Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “METEOROLOGY - CLOUDS”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records

Integrated Hourly Meteorological Database of 20 Meteorological Stations (1981-2022) for Watershed Function SFA Hydrological Modeling

This dataset contains (a) a script “R_met_integrated_for_modeling.R”, and (b) associated input CSV files: 3 CSV files per location to create a 5-variable integrated meteorological dataset file (air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity, and solar radiation) for 19 meteorological stations and 1 location within Trail Creek from the modeling team within the East River Community Observatory as part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA). As meteorological forcings varied across the watershed, a high-frequency database is needed to ensure consistency in the data analysis and modeling. We evaluated several data sources, including gridded meteorological products and field data from meteorological stations. We determined that our modeling efforts required multiple data sources to meet all their needs. As output, this dataset contains (c) a single CSV data file (*_1981-2022.csv) for each location (20 CSV output files total) containing hourly time series data for 1981 to 2022 and (d) five PNG files of time series and density plots for each variable per location (100 PNG files). Detailed location metadata is contained within the Integrated_Met_Database_Locations.csv file for each point location included within this dataset, obtained from Varadharajan et al., 2023 doi:10.15485/1660962. This dataset also includes (e) a file-level metadata (flmd.csv) file that lists each file contained in the dataset with associated metadata and (f) a data dictionary (dd.csv) file that contains column/row headers used throughout the files along with a definition, units, and data type. Review the (g) ReadMe_Integrated_Met_Database.pdf file for additional details on the script, methods, and structure of the dataset.The script integrates Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering’s PRISM gridded data product, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis 1 gridded data product (through the `RCNEP` R package, Kemp et al., doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.RNCEP), and analytical-based calculations. Further, this script downscales the input data into hourly frequency, which is necessary for the modeling efforts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Meteorological Tower Network Expansion Pilot Project Siting Considerations to Ensure Data Quality and Representativeness of Three New Meteorological Towers at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Associated with the Meteorological Tower Network Expansion Pilot Project by the Environmental Protection and Compliance (EPC) Compliance Programs (CP) Meteorology and Air Quality (MAQ) team, the purpose of this technical report is to establish requisite justification for the siting of three 10-meter high instrumented meteorological towers at three new locations on the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) site. These towers and their associated instrumentation are similar in scope to the existing 10-meter meteorological tower that is collecting meteorological data in Mortandad Canyon (MDCN). The conclusions and recommendations in this technical report will inform LANL management, EPC-CP MAQ staff, and other LANL divisions of the criteria employed for the selection of the final location for siting these three new towers. Meeting such comprehensive criteria will ensure that all data acquired will be spatially representative for meeting the diverse Safety Basis (SB), emergency management, and operations organizations programmatic needs and analytical data input requirements to its codes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Meteorological and hydrological parameters for 17 locations of meteorological stations of the East River Watershed

The Data Package includes a set of csv files of input meteorological parameters for locations of 17 meteorological stations within the East River watershed. These meteorological datasets were downloaded from the (1) PRISM database--monthly precipitation, air temperature (minimum, mean, and maximum), vapor pressure deficit (minimum and maximum), and dewpoint temperature, and (2) NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis database – wind database. The datasets were used for calculations of the Potential Evapotranspiration (ETo), Actual Evapotranspiration (ET), Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) , Standard Evapotranspiration-Precipitation Index (SPEI) for the period from 1966 to 2021. The main research questions addressed are: the evaluation of the long-term temporal trends of climatic parameters, hierarchical clustering, and areal mapping/zonation of the East River watershed. Calculations were conducted in the Rstudio environment. The dataset additionally includes a file-level metadata (flmd.csv) file that lists each file contained in the dataset with associated metadata; and a data dictionary (dd.csv) file that contains column/row headers used throughout the files along with a definition, units, and data type.The input datasets were downloaded from (a) PRISM database (the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering at the Oregon State University), and (b) NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis database.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Short-term impacts of 2017 western North American wildfires on meteorology, the atmosphere’s energy budget, and premature mortality

