scholarly journals Hydrodynamics of the Caribbean Low-Level Jet and Its Relationship to Precipitation

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1477-1494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry H. Cook ◽  
Edward K. Vizy

Abstract The easterly Caribbean low-level jet (CLLJ) is a prominent climate feature over the Intra-America Seas, and it is associated with much of the water vapor transport from the tropical Atlantic into the Caribbean Basin. In this study, the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) is analyzed to improve the understanding of the dynamics of the CLLJ and its relationship to regional rainfall variations. Horizontal momentum balances are examined to understand how jet variations on both diurnal and seasonal time scales are controlled. The jet is geostrophic to the first order. Its previously documented semidiurnal cycle (with minima at about 0400 and 1600 LT) is caused by semidiurnal cycling of the meridional geopotential height gradient in association with changes in the westward extension of the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH). A diurnal cycle is superimposed, associated with a meridional land–sea breeze (solenoidal circulation) onto the north coast of South America, so that the weakest jet velocities occur at 1600 LT. The CLLJ is present throughout the year, and it is known to vary in strength semiannually. Peak magnitudes in July are related to the seasonal cycle of the NASH, and a second maximum in February is caused by heating over northern South America. From May through September, zonal geopotential gradients associated with summer heating over Central America and Mexico induce meridional flow. The CLLJ splits into two branches, including a southerly branch that connects with the Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ) bringing moisture into the central United States. During the rest of the year, the flow remains essentially zonal across the Caribbean Basin and into the Pacific. A strong (weak) CLLJ is associated with reduced (enhanced) rainfall over the Caribbean Sea throughout the year in the NARR. The relationship with precipitation over land depends on the season. Despite the fact that the southerly branch of the CLLJ feeds into the meridional GPLLJ in May through September, variations in the CLLJ strength during these months do not impact U.S. precipitation, because the CLLJ strength is varying in response to regional-scale forcing and not to changes in the large-scale circulation. During the cool season, there are statistically significant correlations between the CLLJ index and rainfall over the United States. When the CLLJ is strong, there is anomalous northward moisture transport across the Gulf of Mexico into the central United States and pronounced rainfall increases over Louisiana and Texas. A weak jet is associated with anomalous westerly flow across the southern Caribbean region and significantly reduced rainfall over the south-central United States. No connection between the intensity of the CLLJ and drought over the central United States is found. There are only three drought summers in the NARR period (1980, 1988, and 2006), and the CLLJ was extremely weak in 1988 but not in 1980 or 2006.

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 718-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Zlesak ◽  
Randy Nelson ◽  
Derald Harp ◽  
Barbara Villarreal ◽  
Nick Howell ◽  
...  

Landscape roses (Rosa sp.) are popular flowering shrubs. Consumers are less willing or able to maintain landscape beds than in years past and require plants that are not only attractive, but well-adapted to regional climatic conditions, soil types, and disease and pest pressures. Marketing and distribution of rose cultivars occurs on a national level; therefore, it is difficult for U.S. consumers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Plant Hardiness Zones 3 to 5 to identify well-adapted, cold-hardy cultivars. Identifying suitable cultivars that have strong genetic resistance to pests and disease and that will tolerate temperature extremes without winter protection in the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 3 to 5 is of tremendous value to consumers and retailers in northern states. Twenty landscape rose cultivars, primarily developed in north-central North America, were evaluated at five locations in the United States (three in the north-central United States, one in the central United States, and one in the south-central United States) using the low-input, multiyear Earth-Kind® methodology. Six roses had ≥75% plant survival at the end of the study and were in the top 50% of performers for overall mean horticultural rating at each of the three north-central U.S. sites: ‘Lena’, ‘Frontenac’, ‘Ole’, ‘Polar Joy’, ‘Sunrise Sunset’, and ‘Sven’. Five of these six roses met the same criteria at the central United States (exception ‘Lena’) and the south-central United States (exception ‘Polar Joy’) sites. Cultivar, rating time, and their interaction were highly significant, and block effects were not significant for horticultural rating for all single-site analyses of variance. Significant positive correlations were found between sites for flower number, flower diameter, and overall horticultural rating. Significant negative correlations were found between flower number and diameter within each site and also between black spot (Diplocarpon rosae) lesion size from a previous study and overall horticultural rating for three of the five sites. Cane survival ratings were not significantly correlated with overall horticultural rating, suggesting some cultivars can experience severe winter cane dieback, yet recover and perform well. Data from this study benefit multiple stakeholders, including nurseries, landscapers, and consumers, with evidence-based regional cultivar recommendations and breeders desiring to identify regionally adapted parents.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1910-1922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto M. Mestas-Nuñez ◽  
David B. Enfield ◽  
Chidong Zhang

