The Philippine archipelago, which has one of the longest coastlines in the world, will not be spared of the adverse impacts of sea-level rise and extreme climate events that are expected to happen in a warmer world. This study aims to review climate...
by E.G. Anglo, Ph.D. First published in the Philippine Star (Part I: 15 September 2005 and Part II: 22 September 2005). Posted with permission from the author. Was it global warming? When Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi last week, many observers were...
The Fifth-generation PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) is used to characterize the climatic effect of growing urbanization in Metro Manila from 1988 to 1997. Simulations are performed using the same initial and boundary conditions for different land cover data derived from satellite images of...
A method for computing climatological rainfall is used to determine the rainfall distribution for Luzon during the month of June. The method consists of simulating the distribution with a fluid dynamical model of the atmosphere and merging the results of the simulation with...
A comparative study of the accuracy of model simulations of accumulated monthly rainfall is made. Two models have been compared: the PSU/NCAR MM5 and the RegCM3 models. For the purpose of the study, we simulated the accumulated rainfall for the month of June...
This study evaluates the skill of the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model (MM5) in predicting precipitation within the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) during typhoon/tropical storm events. Accumulated rainfall and rain rate forecasts of six tropical cyclones that occurred in 2003 are compared with satellite...
This study assessed noise levels in Ateneo de Manila University caused by motor vehicles and tested the performance of two standard noise models using observations at four monitoring stations inside the campus. Monitoring was conducted at three periods of the day, with each...
A combined observational and theoretical study of diurnal variations of NO2 concentrations of the air at the Manila Observatory (Quezon City, Philippines) in June and August 2002 was made. The concentrations were monitored using a Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscope (DOAS). The analysis showed...
Previous simulations of regional scale weather and climate required the power of mainframe supercomputers to handle the formidable nonlinear fluid dynamical equations that describe the atmosphere. Using a reasonably powerful Linux-based Beowulf cluster (christened the Agila), we report a successful application of the...
The potential for the use of water vapor as an air quality indicator was investigated. Water vapor samples were collected from three urban sites (roadside, landfill, residential) and an agricultural area, using a simple active cooling system. They were analyzed for standard water...
A prototype DOAS instrument was assembled to measure ambient concentration of Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). A folded-path configuration employing retroreflectors was chosen because of advantages in sensitivity and convenience in housing the transmitter and receiver together. The measurement path length was approximately 280m. Data...
Different methods of clustering are explored to determine the different climate types in the Philippines. This study aims to find a way to reduce data that is varying in both space and time, as in the case of rainfall data, in order to...
The performance of the MM5 and the RegCM3 models in simulating total monthly rainfall has been evaluated. Total rainfall for the two months of June 2000 and June 2001 are simulated. These two months have been selected because they are characterized by two...
A method for computing climatological rainfall is used to determine the rainfall distribution for Luzon during the month of June. The method consists of simulating the distribution with a fluid dynamical model of the atmosphere and merging the results of the simulation with...
A ground based scanning lidar was used for the first time in the Philippines to observe early stages of the convective boundary layer (CBL) growth. Two days of observations were done (March 16 and 17, 2003) at the Manila Observatory, Katipunan. The scanning...
A theoretical study of diurnal variations of NO2 concentrations in the air is conducted to verify the observations at the Manila Observatory inside the Ateneo de Manila Campus (Quezon City, Philippines) in June and August 2002. The analysis of the observations shows that...
A 280m open-path DOAS instrument was constructed. A folded-path configuration employing retroreflectors was chosen for advantages in sensitivity and convenience in instrument alignment and housing. An annular illumination single-telescope transceiver was used to reduce cost and system complexity. Data gathering was performed during...
The Fifth-generation PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) was used to predict tropical cyclone tracks that developed near the Philippines in 2003. The model’s sensitivity to the parameterization schemes for the cumulus, planetary boundary layer and explicit moisture was investigated to determine the optimal model...