bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Design and Evaluation of a Real-World Virtual Environment for Architecture and Urban Planning
Authors: Drettakis George , Roussou Maria , Reche Alex , Tsingos Nicolas 
Published: May 2007

In this paper we present a user-centered design approach to the development of a Virtual Environment (VE), by utilizing an iterative, user-informed process throughout the entire design and development cycle. A preliminary survey was first undertaken with end users, that is, architects, chief engineers, and decision makers of a real-world architectural and urban planning project, followed by a study of the traditional workflow employed. We then determined the elements required to make the VE useful in the real-world setting, choosing appropriate graphical and auditory techniques to develop audiovisual VEs with a high level of realism. Our user-centered design approach guided the development of an appropriate interface and an evaluation methodology to test the overall usability of the system. The VE was evaluated both in the laboratory and, most importantly, in the users' natural work environments. In this study we present the choices we made as part of the design and evaluation methodologies employed, which successfully combined research goals with those of a real-world project. Among other results, this evaluation suggests that involving users and designers from the beginning improves the effectiveness of the VE in the context of the real world urban planning project. Furthermore, it demonstrates that appropriate levels of realism, in particular spatialized 3D sound, high-detail vegetation, and shadows, as well as the presence of rendered crowds, are significant for the design process and for communicating about designs; they enable better appreciation of overall ambience of the VE, perception of space and physical objects, as well as the sense of scale. We believe this study is of interest to VE researchers, designers, and practitioners, as well as professionals interested in using VR in their workplace.
Radar and Rain Gauge Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall during Hurricane Danny’s (1997) Landfall
Authors: Medlin Jeffrey M. , Kimball Sytske K. , Blackwell Keith G. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
As a minimal hurricane, Danny moved over Mobile Bay around 0900 UTC 19 July 1997 and became stationary by midmorning, while situated within a synoptic col. Danny then evolved into an asymmetric storm with an intensely convective rainband that produced torrential rainfall through 1200 UTC 20 July 1997. Danny’s center remained &lt;100 km from the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) in Mobile, Alabama, for over 48 h, allowing long-term surveillance of the storm’s inner core. This event marked the first time the tropical Z–R relationship was employed on an operational WSR-88D system during tropical cyclone landfall. A radar-estimated maximum rainfall accumulation of 1097 mm (43.2 in.) was analyzed over southwestern Mobile Bay. A NWS cooperative rain gauge located on Dauphin Island, Alabama, measured 896 mm (35.28 in.). An adjacent standard rain gauge measured the highest rainfall amount of 932 mm (36.71 in.). This paper investigates the spatial and temporal distribution and potential magnitude of Danny’s torrential rainfall episode over coastal Alabama. It is shown that both gauges and radar seriously underestimated event rainfall. An estimate is given for what could have been the true event rainfall amount. In the case of the radar, the WSR-88D Algorithm Testing and Display System is used to obtain a better estimate of rainfall using higher dBZ caps than the operational 50 dBZ. In the case of the tipping-bucket rain gauge, wind and mechanical error estimates were applied in order to quantify rainfall underestimation.
The Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation Simulated in the NCEP Climate Forecast System: The Effect of Sea Surface Temperature
Authors: Seo Kyong-Hwan , Schemm Jae-Kyung E. , Wang Wanqiu , Kumar Arun 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
Observational evidence has indicated the important role of the interaction of the atmosphere with the sea surface in the development and maintenance of the tropical intraseasonal oscillation (ISO). However, improvements in ISO simulations with fully coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models are limited and model dependent. This study further examines the effect of air–sea coupling and the basic-state sea surface temperature (SST) associated with the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) in a 21-yr free run with the recently developed NCEP coupled Climate Forecast System (CFS) model. For this, the CFS run is compared with an Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project–type long-term simulation forced by prescribed SST in the NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) model and flux-corrected version of CFS (referred to as CFSA). The GFS run simulates significantly unorganized BSISO convection anomalies, which exhibit an erroneous standing oscillation. The CFS run with interactive air–sea coupling has limited improvements, including the generation of intraseasonal SST variation preceding the convection anomaly by ∼10 days. However, this simulation still does not show the observed continuous northward propagation over the Indian Ocean due to a cold model bias. The CFSA run removes the cold bias in the Indian Ocean and the simulation of the development and propagation of BSISO anomalies are significantly improved. Enhanced and suppressed convection anomalies exhibit the observed quadrupole-like configuration, and phase relationships between precipitation and surface dynamic and thermodynamic variables for the northward propagation are shown to be coherent and consistent with the observations. It is shown that the surface meridional moisture convergence is an important factor for the northward propagation of the BSISO. On the other hand, both the GFS and CFS runs do not realistically simulate an eastward-propagating equatorial mode. The CFSA run produces a more realistic eastward-propagation mode only over the Indian Ocean and Java Sea due to the improved mean state in SST, low-level winds, and vertical wind shear. Reasons for the failure of farther eastward propagation into the west Pacific in CFSA are discussed. This study reconfirms the significance of air–sea interactions. More importantly, however, the results suggest that in order for the influence of the coupled air–sea interaction to be properly communicated, the mean state SST in the coupled model should be reasonably simulated. This is because the basic-state SST itself acts to sustain BSISO convection and it makes the large-scale dynamical environment (i.e., easterly vertical wind shear or low-level westerly zonal wind) more favorable for the propagation of the moist Rossby–Kelvin wave packet.