Abstract Western North American fires have been increasing in magnitude and severity over the last few decades. The complex coupling of fires with the atmospheric energy budget and meteorology creates short-term feedbacks on regional weather altering the amount of pollution to which Americans are exposed. Using a combination of model simulations and observations, this study shows that the severe fires in the summer of 2017 increased atmospheric aerosol concentrations leading to a cooling of the air at the surface, reductions in sensible heat fluxes, and a lowering of the planetary boundary layer height over land. This combination of lower-boundary layer height and increased aerosol pollution from the fires reduces air quality. We estimate that from start of August to end of October 2017, ∼400 premature deaths occurred within the western US as a result of short-term exposure to elevated PM 2.5 from fire smoke. As North America confronts a warming climate with more fires the short-term climate and pollution impacts of increased fire activity should be assessed within policy aimed to minimize impacts of climate change on society.

Bernstein, Diana N. (ORCID:0000000308279336)↗

Multi-Model Future Typical Meteorological (fTMY) Weather Files for nearly every US County

Exploring climate-induced impacts on building energy consumption can provide valuable insights for sustainable energy planning and environmental management in the face of a changing climate. By utilizing future weather data statistically downscaled from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) General Circulation Models (GCMs) from 2020-2100, this paper presents a broadening industry-consensus approach for generating future Typical Meteorological Year (fTMY) weather files through a combination of statistical downscaling and high-performance computing that generalizes across decades, multiple locations for a region, and varying climate models. Furthermore, these fTMY files have been generated for 3,128 US counties for capturing potential weather on a 20-year basis.

Building↗

Dependence of Deep Convective Cell Properties on Meteorological and Aerosol Conditions during TRACER

Deep convective cells significantly influence Earth’s energy balance and water cycle. However, their accurate representation in numerical models remains challenging due to their small spatiotemporal scales and limited observational constraints. This study examines over ∼400 deep convective cells near Houston, observed by a dual-polarization C-band radar during the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) intensive observation period (June–September 2022). Cells are categorized by lifetime into short-lived (<40 min), intermediate-lived (40–80 min), and long-lived (80+ min) groups. Long-lived cells were broader (∼13.2 km at 2–4-km height) and deeper (∼11.4 km) than short-lived cells (∼6.4-km width, ∼7.31-km height). Using random forest (RF) modeling and correlation analyses, precipitable water vapor (PWV), 2–6-km lapse rate, 0–8-km bulk shear, and fine aerosol mass concentration (Mass_f) are identified as key predictors of cell lifetime. Higher PWV is associated with significantly longer convective cell lifetimes compared to the low-PWV group, particularly within low 2–6-km temperature lapse rate (LR_26km), moderate-to-higher 0–8-km bulk shear (BS_08km), and low-to-moderate Mass_f environments. RF analysis also identifies low-level (0–2 km) equivalent potential temperature, PWV, Mass_f, and surface latent heat flux as key predictors for cell width and height. Short-lived cells have higher aerosol number concentrations (500–1000-nm size range), linked to onshore wind conditions and marine aerosols; however, their low concentration suggests the sensitivity may reflect associated meteorological regimes rather than a direct aerosol effect. Long-lived cells have higher concentrations of organic and sulfate aerosols, while short-lived cells exhibit higher black carbon concentrations. These results highlight the intricate dependence of convective cell lifetimes and structure on environmental moisture, thermodynamics, wind shear, and aerosol characteristics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Meteorological Conditions in Urban Sites in Knoxville, USA. 2023

