The Coriolis force, named after French mathematician Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis (1792–1843), has traditionally been derived as a matter of coordinate transformation by an essentially kinematic technique. This has had the consequence that its physical significance for processes in the atmosphere, as well for simple mechanical systems, has not been fully comprehended. A study of Coriolis's own scientific career and achievements shows how the discovery of the Coriolis force was linked, not to...| AMETSOC
Abstract To reduce the amount of nonclimatic biases of air temperature in each weather station’s record by comparing it with neighboring stations, global land surface air temperature datasets are routinely adjusted using statistical homogenization to minimize such biases. However, homogenization can unintentionally introduce new nonclimatic biases due to an often-overlooked statistical problem known as “urban blending” or “aliasing of trend biases.” This issue arises when the homoge...| AMETSOC
Abstract Wildfires occur each summer in the boreal forests of Alaska, with an increasing frequency of extreme fire seasons in recent decades. The wildfire season typically begins after the snow melts (i.e., snowoff) in April–May, which is trending toward earlier dates since 1959 (ranging from 2 to 4 days decade−1 over Alaska). This study evaluates snowoff dates in Alaska and related synoptic-scale atmospheric drivers in spring over 1959–2020 to assess possible linkages with the summer w...| AMETSOC
Abstract A laboratory study of ice crystal growth characteristics at temperatures between −20° and −70°C has been performed at ice supersaturations and pressures comparable with those in the atmosphere using a horizontal static diffusion chamber. Maximum dimension, projected area, and volume growth rates, in addition to habit frequency, have been measured for individual habit types as functions of temperature, ice supersaturation, and air pressure. It was found that from −20° to −4...| AMETSOC
Abstract Mesometeorological information obtained in several research projects in southern Europe has been used to analyze perceived changes in the western Mediterranean summer storm regime. A procedure was developed to disaggregate daily precipitation data into three main components: frontal precipitation, summer storms, and Mediterranean cyclogenesis. Working hypotheses were derived on the likely processes involved. The results indicate that the precipitation regime in this Mediterranean reg...| AMETSOC