Date of Award
2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Biological and Environmental Sciences (MSBES)
Department
Geosciences
First Advisor
Ambarish Karmalkar
Abstract
Under anthropogenic climate change, temperatures in the northeastern United States and adjacent ocean waters have been identified as some of the fastest warming regions on the globe. Land surface temperatures along the coast, in particular, are warming more than regions in the interior northeastern United States, but some gridded observations and climate model simulations do not always capture this pattern. This study uses observations and reanalysis data of varying spatial resolution, including point-based weather station data, to further explore how commonly used datasets portray seasonal temperature trends in the northeastern United States. An enhanced coastal warming pattern can be observed in annual, winter, and summer station-based temperature trends. Only during the summer do the gridded datasets consistently capture the coastal warming pattern. An analysis of summers with particularly strong coastal warming patterns reveal that the enhanced coastal pattern is a result of an increase in the frequency of coastal-warming-like circulation regimes, which amplify warming in the coastal northeastern United States via a “localized greenhouse effect”.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Pauly, Raquel, "A SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF HISTORICAL TEMPERATURE TRENDS IN THE NORTHEASTERN U.S. AND THEIR ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC DRIVERS" (2026). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 2746.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/2746