Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Zhang, Jing

Abstract

Wind is a fundamental parameter linking dynamical processes among different components of climate systems. This dissertation demonstrates researches describing climatological state, variability, long-term changes, and extremes of surface wind and associated surface properties for the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas and Alaskan North Slope region. Three different reanalysis datasets are used for this study, including the 3-hourly, 32-km resolution NARR reanalysis, 6- hourly, 0.75° X 0.75° lat/lon resolution ERA-Interim reanalysis, and a newly developed 1- hourly, 10-km CBHAR reanalysis. These three datasets capture similar seasonality of the region's surface winds with weak winds in spring and strong winds in autumn. NARR shows the strongest winds in October, while peak winds in CBHAR and ERA-I are in November. All three datasets show the greatest increasing trend of areal averaged monthly mean and 95th percentile wind speeds in October. The anomalous mesoscale winds over mountains are all captured by the three datasets; however, CBHAR demonstrates the best capability in detailing the mesoscale features. Investigation of wind-SST-ice relations in the study area demonstrates a negative correlation between surface wind and SST over open water and less-ice covered areas and a positive correlation over more-ice covered areas. Synoptic-scale storm plays an important role in forming the correlative relation between wind-SST-sea ice. Warmer SST associated with strong winds over weak solar forcing areas is the result of enhanced longwave radiation brought by storms. Colder SST over relatively strong solar forcing areas where less ice is present is caused by strong cold air advection and reduced solar radiation due to storm clouds.

Download

Share

COinS