This 2023 dataset, which contains four csv files, reports hourly air temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, incident short wave, reflected short wave, incident long wave, emitted long wave, net radiation, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) data measured in urban parks in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The sites include Cumberland Estates Park (CEP), Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED), West Hills (WHP), and Victor Ashe Park (VAP). Air temperature, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation data were obtained from a METER ATMOS 41 All-in-One Weather Station (Pullman, Washington, USA). Incident and emitted radiation (shortwave and longwave) measurements were made using an Apogee (Logan, Utah, USA) net radiometer (Model SN-500-SS). The SQ-521 Full-Spectrum Quantum sensor (Apogee Instruments, Inc) recorded the PAR. The measurement data for CEP, SEEED, and VAP started on July 1, 2023, while WHP started on August 26, 2023. All measurement ended on December 31, 2023. This work is a part of a larger study which investigates the impact of soil moisture and plant evapotranspiration on ambient temperature and relative humidity in several city parks in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Salvador, Christian [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000283287777↗

Meteorological Conditions in Urban Sites in Knoxville, USA. 2025

This 2025 dataset, which contains five csv files, reports hourly air temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, incident short wave, reflected short wave, incident long wave, emitted long wave, net radiation, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) data measured in urban parks in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The sites include Cumberland Estates Park (CEP), Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED), West Hills Park (WHP), West View Park (WVP), and Victor Ashe Park (VAP). Air temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation data were obtained from a METER ATMOS 41 All-in-One Weather Station (Pullman, Washington, USA). Incident and emitted radiation (shortwave and longwave) measurements were made using an Apogee (Logan, Utah, USA) net radiometer (Model SN-500-SS). The SQ-521 Full-Spectrum Quantum sensor (Apogee Instruments, Inc) recorded the PAR. The measurement data for all the sites started on January 1, 2025. and all measurement ended on December 31, 2025. This work is a part of a larger study which investigates the impact of soil moisture and plant evapotranspiration on ambient temperature and relative humidity in several city parks in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Salvador, Christian [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000283287777↗

LANL Meteorology Program Self-Assessment 2025 Update

The LANL Meteorological (Met) Program has been subject to several external reviews over the past 19 years. The DOE Meteorological Coordinating Council (DMCC) conducted an initial Met Program Site Assist Visit (SAV) in August 2006 (DMCC 2006). A follow-up SAV in August 2015 assessed progress (DMCC 2015), and in June 2023, the DOE Meteorological Subcommittee (DMSC), successor to the DMCC, conducted a second follow-up SAV (DMSC 2023), in which the Met Program was evaluated relative to the following 8 high-level questions: • What is the state of the meteorological services provided to its customers? • What is the quality of meteorological data provided to its customers and is it adequate and available to meet all customer needs? • What is the quality of atmospheric transport and diffusion modeling provided to its customers and is it applicable to complex wind flow patterns at LANL? • Are the current and future meteorological service customers being serviced appropriately? • Are there adequate human resources to meet present and future program customer needs and are they being appropriately leveraged? • Are existing instrumentation, facilities, and systems adequate to meet present and future customer needs? • Are LANL meteorological services conducted in an efficient, cost-effective manner? • Is meteorological data used to ensure safety & health of LANL personnel? More specific evaluations were performed relative to 23 performance objectives extracted from the ANSI/ANS-3.11- 2024 national standard and 14 separate performance objectives associated with consequence assessment and atmospheric transport and diffusion modeling in the consequence assessment element of DOE G 151.1-1B. In 2023, the DMSC SAV Team also reviewed the status of each of the 18 remaining recommendations from its 2015 SAV. Based on this review, DMSC stated in its Exit Briefing that the LANL meteorological program has gotten much stronger and more robust since 2015 and now represents one of the better managed programs within the DOE complex.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DeepPhenoMem V1.0: deep learning modelling of canopy greenness dynamics accounting for multi-variate meteorological memory effects on vegetation phenology