Abstract The seasonal and interannual variability of moisture transports over the Intra-Americas Sea (including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea) is evaluated using the NCEP–NCAR global reanalysis. The seasonal variability of these moisture transports is consistent with previous studies and shows distinctive winter and summer regimes. Boreal winter moisture is mainly delivered to the central United States from the Pacific with some contribution from the Gulf of Mexico. It is during the boreal summer that the moisture flow over the Intra-Americas Sea is most effective in supplying the water vapor to the central United States via the northern branch of the Caribbean low-level jet. The increase of intensity of this jet during July is associated with an increase in evaporation over the Intra-Americas Sea, consistent with midsummer drought conditions over this region. During both summer and winter, the interannual variability of the inflow of moisture from the Intra-Americas Sea into central United States is associated with Caribbean low-level jet variability. The source of the varying moisture is mainly the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic area just east of the Bahamas Islands and the sink is precipitation over east-central United States. The main teleconnection pattern for these interannual variations appears to be the Pacific–North American, although in boreal winter ENSO and possibly the North Atlantic Oscillation may also play a role. During boreal summer, associations with ENSO mainly involve the zonal moisture exchange between the Intra-Americas Sea/tropical Atlantic and the tropical Pacific.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Sergio Escobar-Lasso ◽  
Margarita Gil-Fernández

The long-tailed weasel Mustela frenata Lichtenstein, 1831 has the greatest geographical range among mustelids in the western hemisphere (Harding & Dragoo 2012). The range of M. frenata extends from the north of the United States, near the Canadian border, to northern South America (Sheffield & Thomas 1997), from sea level to 3800 masl (Sheffield & Thomas 1997, Reid & Helgen 2008).


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 1678-1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey G Holleman ◽  
Grant A Robison ◽  
Ian J Bellovich ◽  
Warren Booth

Abstract Despite awareness of the mutations conferring insecticide resistance in the bed bug, Cimex lectularius L. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), within the United States few studies address the distribution and frequency of these. Within the United States, studies have focused on collections made along the East Coast and Midwest, documenting the occurrence of two mutations (V419L and L925I) within the voltage-gated sodium channel α-subunit gene shown to be associated with knockdown resistance (kdr) to pyrethroids. Here, the distribution and frequency of the V419L and L925I site variants is reported from infestations sampled within Oklahoma and its immediately adjacent states. Additionally, the presence of a mutation previously undocumented in the United States (I935F) is noted. While novel in the United States, this mutation has previously been reported in Australian and Old World populations. No infestations were found to harbor wild-type individuals, and hence susceptible, at each of the three sites. Instead, ~21% were found to possess the resistant mutation at the L925I site (haplotype B), ~77% had mutations at both the V419L and L925I sites (haplotype C), and 2% possessed the mutation at the L936F site (haplotype Ab). The high frequency of haplotype C corresponds to previous studies in the United States, and contrasts dramatically with those of the Old World and Australia. The data presented here provide insight into the contemporary occurrence of kdr-associated insecticide resistance in the South Central United States, a region for which data have previously been absent. These data suggest that New World and Old World/Australian infestations are likely to have originated from different origins.


