Decomposing the Critical Components of Flash Drought Using the Standardized Evaporative Stress Ratio

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Basara ◽  
Stuart Edris ◽  
Jordan Christian ◽  
Bradley Illston ◽  
Eric Hunt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Stress Ratio ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rapid Intensification ◽  
The North ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
Regional Reanalysis ◽  
Critical Components ◽  
The Individual

<p>Flash droughts occur rapidly (~1 month timescale) and have produced significant ecological, agricultural, and socioeconomical impacts. Recent advances in our understanding of flash droughts have resulted in methods to identify and quantify flash drought events and overall occurrence. However, while it is generally understood that flash drought consists of two critical components including (1) anomalous, rapid intensification and (2) the subsequent occurrence of drought, little work has been done to quantify the spatial and temporal occurrence of the individual components, their frequency of covariability, and null events. Thus, this study utilized the standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR) method of flash drought identification applied to the North American Regional Reanalysis NARR) to quantify individual components of flash drought from 1979 – 2019. Individual case studies were examined and the the drought component was assessed using the United States Drought Monitor for 2010 – 2019.   Additionally, the flash component was assessed using results of previous flash drought studies. Further, the correlation coefficient and composite mean difference was calculated between the flash component and flash droughts identified to determine what regions, if any, experienced rapid intensification but did not fall into flash drought. The results yielded that SESR was able to represent the spatial coverage of drought well for regions east of the Rocky Mountains, with mixed success regarding the intensity of the drought events. The flash component tended to agree well with other flash drought studies though some differences existed especially for areas west of the Rocky Mountains which experience rapid intensification at high frequencies but did not achieve drought designations due to hyper-aridity.</p>

Why Is There So Much Christianity in the United States? A Reply to Sommerville

2002 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 858-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Hollinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church History ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Secular Culture ◽  
The North ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

If we are going to explain the slow pace of de-Christianization for the United States relative to other industrialized societies in the North Atlantic West, we might well begin with the church-state relationship. The absence of an established church in the United States has enabled religious affiliation to function, like other voluntary organizations in “civil society,” as mediators between the individual and the nation. I conimented on this rather old idea in a book C. John Sommerville is kind enough to cite in another connection, Science, Jews, and Secular Culture, but since he does not take up this point, I will develop it a bit further here, before reacting to Sommerville's other concerns as expressed in his refreshingly fair-minded rejoinder to my essay in the March 2001 issue of Church History.

scholarly journals Sentencing Disparities

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Model ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
District Courts ◽  
Case Processing ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
Trial Penalty ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Criminal justice stakeholders are strongly concerned with disparities in penalty outcomes. Disparities are problematic when they represent unfounded differences in sentences, an abuse of discretion, and/or potential discrimination based on sociodemographic characteristics. The Article presents an original empirical study that explores disparities in sentences at two levels: the individual case level and the regional level. More specifically, the study investigates upward departures in the United States’ federal sentencing system, which constitutes a guidelines-based structure. Upward departures carry unique consequences to individuals and their effects on the system as they lead to lengthier sentences, symbolically represent a dispute with the guidelines advice, and contribute to mass incarceration. Upward departures are discretionary to district courts and thus may lead to disparities in sentencing in which otherwise seemingly like offenders receive dissimilar sentences, in part because of the tendency of their assigned judges to depart upward (or not). The study utilizes a multilevel mixed model to test the effects of a host of explanatory factors on the issuance of upward departures at the case level and whether those same factors are significant at the group level-i.e., district courts-to determine the extent of variation across districts. The explanatory variables tested include legal factors (e.g., final offense level, criminal history, offense type), extralegal characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship), and case-processing variables (e.g., trial penalty, custody status). The results indicate that various legal and nonlegal factors are relevant in individual cases (representing individual differences) and signify that significant variations across district courts exist (confirming regional disparities). Implications of the significant findings for the justice system are explored.