Abstract. Vegetation phenology plays a key role in controlling the seasonality of ecosystem processes that modulate carbon, water and energy fluxes between the biosphere and atmosphere. Accurate modelling of vegetation phenology in the interplay of Earth's surface and the atmosphere is thus crucial to understand how the coupled system will respond to and shape climatic changes. Phenology is controlled by meteorological conditions at different timescales: on the one hand, changes in key meteorological variables (temperature, water, radiation) can have immediate effects on the vegetation development; on the other hand, phenological changes can be driven by past environmental conditions, known as memory effects. However, the processes governing meteorological memory effects on phenology are not completely understood, resulting in their limited performance of vegetation phenology represented in land surface models. A deep learning model, specifically a long short-term memory network (LSTM), has the potential to capture and model the meteorological memory effects on vegetation phenology. Here, we apply the LSTM to model the vegetation phenology using meteorological drivers and high-temporal-resolution canopy greenness observations through digital repeat photography by the PhenoCam network. We compare a multiple linear regression model, a no-memory-effect LSTM model and a full-memory-effect LSTM model to predict the whole seasonal greenness trajectory and the corresponding phenological transition dates across 50 sites and 317 site years during 2009–2018, covering deciduous broadleaf forests, evergreen needleleaf forests and grasslands. Results show that the deep learning model outperforms the multiple linear regression model, and the full-memory-effect LSTM model performs better than the no-memory-effect model for all three plant function types (median R2 of 0.878, 0.957 and 0.955 for broadleaf forests, evergreen needleleaf forests and grasslands). We also find that the full-memory-effect LSTM model is capable of predicting the seasonal dynamic variations of canopy greenness and reproducing trends in shifting phenological transition dates. We also performed a sensitivity analysis of the full-memory-effect LSTM model to assess its plausibility, revealing its coherence with established knowledge of vegetation phenology sensitivity to meteorological conditions, particularly changes in temperature. Our study highlights that (1) multi-variate meteorological memory effects play a crucial role in vegetation phenology, and (2) deep learning opens up new avenues for improving the representation of vegetation phenological processes in land surface models via a hybrid modelling approach.

Geology↗

Vertical meteorological patterns and their impact on the energy demand of tall buildings

In accordance with the developing economy and growing population, an increasing number of tall buildings have been constructed over the last 20 years. In 2017, there were 144 new buildings worldwide that were 200 m or greater in height; 50% of these buildings were in China. Due to the vertical gradient impact of meteorological parameters, the energy performance of tall buildings differs from that of general buildings. Few studies exist on vertical meteorological changes using measured data at different heights. Most studies on dynamic energy simulation simulate meteorological parameters using models. This study explores vertical meteorological patterns using hourly dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed data from 2007 to 2017 for a 325 m meteorological tower in Beijing. The temperature decreased significantly with increasing altitude (~0.9 °C per 100 m), while the daily temperature difference decreased with increasing altitude. The absolute humidity did not change significantly with height. The wind speed increased with altitude at approximately 2 m/s per 100 m. The building simulation showed that the annual heating load at a height of 320 m increased by 85% from that at 8 m; the annual cooling load decreased by 20%. Such significant differences in thermal loads for 300-m-tall buildings confirm the need to consider vertical meteorological differences in building performance simulations for tall buildings. A greater number of measurement points at different heights improve the simulation accuracy. Finally, guidance on selecting the heights for vertical metrological measurements is provided based on the influences of building thermal loads.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Coupled Air Quality and Boundary-Layer Meteorology in Western U.S. Basins during Winter: Design and Rationale for a Comprehensive Study

