Dissertation idea

[Mark Bayley]

Unsure where to put this, especially as it might be missed in this part of the forum, however i don't want to clog up the general forum, especially as this topic is probably not relevant to it

Its coming to the time where i must choose a dissertation project for my final year of University (im studying BSc Geography). My intention is to do something related to climate and weather, particularly focused towards teleconnections. Im still unsure whether to lean towards a more oceanic dissertation (i.e. ENSO) or atmospheric (i.e. NAO/AO) although im edging quite heavily towards atmospheric.

After speaking to my dissertation adviser today we was looking at the relationships between snow cover and the subsequent NAO/AO phase (e.g. snow cover anomalies during the autumn and seeing if there is a relationship between the NAO/AO phase in the following months). I was originally thinking at looking at sea ice changes and links, but was advised against given it was an emerging field, and still open to a lot of debate. I'm thinking that this would not only be interesting, but quite achievable given the NAO/AO and snow cover data that is available, plus the quite extensive literature. I was wondering what peoples views on this type of topic are, and perhaps give any useful advise/information that may be useful? Thanks in advance!

Edited February 12, 2013 by Mark Bayley

[Cheshire Freeze]

Sounds alright to me. I did mine on solar activity and NAO

[chionomaniac]

Ity is a good topic because you have trustworthy historical data (limited though) that you can easily tap into. Remember that Cohen also looked at rate of growth (during October) - not just snowcover amounts for showing how this can affect winter stratospheric conditions.

[Mark Bayley]

Thanks, im meeting again on Tuesday. Got to find possible data sources and explore some literature. Got the NAO/AO data but struggling a little with the snow cover. Best i've come up with so far is > http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_area.php?ui_set=2 but going to try and find some index's, as used in some of Cohens papers.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Unsure where to put this, especially as it might be missed in this part of the forum, however i don't want to clog up the general forum, especially as this topic is probably not relevant to it

Its coming to the time where i must choose a dissertation project for my final year of University (im studying BSc Geography). My intention is to do something related to climate and weather, particularly focused towards teleconnections. Im still unsure whether to lean towards a more oceanic dissertation (i.e. ENSO) or atmospheric (i.e. NAO/AO) although im edging quite heavily towards atmospheric.

After speaking to my dissertation adviser today we was looking at the relationships between snow cover and the subsequent NAO/AO phase (e.g. snow cover anomalies during the autumn and seeing if there is a relationship between the NAO/AO phase in the following months). I was originally thinking at looking at sea ice changes and links, but was advised against given it was an emerging field, and still open to a lot of debate. I'm thinking that this would not only be interesting, but quite achievable given the NAO/AO and snow cover data that is available, plus the quite extensive literature. I was wondering what peoples views on this type of topic are, and perhaps give any useful advise/information that may be useful? Thanks in advance!

A few questions.

What kind of analysis are you looking to do?

What kind of area will you be looking at for snow cover data? Regional or hemispheric?

The main thing.... what is it that you're most interested in!?

If you do consider looking at sea ice, this video of a

(who was the lead author of this paper) might give you some ideas of things to look at on that front. But don't be put of a lack of research on a particular topic. I did my dissertation on sea ice last year, so I might be able to help you out a little on that side of things if you like.

On a slightly different note, I just decided on my masters dissertation today. I'm going to be looking at supraglacial lakes on Greenland to try and spot what kind of effect the unusual conditions of summer 2012 had on the forming and refreezing dates.

[Mark Bayley]

A few questions.

What kind of analysis are you looking to do?

What kind of area will you be looking at for snow cover data? Regional or hemispheric?

The main thing.... what is it that you're most interested in!?

If you do consider looking at sea ice, this video of a

(who was the lead author of this paper) might give you some ideas of things to look at on that front. But don't be put of a lack of research on a particular topic. I did my dissertation on sea ice last year, so I might be able to help you out a little on that side of things if you like.

On a slightly different note, I just decided on my masters dissertation today. I'm going to be looking at supraglacial lakes on Greenland to try and spot what kind of effect the unusual conditions of summer 2012 had on the forming and refreezing dates.

Hi! Unfortunately i can only give vague answers to those questions (at the moment) until i've have a read through some of the literature and had a further meeting with my tutor. It will most likely be a statistical analysis in seeing if there is a correlation between snow cover at a certain time of the year and the subsequent phase of the NAO/AO (e.g. Autumn snowfall and wintertime AO/NAO). In terms of regions i know a lot of focus has been given to Eurasiansnow cover, and is something i will discus at my next meeting (also data dependent). I'm most interested at looking at winter time NAO/AO and seeing the impacts early season snowfall/advance may have on these indices.

That sounds quite interesting. I did Supraglacial lakes not so long ago in my glacial hydrology module, was certainly more interesting than glacial geomorphology!

Edited February 12, 2013 by Mark Bayley

[BornFromTheVoid]

Any updates?

[Mark Bayley]

Not as yet, i've submitted my dissertation proposal but need to wait to be assigned to a tutor. After a further meeting we leaned away from looking at the snow cover and its relation to the NAO/AO phase and more towards the AO/NAO and the impact of their phases on the regional climate of NW Europe. Although its generally known she felt that this would perhaps be more achievable, especially with the data sources available. The original idea has not been ruled out, i just have to wait till i get assigned a tutor so i can fully discus what i may do (which will most likely be the one i first approached). This will be in the next few weeks

[Mark Bayley]

I was wondering if it is possible to obtain data for western and eastern based NAO's, as im now doing a more general dissertation on the impact of the NAO on wintertime climate (maybe homing in on a specific winter as a case study). I've had a look round and struggled a little, a simple list of an eastern or western based month would do. Thanks in advance!

http://www.liveweatherblogs.com/index.php?option=com_community&view=groups&task=viewdiscussion&topicid=14515&groupid=4331&Itemid=179

[chionomaniac]

I was wondering if it is possible to obtain data for western and eastern based NAO's, as im now doing a more general dissertation on the impact of the NAO on wintertime climate (maybe homing in on a specific winter as a case study). I've had a look round and struggled a little, a simple list of an eastern or western based month would do. Thanks in advance!

http://www.liveweath...4331&Itemid=179

You could try emailing Allan Huffman - raleigh weather in the US - he may be able to send you in the right direction.

http://raleighwx.americanwx.com/models.html

[BornFromTheVoid]

I was wondering if it is possible to obtain data for western and eastern based NAO's, as im now doing a more general dissertation on the impact of the NAO on wintertime climate (maybe homing in on a specific winter as a case study). I've had a look round and struggled a little, a simple list of an eastern or western based month would do. Thanks in advance!

http://www.liveweath...4331&Itemid=179

I don't think there is a particular standard for west or east based NAOs.

You could create your own indices with the ncep/ncar reanalysis data though. Have you worked with it before?

Edited March 24, 2013 by BornFromTheVoid

[Mark Bayley]

Thanks guys!

BFTV- I've heard of the website but ive not done that before so wouldn't know what to do. I did discuss creating my own indices with my tutor so its something i could look into, although she preferred that i did not do this.

[Mark Bayley]

Just a quick update in that i've emailed Alan and hes linked me with some data!

http://raleighwx.americanwx.com/NAO/EastvsWest.html

http://raleighwx.americanwx.com/NAO/WestNAO.html

http://raleighwx.americanwx.com/NAO/EastNAO.html