Despite many advances in the area of wind effects on structures in recent decades, research has been traditionally conducted within limited resources scattered geographically. With the trend toward increasingly complex designs of civil infrastructure combined with the escalating potential for losses by extreme wind events, a new culture of research needs to be established based on innovative an...

El Niño’s influence on the subtropical northwest (NW) Pacific climate increased after the climate regime shift of the 1970s. This is manifested in well-organized atmospheric anomalies of suppressed convection and a surface anticyclone during the summer (June–August) of the El Niño decay year [JJA(1)], a season when equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies have dissipated. In s...

As the world continues to shift towards clean and renewable energy sources, wind has emerged as a promising alternative traditional fossil fuels [...]

Northward shift of Northern Hemisphere jet stream results from changes in the treatment of subgrid vegetation information. Red areas show maximum changes in 300 mb wind vectors. See article on page 7. • GLASS to Lead Evaluation of Next Generation Land-surface Schemes (page 3) • GEWEX, ARM and EOS TERRA Plan a Coordinated Observing Period • ISLSCP/BAHC Expands Collaboration (page 15) • GAPP and ...

In this paper a wind sensing lidar utilizing a Frequency Stepped Pulse Train (FSPT) is demonstrated. One of the advantages in the FSTP lidar is that it enables direct measurement of wind speed as a function of distance from the lidar. Theoretically the FSPT lidar continuously produces measurements as is the case with a CW lidar, but at the same time with a spatial resolution, and without the ra...

Most gymnosperms are wind-pollinated, but some are insect-pollinated, and in Ephedra (Gnetales), both wind pollination and insect pollination occur. Little is, however, known about mechanisms and evolution of pollination syndromes in gymnosperms. Based on four seasons of field studies, we show an unexpected correlation between pollination and the phases of the moon in one of our studied species...

The current model for energy production, based on the intense use of fossil fuels, is both unsustainable and environmentally harmful and consequently, a shift is needed in the direction of integrating the renewable energy sources into the energy balance. However, these energy sources are unpredictable and uncontrollable as they strongly depend on time varying and uncertain hydrometeorological v...

Wind erosion of freshly-deposited volcanic ash causes persistent storms, strongly affecting ecosystems and human activity. Wind erosion of the volcanic ash was measured up to 17 months after the ash deposition, at 7 sites located within the ash-deposition area. The mass flux was measured up to 1.5 m above ground level. Mass transport rates were over 125 times the soil wind-erosion rates observe...

The 1997–98 El Niño was both unusually strong and terminated unusually. Warm eastern equatorial Pacific (EEqP) sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) exceeded 4°C at the event peak and lasted well into boreal spring of 1998, even though subsurface temperatures began cooling in December 1997. The oceanic processes that controlled this unusual termination are explored here and can be character...