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Nate Brunsell
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Research Interests and Current Projects |
| Trained as a biometeorologist, my research is centered within the area of land-atmosphere interactions. The overall question that motivates my research is: what is the impact of land surface heterogeneity on boundary layer processes, in particular the cycling of water, carbon and energy? Specific examples of recent studies include the impact of land cover/land use on boundary layer turbulence statistics, quantifying the role land surface heterogeneity in vegetation and soil moisture on surface-precipitation feedback processes, and incorporating remote sensing observations to estimate the impact of surface heterogeneity on water and carbon cycling at the local, regional, and global scales. I approach these studies using a variety of techniques including remote sensing analysis, field observations and numerical modeling. |
| More information on Dr. Brunsell's research is available here. |
Courses Taught and Teaching Awards |
| ATMO 521: Microclimatology |
| ATMO 642: Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere |
| ATMO 680: Physical Meteorology |
| ATMO 731: Topics in Atmospheric Science: Turbulence |
| GEOG 531/731: Topics in Physical Geography: Land-Atmosphere Interactions |
Publications During the Last 5 Years |
Cochran, F. V. C. and N. A. Brunsell: 2012, Temporal scales of tropospheric CO2, precipitation, and ecosystem response in the central Great Plains. Remote Sensing of Environment,127, 316-328. |
Wohl, E., A. Barros, N. Brunsell, N. Chappell, M. Coe, T. Giambelluca, S. Goldsmith, R. Harmon, J. Hendrickx, J. Juvik, J. McDonnell, and F. Ogden: 2012, A research vision for hydrology of the humid tropics: Balancing water, energy, and land use. Nature Climate Change, 2, 655-672. |
Petrie, M. D. and N. A. Brunsell: 2012, The role of precipitation variability on the ecohydrology of grasslands. Ecohydrology, 5, 337-345. |
Barve, N., A. J. Bonilla, J. Brandes, J. C. Brown, N. Brunsell, F. V. Cochran, R. Crosthwait, J. Gentry, L. M. Gerhart, T. Jackson, A. J. Kern, H. Owens, A. T. Peterson, A. S. Reed, J. Sober ́on, A. D. Sundberg, and L M. Williams: 2012, Climate-change causation of mass mortality events in overwintering monarch butterflies. Revista Mexicana de la Biodiversidad, 83, 817-824. |
Craine, J. M., J. B. Nippert, A. J. Elmore, A. M. Skibbe, S. L. Hutchinson and N. A. Brunsell: 2012, The timing of climate variability and grassland productivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1118438109, 109, 3401-3405. |
Petrie, M. D., N. A. Brunsell and J. B. Nippert: 2012, Climate change alters growing season flux dynamics in mesic grasslands. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 107, 427-440. |
Brunsell, N.A. and M.C. Anderson: 2011, Characterizing the multiscale spatial structure of remotely sensed evapotranspiration with information theory. Biogeosciences, doi:10.5194/bg-8-2269-2011, 8, 2269-2280. |
Brunsell, N. A., S. Schymanski and A. Kleidon: 2011, Quantifying the thermodynamic entropy budget of the land surface: is this useful? Earth System Dynamics, doi:10.5194/esd-2-87-2011, 2, 87-103. |
Brunsell, N. A., B. B. Mechem and M. C. Anderson: 2011, Surface heterogeneity impacts on boundary layer dynamics via energy balance partitioning. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi:10.5194/acp-11-1-2011, 11, 3403-3416. |
Brunsell, N. A., J. M. Ham and K. A. Arnold: 2011, Validating remotely sensed land surface fluxes in heterogeneous terrain with large aperture scintillometry. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32, 6295-6314. |
Nippert, J. B., T. Ochletree, A. Skibbe, L. Kangas, J. M. Ham, K. A. Arnold, and N. A. Brunsell: 2011, Scaling above-ground growth by landscape position in mesic grassland. Oecologia, doi:10.1007/s00442-011-1948-6, 1-12. |
Brunsell, N. A.: 2010, A multiscale information theory approach to assess spatial-temporal variability of daily precipitation. Journal of Hydrology, in press. |
