assumulates during January and melts during July on the global average. Cumulus convection drys not only the lower layer but also the upper layer of the model, and the penetrating cumuli are a major mechanism of maritime precipitation, whereas the large-scale condensation and penetrating cumuli have the dominating effect on the continental precipitation during January and July, respectively. The seasonal precipitation over the Northern Hemisphere continents concurs with strong surface evaporation in summer and also with strong cyclonic activity in winter. Comparison with other models and observational data indicates that the model reproduced some basic features of the atmospheric branch of the hydrologic cycle and its seasonal variation. The intense evaporation (≥ 5 mm day⁻¹) over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the rain belts in the tropics are well simulated for both January and July. The poleward transport in the northern middle and high latitudes is in good agreement with observations. The maximum toward-thermal-equator transport in the tropics occurs, however, at the geographic equator for both January and July, indicating that these maxima are about 5 degrees of latitude closer to the seasonal thermal equator than the observed maxima. Nevertheless the global statistics of the model atmosphere are not significantly different from that of the real atmosphere. Among others, we mention the following common features of the January and July moisture balances in the present model. Most precipitation of penetrating convection occurs in regions of strong surface evaporation even though some occurs in the moisture convergence zones where most of heavy mid-level convection is located. In the regions of intense penetrating convection, however, the standing part of surface evaporation is much larger in magnitude than the negative transient part which is essentially due to the positive correlation between the turbulence intensity and surface humidity over wet surfaces. Moreover, the horizontal structure of the standing part conforms to that of the standing vapor pressure difference between the air and the underlying surface. A strategy for further studies is recommended on the basis of our understanding of these features. / Graduation date: 1982

Using rotated principal component analysis, 200mb wind data from the First GARP Global Experiment are analyzed in the East Asia winter monsoon region. It is found that there exist slowly eastward-moving disturbances with a wind-speed maximum embedded in the jet stream (jet streak). The implied vertical circulation that is transverse to the jet streak is thermally direct in the entrance region of jet streak and thermally indirect in the exit region. The Lagrangian momentum equation for transient part of the flow indicates that the magnitude of westerly acceleration of an air parcel moving through the jet streak is related to the Coriolis acceleration of the transient ageostrophic flow, the advection of mean momentum by transient flow and momentum conversion between mean and transient flow due to transient eddies. Estimates of terms in this equation in the entrance region of jet streak suggest that the increase of westerly momentum due to the Coriolis acceleration of the ageostrophic flow is mostly balanced by the decrease due to the mean easterly momentum advection by the transient jet-streak flow. Thus, the confluence theory of Namias and Clapp (1949) appears to be valid for the slowly moving jet streaks in the East Asia jet stream. / Graduation date: 1989

Graduation date: 1989

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science, 1982. / Supervised by Erik Mollo-Christensen. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-223).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1981. / Supervised by Richard P. Von Herzen and John G. Sclater. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1982. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-223).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-101).

We hypothesized that the interaction between tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF)/nuclear factor-kappaB (NFkB) via activation of IKK may amplify one anotherresulting in the evolution of vascular disease and insulin resistance associated withdiabetes. The interaction between TNFa and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) may contribute to the evolution of vascular inflammation and endothelial dysfunctionin coronary arterioles in type 2 diabetes. To test this hypothesis, endothelium-dependent(ACh) and –independent (SNP) vasodilation of isolated, pressurized coronary arterioles(40-100 μm) from mLeprdb (heterozygote, normal), Leprdb (homozygote, diabetic) andLeprdb mice null for TNF (dbTNF-/dbTNF-) were examined. Although dilation of vesselsto SNP was not different between Leprdb and mLeprdb mice, dilation to ACh was reducedin Leprdb mice. The NFkB antagonist, MG-132, IKK inhibitor, sodium salicylate(NaSal), or Anti-MCP-1 partially restored endothelium-dependent coronary arteriolardilation in Leprdb mice. Protein expression of IKK and IKK were higher in Leprdb thanin mLeprdb mice. The expression of IKK, but not the expression of IKK was increasedin dbTNF-/dbTNF- mice. Leprdb mice showed increased insulin resistance, but NaSal improved insulin sensitivity. Protein expression of TNFa, NFkB, phosphorylation ofIKK and JNK were greater in Leprdb mice, but NaSal attenuated protein expression ofthem in Leprdb mice. The ratio of phosphorylated IRS-1 at Ser307 (pIRS-1)/IRS-1protein expression was elevated in Leprdb mice; both NaSal and JNK inhibitor SP600125reduced pIRS-1/IRS-1 in Leprdb mice. MG-132 or neutralization of TNF reducedsuperoxide production in Leprdb mice. Anti-MCP-1 attenuated superoxide productionand protein expression of nitrotyrosine (N-Tyr), which is an indicator of peroxynitriteproduction, in isolated coronary arterioles of Leprdb mice. Immunostaining resultsshowed that expression of MCP-1 and vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM) isco-localized with endothelial cells and macrophages. Anti-TNFa or anti-MCP-1markedly reduced macrophage infiltration and the number of MCP-1 positive cells.Neutralization of TNFa or anti-MCP-1 reduced the expression of adhesion molecules. Inconclusion, our results indicate that the interaction between NFkB and TNFa signalinginduces activation of IKKb. In addition, TNFa and TNFa-related signaling, includingthe expression of MCP-1 and adhesion molecules, further exacerbates oxidative stressleading to endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetes.

