Several studies have attempted to determine the lower limit of atmospheric oxygen under which combustion can occur; however, none have been conducted within a fully controlled and realistic atmospheric environment. We performed experimental burns (using pine wood, moss, matches, paper, and a candle) at 20 degrees C in O2 concentrations ranging from 9 to 21% and at ambient and high CO2 (2000 par...

The equatorial Pacific is a region with strong negative feedbacks. Yet coupled general circulation models (GCMs) have exhibited a propensity to develop a significant SST bias in that region, suggesting an unrealistic sensitivity in the coupled models to small energy flux errors that inevitably occur in the individual model components. Could this “hypersensitivity” exhibited in a coupled model b...

Densities, structural effects and viscosities of binary nonelectrolyte systems including nitrobenzene + 2-propanol, 2-butanol and 2-pentanol at temperatures (293.15 to 323.15) K and normal atmospheric pressure were measured using an Anton-Paar SVM 3000 stabinger viscometer. Excess molar volumes  and viscosity deviations Δη were calculated and correlated by the Redlich-Kister equation t...

We have proposed an analysis of regional CO2 budgets of North America, using coupled models of terrestrial ecophysiology and biogeochemistry and the physical climate system. The models are driven by observed climates and by the time-varying observed state of the vegetated land surface as derived from satellite imagery. The coupled system has been developed to predict atmospheric trace gas compo...

JULY 2002 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | I n April 2000, a new dynamical seasonal prediction system was introduced at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP; the acronyms used in this paper are summarized in the appendix). The transition to the new system was hastened by a computer fire in September 1999 and subsequent changeover from a Cray C90 to an IBM-SP computer system....

Because of significant uncertainty in the behavior of the climate system, evaluations of the possible impact of an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere require a large number of long term climate simulations. Studies of this kind are impossible to carry out with coupled atmosphere ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) because of their tremendous computer resource requ...

Diagnostics of atmospheric momentum and energy transport are needed to investigate the origin of circulation biases in climate models and to understand the atmospheric response to natural and anthropogenic forcing. Model biases in atmospheric dynamics are one of the factors that increase uncertainty in projections of regional climate, precipitation and extreme events. Here we define requirement...

The GriddLeS (Grid Enabling Legacy Software) middleware is a novel software layer that allows previously separate legacy applications to be coupled in a software workflow over the grid without any changes to the application source code. We have previously tested GriddLeS on a number of applications, including a small atmospheric sciences workflow in which weather and climate models are coupled....

In an analytical study the stability of the thermohaline circulation with respect to freshwater perturbations in high latitudes is investigated. The study is based on a coupled ocean and atmosphere box model in an idealized North Atlantic geometry. The box model provides a qualitative understanding of how the thermohaline circulation is a ected by feedback mechanisms associated with changes in ...