Brunsell, N. A., A. R. Jones, T. L. Jackson and J. J. Feddema: 2010, Seasonal trends in air temperature and precipitation in IPCC AR4 GCM output for Kansas, USA: evaluation and implications. International Journal of Climatology, doi:10.1002/joc.1958, in press. |
Logan, K., N. A. Brunsell, A. R. Jones and J. J. Feddema: 2010, Assessing spatiotemporal variability of drought in the U. S. Central Plains. Journal of Arid Environments, 74, 247-255, doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.08.008. |
Brunsell, N. A., P. P. B. Pontes, and R. A. C. Lamparelli: 2009, Remotely sensed phenology of coffee and its relationship to yield. GIScience & Remote Sensing, 46, doi:10.2747/1548-1603.46.3.1, 289-304. |
Jones, A. R. and N. A. Brunsell: 2009, A scaling analysis of soil moisture-precipitation interactions in a regional climate model. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 98, doi:10.1007/s00704-009-0109-x, 221-235. |
Jones, A. R. and N. A. Brunsell: 2009, Energy balance partitioning and net radiation as controls on soil moisture-precipitation feedbacks. Earth Interactions, 13, doi: 10.1175/2009EI270.1, 1-25. |
Baum, K. A., J. M. Ham, N. A. Brunsell, and P. I. Coyne: 2008, Surface boundary layer of cattle feedlots: implications for emission measurement. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 148, 1882-1893. |
Lash, R. R., N. A. Brunsell and A. T. Peterson: 2008, Spatiotemporal environmental triggers to Ebola and Marburg virus transmission. GeoCarto In- ternational, 23, 451-466. |
Brunsell, N. A., J. M. Ham and C. E. Owensby: 2008, Assessing the multi-resolution information content of remotely sensed variables and elevation for evapotranspiration in a tall-grass prairie environment. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112, 2977-2987. |
Lyon, S., F. Dominguez, D. Gochis, N. Brunsell, C. Castro, F. Chow, D. Fuka, Y. Hong, P. Kucera, S. Nesbitt, Y. Fan, N. Salzmann, J. Schmidli, P. Snyder, A. Teuling, T. Twine, G. Lee, S. Levis, J. Lundquist, G. Salvucci, A. Sealy, T. Walter: 2008, Coupling terrestrial and atmospheric water dynamics to improve prediction in a changing environment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 89, 1275-1279. |
Young, C. B. and N. A. Brunsell: 2008, Evaluating NEXRAD precipitation estimates for the Missouri River Basin: an analysis using daily raingage data. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 13, 549-553. |
Brunsell, N. A. and C. B. Young: 2008, Land surface response to precipitation events using MODIS and NEXRAD data, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 29, 1965-1982. |
Other Significant Publications |
French, A. N., F. Jacob, M. C. Anderson, W. P. Kustas, W. Timmermans, A. Gieske, B. Su, H. Su, M. F. McCabe, F. Li, J. Prueger, and N. Brunsell: 2005, Surface energy fluxes with the Advanced Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) at the Iowa SMACEX site (USA). Remote Sensing of Environment, 99, 55-65.
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White, M.A., N. Brunsell, and M.D. Schwartz: 2004, Vegetation phenology in global change studies. In Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science. M.D. Schwartz, editor. Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, NY. 453-466.
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| Brunsell, N. A. and R. R. Gillies: 2003, Length scale analysis of surface energy fluxes derived from remote sensing. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 4, 1212-1219. |
| Brunsell, N. A. and R. R. Gillies: 2003, Determination of scaling characteristics of AVHRR data with wavelets: Application to SGP97, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24, 14, 2945-2957. |
| Brunsell, N. A. and R. R. Gillies: 2003, Scale issues in land-atmosphere interactions: implications for the remote sensing of the surface energy balance, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 117, 3-4, 203-221. |
| Brunsell, N. A. and R. R. Gillies: 2002, Incorporation of surface emissivity into a thermal atmospheric correction, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 68, 12, 1263-1269. |
