Study of the contact binary AK Herculis: Light-curve analysis and orbital period investigation

AK Her is a very interesting contact binary exhibiting variable lightcurves and an obvious O'Connell effect, with max I greater than max II. Inthe present work an extensive study of this system is made covering notonly its light curve analysis, but also its orbital period changes in anattempt to give a definite answer regarding the apsidal motion of AK Her.Photoelectric observations of AK Her, obtained between 1985–1987 at theNational Observatory of Athens Greece, are presented, analysed anddiscussed. The light curve analysis was made with the W-D code and thegeometric and photometric elements of the system were derived. TheO'Connell effect was faced with a two dark spot model. Moreover, theorbital period of the system was examined and two periodicities weredetected. Since the first one corresponds to the time interval for whichobservational data exist and the second was found to be half of the first,it turns out that none of them is true. Two other significant results thatcame from the present analysis are that the orbital period of AK Her doesnot follow a sinusoidal variation and that, from the times of minimumlight at primary and secondary eclipses, it seems that there is no apsidalmotion.     

Large-wave simulation of three-dimensional,cross-shore and oblique,spilling breaking on constant slope beach

In this work, the large-wave simulation (LWS) method is adapted for application in spilling wave breaking over a constant slope beach. According to LWS, large scales of velocities, pressure and free-surface elevation are numerically resolved, while the corresponding unresolved scale effects are taken into consideration by a subgrid scale (SGS) model for wave and eddy stresses. The model may be not fully applicable in very shallow water, close to the shoreline, where the unresolved, turbulent, free-surface oscillation is of the same order with the water depth. Time integration of the Euler equations is achieved by a two-stage fractional scheme, combined with a hybrid scheme for spatial discretization, consisting of finite difference and pseudospectral approximation methods. Model parameters are calibrated by comparison to available experimental data of free-surface elevation and velocities in the surf zone for cross-shore incoming waves. The action of the wave SGS stresses in the outer coastal and surf zones initiates breaking and generates appropriate vorticity, in the form of an eddy structure (surface roller), at the breaking wavefront. At incipient breaking, both advection and gravity contribute to the vorticity flux at the free surface, while only after the full development of the surface roller, the effect of advection becomes stronger. The SGS model is also utilized to simulate propagation, refraction and breaking of oblique incoming waves. The gradual breaking and dissipation of wave crestlines and the surface roller structure along the breaking wavefront are automatically captured without any empirical input, such as data for the roller shape or the wave propagation angle at breaking.     

Weather maps classification over Greek domain based on isobaric line patterns

The paper presents a semi-supervised weather classification method based on 850-hPa isobaric level maps. A preprocessing step is employed, where isolines of geopotential height are extracted from weather map images via an image processing procedure. Α feature extraction stage follows where two techniques are applied. The first technique implements phase space reconstruction, and yields multidimensional delay distributions. The second technique is based on chain code representation of signals, from which histogram features are derived. Similarity measures are used to compare multidimensional data and the k-means algorithm is applied in the final stage. The method is applied over the area of Greece, and the resulting catalogues are compared to a subjective classification for this area. Numerical experiments with datasets derived from the European Meteorological Bulletin archives exhibit an up to 91 % accurate agreement with the subjective weather patterns.     

Discussion on the “Numerical simulation of wave-induced laminar boundary layers”

The effect of the shear and normal stress free surface boundary conditions on the laminar flow induced by wave propagation is discussed. The approximate form of the boundary conditions, as used by (Lin, P., Zhang, W., 2008. Numerical simulation of wave-induced laminar boundary layers. Coast. Eng. 55, 400–408), is valid only when the free surface slope is mild.     

GIS-based statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of earthquake-induced landslides in the island of Lefkada, Ionian Islands, Greece

This is the first landslide inventory map in the island of Lefkada integrating satellite imagery and reports from field surveys. In particular, satellite imagery acquired before and after the 2003 earthquake were collected and interpreted with the results of the field survey that took place 1 week after this strong (Mw?=?6.3) event. The developed inventory map indicates that the density of landslides decreases from west to east. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of landslides was statistically analyzed in relation to the geology and topography for investigating their influence to landsliding. This was accomplished by overlaying these causal factors as thematic layers with landslide distribution data. Afterwards, weight values of each factor were calculated using the landslide index method and a landslide susceptibility map was developed. The susceptibility map indicates that the highest susceptibility class accounts for 38 % of the total landslide activity, while the three highest classes that cover the 10 % of the surface area, accounting for almost the 85 % of the active landslides. Our model was validated by applying the approaches of success and prediction rate to the dataset of landslides that was previously divided into two groups based on temporal criteria, estimation and validation group. The outcome of the validation dataset was that the highest susceptibility class concentrates 18 % of the total landslide activity. However, taking into account the frequency of landslides within the three highest susceptibility classes, more than 85 %, the model is characterized as reliable for a regional assessment of earthquake-induced landslides hazard.     