Reexamination of the Near-Surface Airflow over the Antarctic Continent and Implications on Atmospheric Circulations at High Southern Latitudes*
Authors: Parish Thomas R. , Bromwich David H. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
Previous work has shown that winds in the lower atmosphere over the Antarctic continent are among the most persistent on earth with directions coupled to the underlying ice topography. In 1987, Parish and Bromwich used a diagnostic model to depict details of the Antarctic near-surface airflow. A radially outward drainage pattern off the highest elevations of the ice sheets was displayed with wind speeds that generally increase from the high interior to the coast. These winds are often referred to as “katabatic,” with the implication that they are driven by radiational cooling of near-surface air over the sloping ice terrain. It has been shown that the Antarctic orography constrains the low-level wind regime through other forcing mechanisms as well. Dynamics of the lower atmosphere have been investigated increasingly by the use of numerical models since the observational network over the Antarctic remains quite sparse. Real-time numerical weather prediction for the U.S. Antarctic Program has been ongoing since the 2000–01 austral summer season via the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS). AMPS output, which is based on a polar optimized version of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model, is used for a 1-yr period from June 2003 to May 2004 to investigate the mean annual and seasonal airflow patterns over the Antarctic continent to compare with previous streamline depictions. Divergent outflow from atop the continental interior implies that subsidence must exist over the continent and a direct thermal circulation over the high southern latitudes results. Estimates of the north–south mass fluxes are obtained from the mean airflow patterns to infer the influence of the elevated ice sheets on the mean meridional circulation over Antarctica.
The Synoptic Regulation of Dryline Intensity
Authors: Schultz David M. , Weiss Christopher C. , Hoffman Paul M. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
To investigate the role of synoptic-scale processes in regulating the strength of the dryline, a dataset is constructed of all drylines occurring within the West Texas Mesonet (WTM) during April, May, and June of 2004 and 2005. In addition, dewpoint and wind data were collected from stations on the western (Morton; MORT) and eastern (Paducah; PADU) periphery of the WTM domain (230 km across), generally oriented east–west across the typical location of the dryline in west Texas. Drylines were characterized by two variables: the difference in dewpoint between MORT and PADU (hereafter, dryline intensity) and the difference in the eastward component of the wind between MORT and PADU (hereafter, dryline confluence). A high degree of correlation existed between the two variables, consistent with a strong role for dryline confluence in determining dryline intensity. Some cases departing from the strong correlation between these variables represent synoptically quiescent drylines whose strength is likely dominated by boundary layer mixing processes.
Composite synoptic analyses were constructed of the upper and lower quartiles of dryline intensity, termed STRONG and WEAK, respectively. STRONG drylines were associated with a short-wave trough in the upper-level westerlies approaching west Texas, an accompanying surface cyclone over eastern New Mexico, and southerly flow over the south-central United States. This synoptic environment was favorable for enhancing the dryline confluence responsible for strengthening the dryline. In contrast, WEAK drylines were associated with an upper-level long-wave ridge over Texas and New Mexico, broad surface cyclogenesis over the southwestern United States, and a weak lee trough—the dryline confluence favorable for dryline intensification was much weaker. A third composite termed NO BOUNDARY was composed of dates with no surface airstream boundary (e.g., front, dryline) in the WTM domain. The NO BOUNDARY composite featured an upper-level long-wave ridge west of Texas and no surface cyclone or lee trough. The results of this study demonstrate the important role that synoptic-scale processes (e.g., surface lee troughs, upper-level short-wave troughs) play in regulating the strength of the dryline. Once such a favorable synoptic pattern occurs, mesoscale and boundary layer processes can lead to further intensification of the dryline.