The wintertime episodes of high aerosol concentrations occur frequently in urban and agricultural basins and valleys worldwide. These episodes often arise following development of persistent cold-air pools (PCAPs) that limit mixing and modify chemistry. While field campaigns targeting either basin meteorology or wintertime pollution chemistry have been conducted, coupling between interconnected chemical and meteorological processes remains an insufficiently studied research area. Gaps in understanding the coupled chemical–meteorological interactions that drive high-pollution events make identification of the most effective air-basin specific emission control strategies challenging. To address this, a September 2019 workshop occurred with the goal of planning a future research campaign to investigate air quality in western U.S. basins. Approximately 120 people participated, representing 50 institutions and five countries. Workshop participants outlined the rationale and design for a comprehensive wintertime study that would couple atmospheric chemistry and boundary layer and complex-terrain meteorology within western U.S. basins. Participants concluded the study should focus on two regions with contrasting aerosol chemistry: three populated valleys within Utah (Salt Lake, Utah, and Cache Valleys) and the San Joaquin Valley in California. This paper describes the scientific rationale for a campaign that will acquire chemical and meteorological datasets using airborne platforms with extensive range, coupled to surface-based measurements focusing on sampling within the near-surface boundary layer, and transport and mixing processes within this layer, with high vertical resolution at a number of representative sites. No prior wintertime basin-focused campaign has provided the breadth of observations necessary to characterize the meteorological–chemical linkages outlined here, nor to validate complex processes within coupled atmosphere–chemistry models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

How can biosphere models simulate enough vegetation biomass in the mountains of the western United States? Implications of meteorological forcing

Most carbon stocks and fluxes in the western United States are found in mountainous terrain, where observations and modeling are difficult. Terrestrial biosphere models generally underestimate above-ground biomass (AGB) over this region. In this report, we identify methods to reduce this underestimation by focusing upon 1) biases in meteorological datasets, 2) model representation of water stress, and 3) spatial resolution. We adopted the widely-used Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM 4.5) with six different meteorological datasets and found a 6-fold variation in simulated AGB across Utah/Colorado. Simulations underestimated AGB because of warm and dry biases within the meteorological datasets that reduced water availability and restricted plant growth. To eliminate the AGB underestimation we adopted a meteorological dataset designed for complex terrain (gridMET), combined with a representation of plant hydraulic stress (CLM 5.0). Conversely, changes in spatial resolution (meteorological variables and land surface description) had negligible impact on simulated AGB.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Meteorological environments associated with California wildfires and their potential roles in wildfire changes during 1984-2017

California has been seeing more wildfires in recent years, resulting in huge economic losses and threatening human health. Clarifying the meteorological environments of wildfires is foundational to improving the understanding and prediction of wildfires and their impacts. Here, 1535 California wildfires during 1984-2017 are systematically investigated. Based on two key meteorological factors - temperature and moisture anomalies - all wildfires are classified into four groups: hot-dry, hot-wet, cold-dry, cold-wet. Most (~60%) wildfires occurred on hot-dry days. Compositing the large-scale environments of the four groups shows that persistent high pressure and strong northeasterly wind descending from inland favor hot-dry conditions for wildfires. This analysis also reveals an important role of anomalies in southerly onshore flow that supports stronger convection, accompanied by more lightning flashes that provide a triggering mechanism for wildfires under hot-wet conditions. Self-organizing map analysis lends confidence in the large-scale meteorological pattern for dominating hot-dry wildfires in California. Besides wildfire occurrence, wildfire size is also influenced by meteorological anomalies through their magnitudes. Among them, moisture anomaly explains the largest fraction (~69%) of variability in wildfire sizes. Large-scale meteorological anomalies are found to play an important role in the devastating 2018 wildfire season in California. During 1984-2017, wildfire burned area has significantly increased by ~3.6% per year, indicating a doubling of burned area in 2017 relative to 1984, with the trend dominated by hot-dry wildfires in summer. Drying and warming in conjunction with strengthening of the high pressure in summer support more frequent and larger wildfires in California.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The High-resolution Urban Meteorology for Impacts Dataset (HUMID) daily for the Conterminous United States

