Geophysical and tracer studies to detect subsurface chromium contamination and suitable site for waste disposal in Ranipet,Vellore district,Tamil Nadu,India

A chemical factory near Ranipet town in Vellore district, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India produced chromium-based inorganic chemicals. The factory area in granite gnessic terrain receives an average annual rainfall of 1,000 mm. About 1.5 lakh tons of solid wastes rich in hexavalent chromium (Cr⁶⁺), spreading over an area of 14,000 m² (about 3.5 acres), having about 4 m thickness, is accumulated in an open yard within the factory premises. The soil and groundwater in and around the factory area are contaminated with Cr⁶⁺ leached from dump site. Cr⁶⁺ is carcinogenic in nature and when leached in water can lead to respiratory disorders. Resistivity surveys comprising vertical electrical sounding, multielectrode resistivity imaging, drilling of bore wells, chemical analysis of soil, formation and groundwater samples and bore hole tracer studies were carried out within the factory and adjoining areas to decipher subsurface geology, hydraulic behavior of dyke as natural barrier and lateral and vertical extent of pollution zone in and around the chromium dump site. The data obtained were integrated and interpreted for understanding the pollution migration and its impact on environment. Remedial measures are suggested for containing the contamination.     

Projected climate change impacts on spatial distribution of bioclimatic zones and ecoregions within the Kailash Sacred Landscape of China,India, Nepal

Rapidly accelerating climate change in the Himalaya is projected to have major implications for montane species, ecosystems, and mountain farming and pastoral systems. A geospatial modeling approach based on a global environmental stratification is used to explore potential impacts of projected climate change on the spatial distribution of bioclimatic strata and ecoregions within the transboundary Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) of China, India and Nepal. Twenty-eight strata, comprising seven bioclimatic zones, were aggregated to develop an ecoregional classification of 12 ecoregions (generally defined by their potential dominant vegetation type), based upon vegetation and landcover characteristics. Projected climate change impacts were modeled by reconstructing the stratification based upon an ensemble of 19 Earth System Models (CIMP5) across four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) emission scenarios (i.e. 63 impact simulations), and identifying the change in spatial distribution of bioclimatic zones and ecoregions. Large and substantial shifts in bioclimatic conditions can be expected throughout the KSL area by the year 2050, within all bioclimatic zones and ecoregions. Over 76 % of the total area may shift to a different stratum, 55 % to a different bioclimatic zone, and 36.6 % to a different ecoregion. Potential impacts include upward shift in mean elevation of bioclimatic zones (357 m) and ecoregions (371 m), decreases in area of the highest elevation zones and ecoregions, large expansion of the lower tropical and sub-tropical zones and ecoregions, and the disappearance of several strata representing unique bioclimatic conditions within the KSL, with potentially high levels of biotic perturbance by 2050, and a high likelihood of major consequences for biodiversity, ecosystems, ecosystem services, conservation efforts and sustainable development policies in the region.     

Appraisal of land use/land cover of mangrove forest ecosystem using support vector machine

Human activities in many parts of the world have greatly changed the natural land cover. This study has been conducted on Pichavaram forest, south east coast of India, famous for its unique mangrove bio-diversity. The main objectives of this study were focused on monitoring land cover changes particularly for the mangrove forest in the Pichavaram area using multi-temporal Landsat images captured in the 1991, 2000, and 2009. The land use/land cover (LULC) estimation was done by a unique hybrid classification approach consisting of unsupervised and support vector machine (SVM)-based supervised classification. Once the vegetation and non-vegetation classes were separated, training site-based classification technology i.e., SVM-based supervised classification technique was used. The agricultural area, forest/plantation, degraded mangrove and mangrove forest layers were separated from the vegetation layer. Mud flat, sand/beach, swamp, sea water/sea, aquaculture pond, and fallow land were separated from non-vegetation layer. Water logged areas were delineated from the area initially considered under swamp and sea water-drowned areas. In this study, the object-based post-classification comparison method was employed for detecting changes. In order to evaluate the performance, an accuracy assessment was carried out using the randomly stratified sampling method, assuring distribution in a rational pattern so that a specific number of observations were assigned to each category on the classified image. The Kappa accuracy of SVM classified image was highest (94.53 %) for the 2000 image and about 94.14 and 89.45 % for the 2009 and 1991 images, respectively. The results indicated that the increased anthropogenic activities in Pichavaram have caused an irreversible loss of forest vegetation. These findings can be used both as a strategic planning tool to address the broad-scale mangrove ecosystem conservation projects and also as a tactical guide to help managers in designing effective restoration measures.     

