Atmospheric Water Vapor Transport in NCEP–NCAR Reanalyses: Comparison with River Discharge in the Central United States
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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.
History
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).
History
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.
Dates of Existence
1898-present
Historical Names
- Department of Geology and Mining (1898-1902)
- Department of Geology (1902-1965)
- Department of Earth Science (1965-1977)
- Department of Earth Sciences (1977-1989)
Related Units
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
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Abstract
The authors extract the water transport produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis for a 10-yr period, 1984–93, and compare its convergence into two river basins with an independent dataset, river discharge (streamflow). Analysis focuses on two basins in the United States, the Upper Mississippi and the Ohio–Tennessee Basins, where the relatively high density of routine upper-air observations might be expected to give the reanalysis its closest rendition of the actual water transport. Over periods of several years, water input by the atmosphere should match water output from these basins in streamflow. However, in both basins an imbalance between the two with biases with respect to streamflow approaching 40% is found. The accuracy attributed to river discharge measurements averaged over several years and the apparent lack of significant multiyear storage in the basins lead us to conclude that the bias is largely an inaccuracy in the atmospheric transport. Temporal variability of atmospheric input and streamflow output shows somewhat better correspondence, with statistically significant correlations occurring for both basins on interannual and several-day timescales. The overall behavior suggests that the temporal variability of water transport depicted by the reanalysis can be used to gain insight into the actual variability of atmospheric transport, at least for well-observed regions such as the United States.
Comments
This article is published as Gutowski Jr, William J., Yibin Chen, and Zekai Ötles. "Atmospheric water vapor transport in NCEP–NCAR reanalyses: Comparison with river discharge in the central United States." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 78, no. 9 (1997): 1957-1969. doi:2.0.CO;2" >10.1175/1520-0477(1997)0782.0.CO;2. Posted with permission.