Spatial variabilities and their relationships of the trends of temperature, water vapor, and precipitation in the North American Regional Reanalysis
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The Department of Aerospace Engineering seeks to instruct the design, analysis, testing, and operation of vehicles which operate in air, water, or space, including studies of aerodynamics, structure mechanics, propulsion, and the like.
History
The Department of Aerospace Engineering was organized as the Department of Aeronautical Engineering in 1942. Its name was changed to the Department of Aerospace Engineering in 1961. In 1990, the department absorbed the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics and became the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. In 2003 the name was changed back to the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
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1942-present
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- Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (1990-2003)
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- College of Engineering (parent college)
- Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (merged with, 1990)
Ames National Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), operated by and located on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
For more than 70 years, the Ames National Laboratory has successfully partnered with Iowa State University, and is unique among the 17 DOE laboratories in that it is physically located on the campus of a major research university. Many of the scientists and administrators at the Laboratory also hold faculty positions at the University and the Laboratory has access to both undergraduate and graduate student talent.
The Department of Agronomy seeks to teach the study of the farm-field, its crops, and its science and management. It originally consisted of three sub-departments to do this: Soils, Farm-Crops, and Agricultural Engineering (which became its own department in 1907). Today, the department teaches crop sciences and breeding, soil sciences, meteorology, agroecology, and biotechnology.
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The Department of Agronomy was formed in 1902. From 1917 to 1935 it was known as the Department of Farm Crops and Soils.
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1902–present
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- Department of Farm Crops and Soils (1917–1935)
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- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (parent college)
The Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences offers majors in three areas: Geology (traditional, environmental, or hydrogeology, for work as a surveyor or in mineral exploration), Meteorology (studies in global atmosphere, weather technology, and modeling for work as a meteorologist), and Earth Sciences (interdisciplinary mixture of geology, meteorology, and other natural sciences, with option of teacher-licensure).
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The Department of Geology and Mining was founded in 1898. In 1902 its name changed to the Department of Geology. In 1965 its name changed to the Department of Earth Science. In 1977 its name changed to the Department of Earth Sciences. In 1989 its name changed to the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.
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1898-present
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- Department of Geology and Mining (1898-1902)
- Department of Geology (1902-1965)
- Department of Earth Science (1965-1977)
- Department of Earth Sciences (1977-1989)
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- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
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Abstract
[1] Spatial variabilities and their relationships of the trends of temperature, water vapor, and precipitation in the North American Regional Reanalysis are examined for each season from March 1979 to February 2007. Results show that warming dominates the domain in the troposphere from the surface to 300 hPa. Water vapor increases at lower levels but does not change much at mid-upper levels. Because of the large increase of water vapor holding capacity of the air at all levels due to the warming, relative humidity has a decreasing trend at all levels. The decrease is small at the surface and largest at midlevels. Precipitation, which corresponds well to ascending motion in trends, both increases and decreases in about half of the domain. Statistical analysis from the very large spatial samples indicates that the precipitation trend positively relates to both specific humidity trend and relative humidity trend. However, temperature trend positively relates to specific humidity trend but negatively relates to relative humidity trend. So, in strong warming places, whether precipitation increases or not depends on whether the decrease of relative humidity becomes a limiting factor; small decrease of relative humidity may still allow precipitation to increase, but large decrease of relative humidity may make precipitation decrease. The uncertain relationship between the trends of precipitation and temperature can also be understood from the nonlinear characteristics of the atmospheric processes.
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This is an article from Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 115 (2010): D06110, doi:10.1029/2009JD013192. Posted with permission.