Mesoscale Dynamics of the Trowal and Warm-Frontal Regions of Two Continental Winter Cyclones
Authors: Han Mei , Rauber Robert M. , Ramamurthy Mohan K. , Jewett Brian F. , Grim Joseph A. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
The dynamic and thermodynamic structure and associated frontal circulations within the trowal and warm-frontal regions of two extratropical winter cyclones are examined using numerical simulations. In each cyclone, the warm, moist airstream originating in the warm sector was found to bifurcate upon reaching the warm front. One branch of the flow turned anticyclonically eastward, corresponding to the warm conveyor belt, while the second branch turned cyclonically westward becoming the trowal airstream. The dynamic forcing of vertical motion within the two airstreams was investigated using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5), both from an analysis of the Sawyer–Eliassen (SE) equation in two dimensions and from complete model solutions.
Shearing deformation, associated with the jet stream and the low-level cyclonic flow, dominated confluent deformation near the trowal in both cases. The shearing deformation was accompanied by cold advection associated with an intrusion of cold, dry air aloft. The configuration of isentropes and the wind field led to frontogenesis on the equatorward side of the trowal and frontolysis farther south on the poleward side of the jet stream. The SE solution showed a circulation centered on the frontogenesis–frontolysis couplet, with air rising in the trowal and sinking within the dry air mass on the trowal’s equatorward side. The rising branch of the circulation was responsible for the wide swath of snowfall coincident with the trowal. From the vicinity of the bifurcation axis eastward along the warm-frontal zone, confluent deformation dominated within the troposphere. Frontogenesis in this region produced a direct circulation whose rising branch accounted for the production of precipitation over the warm-frontal zone. Diabatic processes associated with latent heating and cooling produced frontogenesis–frontolysis couplets and significantly modified the transverse frontal circulations. The ascending motion was amplified by a factor of 2 or greater compared with the ascending motion solely due to horizontal deformation. The width of the ascending branch was also narrowed compared with that solely from deformation. Vertical tilting, a result of the secondary circulation generated by horizontal deformation, produced frontogenesis–frontolysis couplets that acted to oppose and reduce the magnitude of the secondary circulation. A conceptual model of the effect of these processes on the production and organization of snowfall in the two cyclones is presented.
Dendritic Patterns in Tropical Cumulus: An Observational Analysis
Authors: Nicholls Stephen D. , Young George S. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
An observational analysis of the structure and synoptic setting of tropical dendritic cumulus formations was undertaken using 30 months of global data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Terra satellite, the Quick Scatterometer aboard the SeaWinds satellite, and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction global reanalysis. This analysis yielded 1216 cases of tropical dendritic cumulus formations of which 61 were randomly selected for quantitative study. From these sample cases, it was found that dendritic patterns in shallow cumulus occurred over warm tropical oceans in response to cold air advection. They typically dissipate downstream in regions of cooler water, neutral to warm advection, or deep convection. Moreover, shallow cumulus formations take on a dendritic pattern only in areas where the background wind velocity is between 1.5 and 13 m s−1 in the surface to the 850-mb layer and a shallow layer of conditional instability is present. Individual cumulus clouds in these dendritic formations are arranged in a compound, hierarchical branching pattern in which each element of the pattern takes the form of a Y-shaped cloud line. Analysis of the cloud pattern observations in conjunction with the scatterometer-derived surface winds and the lower-tropospheric wind profiles from reanalysis data reveals that the individual Y elements are aligned closely with the surface wind direction, as linear cloud streets would be. These Y elements are oriented so that their forked end aligns as closely as possible with the surface-to-850-mb shear vector, even when this conflicts with the surface wind direction. A formation mechanism is hypothesized by which the secondary circulation of a towering cumulus line modifies the shear and stability profiles in the adjacent areas to favor shallower cumulus lines oriented at an angle to itself, thus forming a hierarchical branching structure. This hypothesis is supported by stability profiles from the reanalysis data.
Collocated Radar and Radiosonde Observations of a Double-Brightband Melting Layer in Northern California
Authors: Martner Brooks E. , Neiman Paul J. , White Allen B. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
A strong elevated temperature inversion in a landfalling winter storm in northern California produced two simultaneous melting layers with associated radar bright bands. The storm was observed with scanning and profiling radars. Serial radiosonde launches from the scanning radar site precisely documented the evolving temperature structure of the air mass that produced the double bright band. The radiosonde and radar observations, which were coincident in location and time, clearly illustrate the cause (two melting layers) and effect (two bright bands) of this unusual phenomenon. An automated algorithm for determining the melting-layer height from profiling radar data was tested on this situation. In its operational form, the algorithm detects only the lower melting layer, but in modified form it is capable of detecting both melting layers simultaneously.