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 388-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke R Tembrock ◽  
Alicia E Timm ◽  
Frida A Zink ◽  
Todd M Gilligan

Abstract The Old World bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner), is one of the most destructive agricultural pests worldwide. It was first recorded in Brazil in 2013, yet despite this recent introduction, H. armigera has spread throughout much of Latin America. Where H. armigera has become established, it is displacing or hybridizing with the congeneric New World pest Helicoverpa zea. In addition to the adaptive qualities that make H. armigera a megapest, such as broad range pesticide resistance, the spread of H. armigera in the New World may have been hastened by multiple introductions into South America and/or the Caribbean. The recent expansion of the range of H. armigera into the New World is analyzed herein using mtDNA of samples from South America, the Caribbean Basin, and the Florida Peninsula. Phylogeographic analyses reveal that several haplotypes are nearly ubiquitous throughout the New World and native range of H. armigera, but several haplotypes have limited geographic distribution from which a secondary introduction with Euro-African origins into the New World is inferred. In addition, host–haplotype correlations were analyzed to see whether haplotypes might be restricted to certain crops. No specialization was found; however, some haplotypes had a broader host range than others. These results suggest that the dispersal of H. armigera in the New World is occurring from both natural migration and human-mediated introductions. As such, both means of introduction should be monitored to prevent the spread of H. armigera into areas such as the United States, Mexico, and Canada, where it is not yet established.


2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY PAYNE

United States–Caribbean relations over the period of the last thirty or forty years have rarely—if ever—been analysed in a thoroughly satisfying way. It is a strange omission in the international relations literature given the proximity of the United States to the Caribbean, and vice versa. But the fact is that most accounts of the relationship have fallen prey to a powerful, but ultimately misleading, mythology by which small, poor, weak, dependent entities in the Caribbean have either created trouble for, or alternatively been confronted by, the ‘colossus to the north’ that is the United States in whose ‘backyard’ they unfortunately have to reside. Virtually all analysts of the US–Caribbean relationship have thus drawn a picture marked at heart by the notion of an inherently unequal struggle between forces of a different order and scale. Within this broad metaphor the only major difference of interpretation has reflected the competing theories of power in the international system developed by the realist and structuralist schools.


Zootaxa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1675 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILY MORIARTY LEMMON ◽  
ALAN R. LEMMON ◽  
JOSEPH T. COLLINS ◽  
DAVID C. CANNATELLA

We describe a new species of chorus frog of the North American treefrog genus Pseudacris from the south-central United States. This new species is morphologically similar to the parapatric species P. feriarum and has thus previously been considered synonymous with this species. The new species is geographically distinct from P. feriarum and from its sister species, P. nigrita. We diagnose the new species based on advertisement call, morphological, and genetic characters.


2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 710-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingtse C. Mo ◽  
Muthuvel Chelliah ◽  
Marco L. Carrera ◽  
R. Wayne Higgins ◽  
Wesley Ebisuzaki

Abstract The large-scale atmospheric hydrologic cycle over the United States and Mexico derived from the 23-yr NCEP regional reanalysis (RR) was evaluated by comparing the RR products with satellite estimates, independent sounding data, and the operational Eta Model three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR) system (EDAS). In general, the winter atmospheric transport and precipitation are realistic. The climatology and interannual variability of the Pacific, subtropical jet streams, and low-tropospheric moisture transport are well captured. During the summer season, the basic features and the evolution of the North American monsoon (NAM) revealed by the RR compare favorably with observations. The RR also captures the out-of-phase relationship of precipitation as well as the moisture flux convergence between the central United States and the Southwest. The RR is able to capture the zonal easterly Caribbean low-level jet (CALLJ) and the meridional southerly Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ). Together, they transport copious moisture from the Caribbean to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Plains, respectively. The RR systematically overestimates the meridional southerly Gulf of California low-level jet (GCLLJ). A comparison with observations suggests that the meridional winds from the RR are too strong, with the largest differences centered over the northern Gulf of California. The strongest winds over the Gulf in the RR extend above 700 hPa, while the operational EDAS and station soundings indicate that the GCLLJ is confined to the boundary layer.


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