A Wildfire-relevant climatology of the convective environment of the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian E. Potter ◽  
Matthew A. Anaya
Keyword(s):  
Convective Instability ◽  
Convective Available Potential Energy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Seasonal Patterns ◽  
Ambient Conditions ◽  
The North ◽  
Fire Plumes ◽  
North American Regional Reanalysis ◽  
Moisture Sensitive ◽  
Regional Reanalysis

Convective instability can influence the behaviour of large wildfires. Because wildfires modify the temperature and moisture of air in their plumes, instability calculations using ambient conditions may not accurately represent convective potential for some fire plumes. This study used the North American Regional Reanalysis to develop a climatology of the convective environment specifically tied to large fire events. The climatology is based on the period 1979–2009 and includes ambient convective available potential energy (CAPE) as well as values when surface air is warmed by 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 K or moistened by 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 g kg–1. Results for the 2.0 K and 2.0 g kg–1 modifications are presented. The results reveal spatial and seasonal patterns of convective sensitivity to added heat or moisture. The patterns suggest that use of ambient CAPE to estimate the potential plume growth of a large wildfire may underestimate that potential in heat- or moisture-sensitive regions.

Setting Limits on Death: A View From the United States

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Individual

Assisted suicide is a tragic issue, one of those for which the tools of mere logic are inadequate and in which the power of the individual case is compelling and seductive but not necessarily clarifying. Meaningful dialogue is difficult. Persuasion is limited because the resolution of the issue, on a moral level, must be founded upon fundamental notions of what it means to be human, especially in the midst of suffering or disability or at the point of death.

Health Education in Cuba: A Preface

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Tesh
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Education Program ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Causes Of Disease ◽  
Conceptual Distinction ◽  
The Individual

Critics of health education policy in the United States fault it for ignoring the unequal ability of Americans to adopt more healthy behavior and for underestimating the social, economic, and political causes of disease. Many critics hypothesize that health education in a less bourgeois society would be more equitable and less individualistic. This article tests that hypothesis by analyzing the current Cuban health education program aimed at the reduction of chronic diseases. It argues that while the Cuban program appears to be every bit as individualistic as the North American program, theirs may not be comparable to ours because Cubans are less likely than Americans to reify the state. At least among supporters of the revolution, Cubans do not automatically make a conceptual distinction between the individual and the society. Discussions about responsibility for disease prevention take on new meaning in this light.

Forest fire causes and extent on United States Forest Service lands

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
United States Forest Service ◽  
Relative Area ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West

Nationally, the causes and extent of fire on lands administrated by the United States Forest Service varied significantly from 1940 to 2000, with California experiencing the largest relative annual burned areas. The south-east and California experienced the largest relative area burned by fires from human ignitions. No significant differences were detected in the relative area burned by lightning in California, the upper and central Rocky Mountains, and the south-west, which all experienced the highest levels. The north-west and Rocky Mountains have experienced significant increases in the relative total area burned; the north-east, south-east, California, and coastal Alaska all remained unchanged. The northern Rocky Mountains, south-west, and north-east have all experienced significant increases in the amount of area burned by lightning without significant increases in lightning ignitions. Increasing fuel hazards in these areas probably contributed to the increasing area burned by lightning fires; changing climate could have also contributed to the increase in wildfire area from 1940 to 2000. To be effective across the diverse forest types and conditions in the USA, fire policy should better recognize and respond to the diversity of US forests and how they have burned in the past. This analysis determined that there is high geographical diversity on wildfire occurrence and causes. Local input is therefore important in designing diverse, ground-based solutions to address fire management challenges in the United States.

A Brief Evaluation of Precipitation from the North American Regional Reanalysis

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa S. Bukovsky ◽  
David J. Karoly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Annual Cycle ◽  
North American ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Regional Reanalysis ◽  
Regional Reanalysis

Abstract Several aspects of the precipitation climatology from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) are analyzed and compared with two other reanalyses and one set of gridded observations over a domain encompassing the United States. The spatial distribution, diurnal cycle, and annual cycle of precipitation are explored to establish the reliability of the reanalyses and to judge their usefulness. While the NARR provides a much improved representation of precipitation over that of the other reanalyses examined, some inaccuracies are found and have been highlighted as a warning to potential users of the data.

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