Impact of Doppler weather radar data on thunderstorm simulation during STORM pilot phase—2009

This study assesses the impact of Doppler weather radar (DWR) data (reflectivity and radial wind) assimilation on the simulation of severe thunderstorms (STS) events over the Indian monsoon region. Two different events that occurred during the Severe Thunderstorms Observations and Regional Modeling (STORM) pilot phase in 2009 were simulated. Numerical experiments—3DV (assimilation of DWR observations) and CNTL (without data assimilation)—were conducted using the three-dimensional variational data assimilation technique with the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW). The results show that consistent with prior studies the 3DV experiment, initialized by assimilation of DWR observations, performed better than the CNTL experiment over the Indian region. The enhanced performance was a result of improved representation and simulation of wind and moisture fields in the boundary layer at the initial time in the model. Assimilating DWR data caused higher moisture incursion and increased instability, which led to stronger convective activity in the simulations. Overall, the dynamic and thermodynamic features of the two thunderstorms were consistently better simulated after ingesting DWR data, as compared to the CNTL simulation. In the 3DV experiment, higher instability was observed in the analyses of thermodynamic indices and equivalent potential temperature (θ _e) fields. Maximum convergence during the mature stage was also noted, consistent with maximum vertical velocities in the assimilation experiment (3DV). In addition, simulated hydrometeor (water vapor mixing ratio, cloud water mixing ratio, and rain water mixing ratio) structures improved with the 3DV experiment, compared to that of CNTL. From the higher equitable threat scores, it is evident that the assimilation of DWR data enhanced the skill in rainfall prediction associated with the STS over the Indian monsoon region. These results add to the body of evidence now which provide consistent and notable improvements in the mesoscale model results over the Indian monsoon region after assimilating DWR fields.     

Anoxia over the western continental shelf of India: bacterial indications of intrinsic nitrification feeding denitrification

Studies on the Arabian Sea coastal anoxia have been of immense interest, but despite its ecological significance there is sparse understanding of the microbes involved. Hence, observations were carried out off Goa (15 degrees 30'N, 72 degrees 40'E to 15 degrees 30'N, 72 degrees 59'E) to understand the processes that mediate the changes in various inorganic nitrogen species in the water column during anoxia. Water column chemistry showed a clear distinct oxic environment in the month of April and anoxic condition in October. Our study based on microbial signatures indicated that oxygen deficit appeared as a well-defined nucleus almost 40 km away from the coast during the oxic period (April) and spreads there after to the entire water column synchronizing with the water chemistry. Striking results of net changes in inorganic nitrogen species in nitrification blocked and unblocked experimental systems show that denitrification is the predominant process in the water column consuming available nitrate ( approximately 0.5 microM) to near zero levels within approximately 72 h of incubation. These observations have been supported by concomitant increase in nitrite concentration ( approximately 4 microM). Similar studies on denitrification-blocked incubations, demonstrate the potential of nitrification to feed denitrification. Nitrification could contribute almost 4.5 microM to the total nitrate pool. It was found that the relation between ammonium and total dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) pool (r=0.98, p<0.001, n=122) was significant compared to the latter with nitrite and nitrate. The occurrence of high ammonium under low phosphate conditions corroborates our observations that ammonium does not appear to be locked under low oxygen regimes. It is suggested that ammonium actively produced by detrital breakdown (ammonification) is efficiently consumed through nitrification process. The three processes in concert viz. ammonification, nitrification and denitrification appear to operate in more temporal and spatial proximity than hitherto appreciated in these systems and this gives additional cues on the absence of measurable nitrate at surface waters, which was earlier attributed only to efficient algal uptake. Hence we hypothesize that the alarming nitrous oxide input into the atmosphere could be due to high productivity driven tighter nitrification-denitrification coupling, rather than denitrification driven by extraneous nitrate.     

The X-ray intensity-hardness ratio relation in LMXRB

It is sometimes suggested that the change from the horizontal to the normal branch in the X-ray intensity-hardness ratio diagram of low mass X-ray binaries, is due to a change from a thin to a thick disk. It is shown here that wind from the hot thick disk depletes the amount of matter reaching the neutron star, thus causing the observed reduction of X-ray intensity as hardness ratio decreases in the normal branch.     

Hα emission from late type be stars

We show here that the Hα flux from late type Be stars can be explained as emission from an HII region formed in the gas envelope around the Be star, by the UV flux emitted by a helium star binary companion. We also discuss the observability of the helium star companions.     

Soil characterization based on land cover heterogeneity over a tropical landscape: an integrated approach using earth observation data-sets

Soil is a vital part of the natural environment and is always responding to changes in environmental factors, along with the influences of anthropogenic factors and land use changes. The long-term change in soil properties will result in change in soil health and fertility, and hence the soil productivity. Hence, the main aim of this paper focuses on the analysis of land use/land cover (LULC) change pattern in spatial and temporal perspective and to present its impact on soil properties in the Merawu catchment over the period of 18?years. Post classification change detection was performed to quantify the decadal changes in historical LULC over the periods of 1991, 2001 and 2009. The pixel to pixel comparison method was used to detect the LULC of the area. The key LULC types were selected for investigation of soil properties. Soil samples were analysed in situ to measure the physicochemical soil properties. The results of this study show remarkable changes in LULC in the period of 18?years. The effect of land cover change on soil properties, soil compaction and soil strength was found to be significant at a level of <0.05.     

Thermal convection instability of liquid metals in magneto-hydrodynamics

The problem of thermal convection instability of a horizontal layer of magnetized fluid has been studied to occur crystal growing under the effect of horizontal temperature gradient. In the study, the problem has been reduced to an eigen-value problem for a stream function. The dispersion relations for low viscosity fluid and high viscosity fluid respectively have been discussed analytically and some numerical results have been obtained. It is shown that the critical Rayleigh number and other its related constants for low viscosity fluid (i.e., mercury) are much differ than the high viscosity fluid (i.e., glycerol).