Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Patrick Harr, Phil Durkee. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-108).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-165).

Paleotempestology, the study of past tropical cyclones (TCs) using geological proxy techniques, is a growing discipline that utilizes data from a broad range of sources. Most paleotempestological studies have been conducted using “established proxies”, such as grain-size analysis, loss-on-ignition, and micropaleontological indicators. More recently researchers have been applying more advanced geochemical analyses, such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning and stable isotopic geochemistry to generate new paleotempestological records. This is presented as a four article-type thesis that investigates how changing climate conditions have impacted the frequency and paths of tropical cyclones in the western North Atlantic basin on different spatial and temporal scales. The first article (Chapter 2; Oliva et al., 2017, Prog Phys Geog) provides an in-depth and up-to-date literature review of the current state of paleotempestological studies in the western North Atlantic basin. The assumptions, strengths and limitations of paleotempestological studies are discussed. Moreover, this article discusses innovative venues for paleotempestological research that will lead to a better understanding of TC dynamics under future climate change scenarios. The second article (Chapter 3; Oliva et al., submitted, The Holocene) presents the development of the first database summarizing the most up-to-date paleotempestological proxy data available for TC reconstructions for the western North Atlantic basin. Subsets of this new database are then used to reconstruct TC variability in the western North Atlantic basin. Using our new developed subsets, we investigate a key hypothesis, the Bermuda High Hypothesis that has been proposed to have influenced TC paths over centennial to millennial timescales. Results show an oscillation in the distribution of TC landfalls along the North American coast, suggesting a centennial oscillation in the mean summer position of the high pressure system. We suggest that a more serious, millennial scale shift in the Bermuda High to a northeastern (NE position) may have occurred at ~3000 and ~1000 cal yr BP. The third article (Chapter 4; Oliva et al., under review, Marine Geology) presents a local multi-proxy reconstruction of TC activity during the past 800 years from Robinson Lake, Chezzetcook Inlet in Nova Scotia, Canada. Here, we are testing the more recent use of the XRF scanning approach to paleotempestology at a local scale. Two sediment cores were extracted from Robinson Lake that were dated by 210Pb and 14C, analyzed for organic matter content, benthic foraminifera and thecamoebians, sediment grain size, and a range of elements and elemental ratios determined by XRF core scanning. Results show two periods of low TC activity based on multiple proxies including XRF technology: one from ~1150 to 1475 CE (800 – 475 cal yr BP) and the other from 1670 CE (280 cal yr BP) to the present, with the intervening period from ~1475 to 1670 CE (475 – 280 cal yr BP) as a time of more frequent and possibly higher magnitude TC activity. The fourth article (Chapter 5. Oliva et al., in preparation, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences) explores the potential use of stable oxygen isotopes in tree ring α-cellulose to reconstruct past local TC activity surrounding areas of known TC strikes. Cores of 12 Picea mariana trees were extracted adjacent to Robinson Lake, Chezzetcook Inlet, Nova Scotia in order to test more contemporary and historically documented records of TC activity in this region as per Chapter 4. TCs precipitate 18O-depleted rain, leaving a unique signature in the source water that trees use to form cellulose. Using an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA AR-1) model to detrend the data, local and regional time series were reconstructed. Local reconstructions led to most (> 95%) hurricanes and all major hurricane (± 1 year) being recorded in the isotope record, whereas the regional reconstruction shows no major hurricane, only a few hurricanes (< 40%) and one signal with a higher error (> 1 year). This thesis contributes to advancing our knowledge in paleotempestology of the western North Atlantic basin by: 1) bringing an up-to-date current status on paleotempestology, 2) the development and ongoing use of a new paleotempestology database for the western North Atlantic basin publicly available, 3) a local scale study using new XRF core elemental technology and 4) the exploratory use of tree-ring α-cellulose oxygen isotopic analysis based on contemporary and historical documents at local sites.

The frontal system that passed over the Storm Transfer and Response Experiment Study area on 19 November 1980 was the third vigorous system in succession to affect this region of the northeast Pacific Ocean. This study marks the first detailed investigation of a frontal wave over the Gulf of Alaska and as such provides structural details not shown in other studies. Precipitation and changes in temperature, wind velocity, and pressure were associated with the passage of both the warm and cold fronts. The thermal structure exhibits a well defined warm sector with regions of large baroclinicity in both the warm and cold frontal zones. Data from radiosonde releases from the northern-most of two observing platforms indicate a mid-level upper moisture front above the kata cold front. Throughout these northern cross-sections, gradients in the warm and cold frontal zones are of similar magnitudes while sections from the southern ship show a warm frontal zone that is more intense than the cold transition region. Along-frontal gradients of equivalent potential temperature are of the same order of magnitude as the cross-frontal gradients. Horizontal wind components relative to the storm indicate strong inflow to the system at lower layers from both south and east. The wind exits the system to the west and south. Upper level winds are westerly throughout. Gradients of wind components are strongest in frontal zones, which results in the cold front coincident with the peak axis in the vertical component of relative vorticity. The field of horizontal divergence also exhibits its largest magnitudes in the frontal zones, with convergence in the warm frontal zone and divergence in the cold transition region. This seldom observed feature of divergence at the cold front leads to a downwelling motion in this region and categorizes the front as a kata-cold trout. Most of the upward vertical velocity occurs in and around the warm frontal zone as a result of horizontal convergence in this region. Relative isentropic analysis indicates that there are three main air streams within the system. The warm conveyor belt flows to the north in the warm sector and rises gradually as it makes it way to the north. Ahead of the warm front and behind the cold front are two cold air streams that flow to the north and south respectively. Analysis of the kinematic, frontogenesis indicates that confluence and infrequently studied shear effects are the most important processes influencing the frontal gradients. Analysis of uncertainty in the terms of the prognostic kinematic frontogenesis equations reveals that the diabatic heat and twisting terms that others have found important are smaller than their estimated errors in this study. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Thesis. 1975. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Meteorology. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 82-83. / by Dean G. Duffy. / Sc.D.