Character and causes of changing North Pacific climate extremes
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The geographically and socioeconomically diverse state of California is a region characterized by frequent hydrological cycle extremes. Located near the southern margin of the prevailing Pacific storm track, California receives most of its annual precipitation over the course of a small number of heavy precipitation events during its well-defined winter rainy season. This dependence upon a handful of powerful storms for the bulk of its water supply makes California uniquely sensitive to the high year-to-year precipitation variability caused by relatively subtle shifts in the Pacific storm track—ultimately leading to wide swings between drought and flood. Severe drought in California during 2012-2016 has highlighted the state's substantial vulnerability to hydroclimatic extremes, and the extraordinary character of this extreme climate event has prompted a range of physical science questions regarding the drought's underlying physical causes—including the potential role of human-caused global warming in increasing drought risk in this already water-stressed region. Of particular interest has been the remarkable multi-year persistence of atmospheric high pressure over the northeastern Pacific, which deflected the Pacific storm track and generated very dry conditions over several consecutive winters. Questions regarding the behavior and dynamics of anomalously recurring high pressure events, in addition to their role in preventing moisture-bearing winter storms from reaching California, have therefore featured prominently in the recent scientific discourse. The work presented in this dissertation uses the 2012-2016 California drought as a springboard to explore the atmospheric mechanisms linked to Pacific Southwest precipitation extremes, and in doing so to develop a broadly-applicable methodological framework for quantifying complex changes in atmospheric circulation in a warming world.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Swain, Daniel LaMond |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Earth System Science. |
| Primary advisor | Diffenbaugh, Noah S |
| Thesis advisor | Diffenbaugh, Noah S |
| Thesis advisor | Arrigo, Kevin R |
| Thesis advisor | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Thesis advisor | Thomas, Leif N |
| Advisor | Arrigo, Kevin R |
| Advisor | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Advisor | Thomas, Leif N |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Daniel LaMond Swain. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Earth System Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2016. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Daniel LaMond Swain
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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