Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Geography
First Advisor
Paul Loikith
Term of Graduation
Fall 2022
Date of Publication
9-26-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Geography
Department
Geography
Language
English
Subjects
Climatic changes -- Research, Humidity, Atmospheric temperature
DOI
10.15760/etd.8097
Physical Description
1 online resource (vi, 38 pages)
Abstract
Humid-heat extremes threaten human health and are increasing in frequency with global warming, so elucidating factors affecting their rate of change is critical. This thesis examines the role of historical (1985-2014) wet-bulb temperature distribution tail shape on the probability of wet-bulb temperature extreme threshold exceedances under 2°Celsius global warming. Analysis of global climate models and reanalysis reveals that non-Gaussian wet-bulb temperature distribution tails are common worldwide across extensive, spatially coherent regions. More rapid increases in the number of days exceeding the historical 95th percentile are projected in locations with shorter-than-Gaussian warm-side tails. Of the two primary components of wet-bulb temperature, specific humidity and temperature, specific humidity tail shape is much more closely correlated with wet-bulb temperature tail shape and future exceedances. This suggests that humidity tail shape is more influential on the rate of future changes in wet-bulb temperature extreme exceedances than temperature tail shape. Short non-Gaussian wet-bulb temperature warm tails have notable implications for dangerous humid-heat stress in regions where current-climate wet-bulb temperature extremes approach human safety limits.
Rights
© 2022 Yianna Sotirios Bekris
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/39155
Recommended Citation
Bekris, Yianna Sotirios, "Short Warm-Side Wet-Bulb Temperature Distribution Tails Lead to Accelerated Increases in Extreme Threshold Exceedances Under Global Warming" (2022). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6237.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.8097
Comments
Support for this work provided by U.S. National Science Foundation grant AGS-1621554.