How Does the Tibetan Plateau Affect the Transition of Indian Monsoon Rainfall?
Authors: Sato Tomonori , Kimura Fujio 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
The roles of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) upon the transition of precipitation in the south Asian summer monsoon are investigated using a simplified regional climate model. Before the onset of the south Asian monsoon, descending flow in the midtroposphere, which can be considered as a suppressor against precipitation, prevails over northern India as revealed by the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data. The descending motion gradually weakens and retreats from this region before July, consistent with the northwestward migration of the monsoon rainfall. To examine a hypothesis that the dynamical and thermal effects of TP cause the midtropospheric subsidence and its seasonal variation, a series of numerical experiments are conducted using a simplified regional climate model. The mechanical effect of the TP generates robust descending flow over northern India during winter and spring when the zonal westerly flow is relatively strong, but the effect becomes weaker after April as the westerly flow tends to be weaker. The thermal effect of the TP, contrastingly, enhances the descending flow over north India in the premonsoonal season. The descending flow enhanced by the thermal effect of the TP has a seasonal cycle because the global-scale upper-level westerly changes the energy propagation of the thermal forcing response. The subsidence formed by the mechanical and thermal effects of the TP disappears over northern India after the subtropical westerly shifts north of the plateau, the seasonal change of which is in good agreement with that in the reanalysis data. The retreat of the descending flow can be regarded as the withdrawal of the premonsoon season and the commencement of the south Asian monsoon. After that, the deep convection, indicating the onset of the Indian summer monsoon, is able to develop over north India in relation to the ocean–atmosphere and land–atmosphere interaction processes. Northwest India is known to be the latest region of summer monsoon onset in south Asia. Thus, the thermal and mechanical forcing of the TP has great impact on the transition of the Indian monsoon rainfall by changing the midtropospheric circulation.
A Lightning Data Assimilation Technique for Mesoscale Forecast Models
Authors: Mansell Edward R. , Ziegler Conrad L. , MacGorman Donald R. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
Lightning observations have been assimilated into a mesoscale model for improvement of forecast initial conditions. Data are used from the National Lightning Detection Network (cloud-to-ground lightning detection) and a Lightning Mapping Array (total lightning detection) that was installed in western Kansas–eastern Colorado. The assimilation method uses lightning as a proxy for the presence or absence of deep convection. During assimilation, lightning data are used to control the Kain–Fritsch (KF) convection parameterization scheme. The KF scheme can be forced to try to produce convection where lightning indicated storms, and, conversely, can optionally be prevented from producing spurious convection where no lightning was observed. Up to 1 g kg−1 of water vapor may be added to the boundary layer when the KF convection is too weak. The method does not employ any lightning–rainfall relationships, but rather allows the KF scheme to generate heating and cooling rates from its modeled convection. The method could therefore easily be used for real-time assimilation of any source of lightning observations. For the case study, the lightning assimilation was successful in generating cold pools that were present in the surface observations at initialization of the forecast. The resulting forecast showed considerably more skill than the control forecast, especially in the first few hours as convection was triggered by the propagation of the cold pool boundary.
Prediction of Consensus Tropical Cyclone Track Forecast Error
Authors: Goerss James S. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract
The extent to which the tropical cyclone (TC) track forecast error of a consensus model (CONU) routinely used by the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center can be predicted is determined. A number of predictors of consensus forecast error, which must be quantities that are available prior to the official forecast deadline, were examined for the Atlantic basin in 2001–03. Leading predictors were found to be consensus model spread, defined to be the average distance of the member forecasts from the consensus forecast, and initial and forecast TC intensity. Using stepwise linear regression and the full pool of predictors, regression models were found for each forecast length to predict the CONU TC track forecast error. The percent variance of CONU TC track forecast error that could be explained by these regression models ranged from just over 15% at 48 h to nearly 50% at 120 h. Using the regression models, predicted radii were determined and were used to draw circular areas around the CONU forecasts that contained the verifying TC position 73%–76% of the time. Based on the size of these circular areas, a forecaster can determine the confidence that can be placed upon the CONU forecasts. Independent data testing yielded results only slightly degraded from those of dependent data testing, highlighting the capability of these methods in practical forecasting applications.