The January 2010 Efpalion earthquakes (Gulf of Corinth, Central Greece): earthquake interactions and blind normal faulting

On 18 January 2010, 15:56 UTC, a M _w ?=?5.1 (National Observatory of Athens; NOA) earthquake occurred near the town of Efpalion (western Gulf of Corinth, Greece), about 10 km to the east of Nafpaktos, along the north coast of the Gulf. Another strong event occurred on 22 January 2010, 00:46 UTC with M _w ?=?5.1 (NOA) approximately 3 km to the NE of the first event. We processed the seismological and geodetic data to examine fault plane geometry, dip direction, and earthquake interactions at the western tip of the Corinth rift. Our data include relocated epicenters of 1,760 events for the period January–June 2010 and daily global positioning system observations from the Efpalio station for the period 1 December 2009–1 March 2010. We suggest that the first event ruptured a blind, north-dipping fault, accommodating north–south extension of the Western Gulf of Corinth. The dip direction of the second event is rather unclear, although a south dip plane is weakly imaged in the post-22 January 2010 aftershock distribution. A Coulomb stress model based on homogeneous slip distribution of the first event showed static stress triggering of the second event of the order of 22–34 KPa that was transferred along the plane of failure. We also point out the existence of north dipping, high-angle faults at 10–15 km depths, which were reactivated because of Coulomb stress transfer, to the west and south of Efpalion. The January 2010 earthquakes ended a 15-year-old quiescence in that area of the Gulf. The crustal volume near Efpalion was also characterized by b values in the range 0.6–0.8 (1970–2010 period).     

Strike-slip motions in the Gulf of Siğaçik (western Turkey): Properties of the 17 October 2005 earthquake seismic sequence

The October 2005 series of earthquakes that occurred in the Gulf of Siğaçik (western Turkey) reveal the operation of pure strike-slip faults, as evidenced from the 49 focal mechanisms we determined, in a region dominated by N–S extension and bounded by well-documented graben structures. The sequence is characterized by the occurrence of three moderate size events (17 October 2005, 05:45 UTC, Mw 5.4; 17 October 2005, 09:46 UTC, Mw 5.8; and 20 October 2005, 21:40 UTC, Mw 5.8) with an eastward propagation and close spatial separation (< 6 km). We relocated over 200 aftershocks, combining phases from the Greek and Turkish seismological networks, which align roughly in a NE–SW cloud, but considerably spread after the first day of the sequence, indicating the simultaneous activation of multiple structures nearly orthogonal to the main rupture. It is hard to relate the occurrence of the events to any of the previously mapped faults in the region. The region of occurrence is a well-known geothermal area which implies that it is in a very unstable state, with the fault systems close to rupture and very sensitive to stress perturbations. Here we showed that the sequence is adequately explained by static stress triggering. It is worth noting that this sequence, though moderate in magnitudes, provides stronger evidence for the operation of sub-parallel strike-slip faults in the central Aegean Sea–western Turkey, north of the volcanic arc, which seem to be optimally oriented in the regional stress field and facilitate the Anatolia motion into the Aegean Sea.     

Stable Isotope Signatures and Moisture Transport of a Typical Heavy Precipitation Case in the Southern Tianshan Mountains

Stable oxygen isotopes in precipitation contain meaningful environmental information on a synoptic scale and can be applied to diagnose hydrometeorological processes.A series of rainstorms occurred at the southern Tianshan Mountains during the period from May to June 2013,and the event-based precipitation was sampled along the mountain range from west to east.Based on δ18 O values in precipitation samples as well as the corresponding meteorological parameters,the moisture transport paths during the sampling period were identified.In late-May(stage 1),isotopes in precipitation collected generally showed a depleting trend.In mid-June(stage 2),there was no coherent trend of isotopes in precipitation for these stations,and only isotope values in Aksu showed a continually depleting trend.Checking other meteorological proxies during the sampling period,the event-based precipitation isotopes sensitively reflected the moisture process.In central Asia,both the westerly and monsoon moisture can be delivered to cause extreme precipitation events,and the isotopic information provides an alternative tool to investigate the atmospheric processes.