The present thesis deals with the ocean circulation from two viewpoints: Pro primo, the dependence of the global thermohaline ocean circulation (THC) on the parameterization of the small-scale vertical mixing processes in the interior of the ocean, and, pro secundo, the dynamics of the circulation in the Nordic Seas. The THC is found be crucially dependent on the parameterization of the small-scale vertical mixing, two types of which have been compared: The commonly used constant diffusivity and a, physically more plausible, stability-dependent parameterization. For constant diffusivity the circulation weakens when the equator-to-pole surface density difference is decreased, consonant with commonly held prejudices. However, for stability-dependent diffusivity the circulation is enhanced. This conclusion has been reached using two investigative techniques, viz. a scale analysis as well as a numerical zonally-averaged and equatorially symmetric THC model. However, if asymmetric flows are considered, the dynamics become more complex to interpret. It has, nevertheless, been concluded that when the degree of asymmetry of the surface-density distribution is taken to be fixed, the response of the circulation to changes of the surface-density distribution corresponds to that from the symmetric investigation. The studies of the Nordic Seas are mainly based on satellite-altimetric data providing Sea-Level Anomalies (SLAs). These are utilized to estimate the seasonal cycle as well as the inter-annual variability of the depth-integrated flows. The seasonal cycle is examined using the winter-to-summer difference of the barotropic flow, with focus on the entire region as well as on two sections extending from a common point in the central Norwegian Sea to Svinøy on the Norwegian coast and to the Faroe Islands, respectively. The total barotropic transport is estimated to be around 10 Sv larger during winter than in summer, of which 8 Sv are associated with the barotropic re-circulation gyre in the interior of the Norwegian Sea, the remainder being linked to the Atlantic inflow across the Iceland-Scotland Ridge. The inter-annual variability of the circulation in the Nordic Seas is investigated on the basis of a theoretical analysis permitting independent calculation of the barotropic flow along closed isobaths using SLA data as well as wind data. The barotropic flow based on SLA data is found to co-vary with the flow estimated using wind data.

The surface circulation of the northern South China Sea (NSCS) for the period of 1986-2006 is studied using the data of more than 505 satellite-tracked drifters from NOAA/AOML database and the data from ten drifters which were released by our lab in the Penghu channel and in the Luzon Strait in 2006. In this study, the spatial structure and the temporal variability of the surface currents, at mesoscale to seasonal cycle, are described in terms of Eulerian and Lagrangian statistics from the drifter velocities that have been processed. Maps of mean currents, velocity variance ellipses and mean kinetic energies were produced in domain of 0.5¢X¡Ñ0.5¢X. The mean flow map confirms that during the winter monsoon, there is a global cyclonic circulation in the NSCS and the southwestward current which passes Dongsha Island and is called the ¡§Dongsha Current¡¨. Its continuation is the southward coastal jet off Vietnam which is called the ¡§Vietnam Current¡¨. Maximum velocities in the Vietnam Current can exceed 100 cm/s. During the summer monsoon, the Dongsha Current became very weak and the drifters looped near Dongsha Island. The drifter data shows that part of Kuroshio water intrudes into South China Sea through Luzon Strait, Dongsha Current and Vietnam Current were coherent flows. Values of 5.12¡Ñ107 cm2/s, 2.56 days and 64.43 km were obtained for the diffusivity, Lagrangian time scale and spatial scale in the meridional direction in the NSCS, respectively. In the zonal direction, the statistics are half of the above values which show that the characteristic time and space scale are anisotropic. The mean velocity in the Dongsha Current is 0.33 m/s. The domain of Dongsha Current is subdivided into ten boxes of size 2¢X¡Ñ 2¢X in order to analyze the spatial structure of Lagrangian statistics. The result shows that the eddy kinetic energy is considerably higher than the mean kinetic energy in the region 113-121¢XE, indicating that the mesoscale motions are particularly frequent. The eddy kinetic energy gradually decreases toward the west and has a maximum value near the Luzon Strait. The drifters that flow southward along the east coast of Vietnam shows that the width of the Vietnam Current varies between 80 and 100 km and has a mean core speed of 60-150 cm/s. In winter, Maximum southward velocities could reach 130 cm/s at 38 km off the coast. In spring, a weaker maximum speed (around 100 cm/s) exists at about 18 km off the Vietnam coast. There were not enough drifter data in summer and fall.