scholarly journals Examining the Climatology of Shortwave Radiation in the Northeastern United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 2869-2881
Author(s):  
Janel Hanrahan ◽  
Alexandria Maynard ◽  
Sarah Y. Murphy ◽  
Colton Zercher ◽  
Allison Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Predictor Variable ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Long Term Trends

AbstractAs demand for renewable energy grows, so does the need for an improved understanding of renewable energy sources. Paradoxically, the climate change mitigation strategy of fossil fuel divestment is in itself subject to shifts in weather patterns resulting from climate change. This is particularly true with solar power, which depends on local cloud cover. However, because observed shortwave radiation data usually span a decade or less, persistent long-term trends may not be identified. A simple linear regression model is created here using diurnal temperature range (DTR) during 2002–15 as a predictor variable to estimate long-term shortwave radiation (SR) values in the northeastern United States. Using an extended DTR dataset, SR values are computed for 1956–2015. Statistically significant decreases in shortwave radiation are identified that are dominated by changes during the summer months. Because this coincides with the season of greatest insolation and the highest potential for energy production, financial implications may be large for the solar energy industry if such trends persist into the future.

scholarly journals Long-term trends in submicron particle concentrations in a metropolitan area of the northeastern United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Masiol ◽  
Stefania Squizzato ◽  
David C. Chalupa ◽  
Mark J. Utell ◽  
David Q. Rich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Submicron Particle ◽  
Long Term Trends

scholarly journals A New Look at the Variance of Summertime Temperatures over Land

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (13) ◽  
pp. 5465-5477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas R. Vargas Zeppetello ◽  
David S. Battisti ◽  
Marcia B. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Climatic Warming ◽  
Temperature Variance ◽  
Central United States ◽  
Very High

AbstractThe increasing frequency of very high summertime temperatures has motivated growing interest in the processes determining the probability distribution of surface temperature over land. Here, we show that on monthly time scales, temperature anomalies can be modeled as linear responses to fluctuations in shortwave radiation and precipitation. Our model contains only three adjustable parameters, and, surprisingly, these can be taken as constant across the globe, notwithstanding large spatial variability in topography, vegetation, and hydrological processes. Using observations of shortwave radiation and precipitation from 2000 to 2017, the model accurately reproduces the observed pattern of temperature variance throughout the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes. In addition, the variance in latent heat flux estimated by the model agrees well with the few long-term records that are available in the central United States. As an application of the model, we investigate the changes in the variance of monthly averaged surface temperature that might be expected due to anthropogenic climate change. We find that a climatic warming of 4°C causes a 10% increase in temperature variance in parts of North America.

Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sedona Chinn ◽  
P. Sol Hart ◽  
Stuart Soroka
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Content Analyses ◽  
Long Term Trends

Despite concerns about politicization and polarization in climate change news, previous work has not been able to offer evidence concerning long-term trends. Using computer-assisted content analyses of all climate change articles from major newspapers in the United States between 1985 and 2017, we find that media representations of climate change have become (a) increasingly politicized, whereby political actors are increasingly featured and scientific actors less so and (b) increasingly polarized, in that Democratic and Republican discourses are markedly different. These findings parallel trends in U.S. public opinion, pointing to these features of news coverage as polarizing influences on climate attitudes.

3. Growth Unlimited

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Earth Systems ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Long Term Trends

This chapter covers a response to the discourse of limits which stresses the unlimited capacity of ingenious humans to overcome ecological limits, especially when they are organized in capitalist markets. For Prometheans, long term trends show environmental improvement and declining resource scarcity, such that economic growth can therefore go on forever. This Promethean discourse has often been advanced by market economists, and has often been highly influential in government, especially in the United States. More recently a Promethean environmentalism looks forward to a ‘good Anthropocene’ in which government too plays a role in bringing natural systems under benign human control, so that technologies such as geoengineering can be used effectively against problems such as climate change. In the background of Promethean argument is an older cornucopian discourse that stresses natural abundance of resources and the capacity of ecosystems to absorb pollutants. Ecologists and Earth systems scientists are not convinced and remain critical of Promethean discourse.

Long term trends in Black Carbon Concentrations in the Northeastern United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanveer Ahmed ◽  
Vincent A. Dutkiewicz ◽  
A.J. Khan ◽  
Liaquat Husain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Carbon Concentrations

scholarly journals Physical Understanding of Human-Induced Changes in U.S. Hot Droughts Using Equilibrium Climate Simulations

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (14) ◽  
pp. 4431-4443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linyin Cheng ◽  
Martin Hoerling ◽  
Zhiyong Liu ◽  
Jon Eischeid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Heat Wave ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Wave Intensity ◽  
Drought Severity ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Southern Great Plains

Abstract Although the link between droughts and heat waves is widely recognized, how climate change affects this link remains uncertain. Here we assess how, and by how much, human-induced climate change affects summertime hot drought compound events over the contiguous United States. Results are derived by comparing hot drought statistics in long simulations of a coupled climate model (CESM1) subjected to year-1850 and year-2000 radiative forcings. Within each climate state, a strong and nonlinear dependency of heat-wave intensity on drought severity is found in water-limited regions of the southern Great Plains and southwestern United States whereas heat-wave intensity is found to be insensitive to drought severity in energy-limited regions of the northern and/or northeastern United States. Applying a statistical model that is based on pair-copula constructions, we find that anthropogenic warming leads to enhanced soil moisture–temperature coupling in water-limited areas of the southern Great Plains and/or southwestern United States and consequently amplifies the intensity of extreme heat waves during severe droughts. This strengthened coupling accounts for a substantial fraction of rising temperature extremes related to the long-term climate change in CESM1, highlighting the importance of changes in land–atmosphere feedback in a warmer climate. In contrast, coupling effects remain weak and largely unchanged in energy-limited regions, thereby yielding no appreciable contribution to heat-wave intensification over the northern and/or northeastern United States apart from the long-term warming effects.

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