Contents



Preface

This book highlights the importance of spatial perspectives to the discernment of patterns within the physical world and ramifications for those patterns for human activities and for the things that people value. Eight teams of authors have provided examples of their work to demonstrate the relevance of spatial variability to environmental research. Eight chapters are presented in four sections reflecting segments of the environmental sciences – atmospheric science, geomorphological science, biological science, and landscape science. This preface will provide a brief overview

Our first chapter, "Coherent Doppler Lidar for Wind Sensing" is by Sameh Abdelazim, David Santoro, Mark F. Arend, Fred Moshary, and Sam Ahmed. In it, the authors detail the design, operation, and testing of a new technology, coherent Doppler lidar to monitor wind. The need to assess wind direction, speed, and trajectory is vital to safely interacting with the atmosphere in many ways. The application of this new device could be used to detect and track dangerous changes in wind speeds and wind directions. It may improve safety for flying and structural engineering. It may also enable earlier warning to communities regarding the development of dangerous tornadic and cyclonic storm conditions. They demonstrate an approach to

The atmosphere can generate other hazardous conditions like the problem of differential urban heating, which may yield dangerous thermal conditions for vulnerable populations. The second chapter, "Low-key Stationary and Mobile Tools for Probing the Atmospheric UHI Effect" by Kristen Koch, Gunnar W. Schade, Anthony M. Filippi, Garrison Goessler, and Burak Güneralp, describes a study that the authors designed to track and monitor urban heat islands, a phenomenon related to modification of natural light-reflecting and scattering land covers to enhance thermal absorbance and reradiation of heat, urban activities that generate particulates and other heat-absorbing pollutants, and conversion of land uses to extend the size of the urban footprint. The authors detail the design and operation of a spatially transferable research activity that can be adapted to meet the dual value of educational instruction (of undergraduate and graduate students) and meaningful data acquisition and analysis. Their research involves field work, remote sensing analysis, and data analysis of local and regional atmospheric monitoring records. They demonstrate an approach to discerning the spatial variability of thermal energy in the boundary layer of the

In the third chapter, Rosa María Cerón Bretón, Julia Griselda Cerón Bretón, Reyna del Carmen Lara Severino, Marcela Rangel Marrón, María de la Luz Espinosa Fuentes, Simón Eduardo Carranco Lozada, and Lizbeth Cisneros Rosique present a study of "Mapping and Estimation of Nitrogen and Sulfur Atmospheric Deposition Fluxes in Central Region of the Mexican Bajio." Monitoring the ramifications of human activities, particularly burning fossil fuels and other industrial activities, is important

of the contents of those chapters.

**The Meteorological Sciences**

discerning the spatial variability of wind.

atmosphere.