Many current gridded surface meteorological datasets are inadequate for quantifying near surface spatiotemporal variability because they do not fully represent the impacts of land surface heterogeneity. Of note, explicit representation of the spatial structure and magnitude of local urban warming are usually lacking. Here we enhance the representation of spatial meteorological variability over urban areas in the conterminous United States (CONUS) by employing the High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS), which accounts for the fine-scale impacts of spatiotemporally varying land surfaces on weather. We also synthesize in situ meteorological data including local mesonets to create a 1 km grid spacing model-observation fusion product spanning 1981-2018 over the CONUS. Daily maximum, minimum, and mean values for a variety of temperature estimates, humidity, and surface energy budget terms, among others, are included. This High-resolution Urban Meteorology for Impacts Dataset (HUMID) will be useful for studies examining spatial variability of near surface meteorology and the impacts of urban heat islands across many disciplines including epidemiology, ecology, and climatology.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Descriptor: High Temporal Resolution Meteorological Data at Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR-HiResMet)

Access to continuous, quality assessed meteorological data is critical for understanding the climatology and atmospheric dynamics of a region. Research facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) rely on such data to assess site-specific climatology, model potential emissions, establish safety baselines, and prepare for emergency scenarios. To meet these needs, on-site towers at ORNL collect meteorological data at 15-minute and hourly intervals. However, data measurements from meteorological towers are affected by sensor sensitivity, degradation, lightning strikes, power fluctuations, glitching, and sensor failures, all of which can affect data quality. To address these challenges, we conducted a comprehensive quality assessment and processing of five years of meteorological data collected from ORNL at 15-minute intervals, including measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind, and solar radiation. The time series of each variable was pre-processed and gap-filled using established meteorological data collection and cleaning techniques, i.e., the time series were subjected to structural standardization, data integrity testing, automated and manual outlier detection, and gap-filling. The data product and highly generalizable processing workflow developed in Python Jupyter notebooks are publicly accessible online. As a key contribution of this study, the evaluated 5-year data will be used to train atmospheric dispersion models that simulate dispersion dynamics across the complex ridge-and-valley topography of the Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee.

Steckler, Morgan R. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory↗

Two Large-Scale Meteorological Patterns are Associated with Short-Duration Dry Spells in the Northeastern United States

Large-scale meteorological pattern (LSMP)–based analysis is used in a novel way to understand meteorological conditions before and during short-duration dry spells over the northeastern United States. These LSMPs are useful to assess models and select better-performing models for future projections. Dry-spell events are identified from histograms of consecutive dry days below a daily precipitation threshold. Events lasting 12 days or longer, which correspond to ~10% of dry-spell events, are examined. The 500-hPa stream-function anomaly fields for the first 12 days of each event are time averaged, and k -means clustering is applied to isolate the dry-spell-related LSMPs. The first cluster has a strong low pressure anomaly over the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the region, and is more common in winter and spring. The second cluster has strong high pressure over east-central North America and is most common during autumn. Over the region, both clusters have negative specific humidity anomalies, negative integrated vapor transport from the north, and subsidence associated with a midlatitude jet stream dipole structure that reinforces upper-level convergence. Subsidence is supported by cold-air advection in the first cluster and the location on the east side of the lower-level high pressure in the second cluster. Extratropical cyclone storm tracks are generally shifted southward of the region during the dry spells. Individual events lie on a continuum between two distinct clusters. These clusters have similar local, but different remote, properties. Although dry spells occur with greater frequency during drought months, most dry spells occur during nondrought months. Significance Statement: This study examines the large-scale weather patterns and meteorological conditions associated with dry-spell events lasting at least 2 weeks while affecting the northeastern United States. A statistical approach groups events together on the basis of similar atmospheric features. We find two distinct sets of patterns that we call large-scale meteorological patterns. These patterns reduce moisture, foster localized sinking, and shift the storm track southward along the Atlantic seaboard, all of which reduce precipitation. Besides greater understanding, knowing the meteorological patterns during short-term dryness in the region provides an important tool to assess how well atmospheric models reproduce these specific patterns. More dry spells occur in non-drought months than in drought months, which means that dry spells can occur without preexisting drought conditions.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