NOAA-CREST Center, The City College of New York, New York, 10031
Abstract
The interaction of land with changing sea surface temperatures is a relevant subject in coastal areas, particularly in tropical zones. Rapidly changing land cover conversions may interact with warming sea temperature trends enhancing or decreasing global warming trends. Environmental variables may be influenced by this relative thermal state sea-land including sea-breeze, precipitation, cloud base, and air quality. The case of Hispaniola is considered in this study to further understand the trends of these relative effects. The western side of the Island (Haiti) has experienced large deforestation while the eastern side (Dominican Republic) urbanization. A surface temperature and sea surface temperature analysis for the Island reveals significant uniform changes in minimum temperatures consistent with increasing SSTs. Analysis for maximum temperatures reveals spatial biases attributed to deforestation, urbanization, and agriculture, with deforestation as the possible main source for extreme cases. The increases in maximum temperatures are moderate attributed to possible increase in surface moisture. The surface temperature results are supported by regional atmospheric modeling simulations under two different land use scenarios. The simulations also revealed impacts in cloud base and sea breeze for the Island. Data sources used for the analysis include cooperative stations from NOAA-CDC, NOAQA-ICOADS, local weather stations, and NCA-Reanalysis.
- Indicates paper has been withdrawn from meeting
- Indicates an Award Winner