Simulating the Effects of Climate Change on Cloud Formations Around Mountainous Islands
Date
2021
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Abstract
If islands are large enough and far enough from other continents, they can act as
developers for convection in the tropics due to their diurnal cycle (Sobel et al. 2001). In
order to better understand what climate change might bring to the Maritime Continent
and other tropical islands, like Hawai‘i, I simulated the effects of global warming by
increasing the sea surface temperature surrounding a flat and mountainous island.
Numerical simulations were run with a sea surface temperature spanning the range
between 300K to 303K with 0.5K increments, and statistical analysis was run on each of
these executables, looking at the mixing ratio of the water vapor, zonal, vertical, and
meridional velocity, potential temperature, relative humidity, cloudiness, rainfall rate and
surface temperature. After running statistical analysis with a control flat island of the
same size, we added a mountain to the simulation and compared these results with the
control island. Statistical analysis was run on the mountainous island for each sea surface
temperature, looking at the same variables. We found that, as the sea surface temperature
increased, precipitation and cloud formations over the flat and mountainous island were
larger and more extreme due to the larger temperature contrast between the ocean and
land. As climate change causes the sea surface temperature to warm, cloud formations
and rainfall rate are expected to increase above and around islands.
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cloud formation, atmospheric science, climate change, sea surface temperature
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80 pages
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All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
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White, Kayla
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