Energy balance and evaporation loss of an agricultural reservoir in a semi‐arid climate (south‐eastern Spain)

A typical agricultural water reservoir (AWR) of 2400 m² area and 5 m depth, located in a semi‐arid area (southern Spain), was surveyed on a daily basis for 1 year. The annual evaporation flux was 102·7 W m^?2, equivalent to an evaporated water depth of 1310 mm year^?1. The heat storage rate G exhibited a clear annual cycle with a peak gain in April (G ～ 45 W m^?2) and a peak loss in November (G ～ 40 W m^?2), leading to a marked annual hysteretic trend when evaporation (λE) was related to net radiation (R_n). λE was strongly correlated with the available energy A, representing 91% of the annual AWR energy loss. The sensible heat flux H accounted for the remaining 9%, leading to an annual Bowen ratio in the order of 0·10. The equilibrium and advective evaporation terms of the Penman formula represented 76 and 24%, respectively, of the total evaporation, corresponding to a annual value of the Priestley–Taylor (P–T) coefficient (α) of 1·32. The P–T coefficient presented a clear seasonal pattern, with a minimum of 1·23 (July) and a maximum of 1·65 (December), indicating that, during periods of limited available energy, AWR evaporation increased above the potential evaporation as a result of the advection process. Overall, the results stressed that accurate prediction of monthly evaporation by means of the P–T formula requires accounting for both the annual cycle of storage and the advective component. Some alternative approaches to estimating R_n, G and α are proposed and discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of the telluric and magnetotelluric methods in selection of sites for nuclear plants

The paper deals with the application of the telluric method and of magnetotelluric soundings including experimental and model data on the localization of tectonic disturbances in connection with the selection of appropriate sites for nuclear plants.     

Volcanic hazards in the surroundings of Pico de Orizaba,eastern Mexico

Volcanic hazards from Pico de Orizaba volcano are presented here tor the first time. Some 1.3 million people live within the hazard zone, which in the most severe case would encompass the Mexican Gulf coast, east of the volcano. Three major cities located in the eastern part of the hazard zone account for 800 000 of this population and about 200 000 people live within a 20 km radius of the volcano. Probability calculations are presented as an attempt to quantify the hazards in the surroundings of the volcano. Such quantification can be of use in planning for future land use within the hazard zones.A zone of about 10 km radius centred on the top crater is a high hazard zone for gravity-driven flows and fallout ejecta. For large volume eruptions, the radius could be extended to 120 km to the east and 60 km to the west. The asymmetrical distribution is related to the topography of the volcano. Hazards from Pyroclastic-fall deposits are principally to the west of the volcano, since easterly winds are dominant in the area lava-flow hazards are greatest within a 10 km radius from the summit crater. Pyroclastic flow hazards are high up to 20 km from the volcano summit.In the case of reactivation of the volcano, melting of a glacier covering the summit of Pico de Orizaba having a volume equivalent to some 45 × 10⁹ litres of water, would produce lahars which would descend the flanks of the volcano.     

A detailed study of the duality relation for the least squares adjustment in euclidean spaces

The Euclidean spaces with their inner products are used to describe methods of least squares adjustment as orthogonal projections on finite-dimensional subspaces. A unified Euclidean space approach to the least squares adjustment methods “observation equations” and “condition equations” is suggested. Hence not only the two adjustment solutions are treated from the view-point of Euclidean space theory in a unified frame but also the existing duality relation between the methods of “observation equations” and “condition equations” is discussed in full detail. Another purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of some familiarity with Euclidean and Hilbert space concepts. We are convinced that Euclidean and Hilbert space techniques in least squares adjustment are elegant and powerful geodetic methods.     

Magmatic gases in well fluids aid the mapping of the flow pattern in a geothermal system

Gas composition and silica concentrations of well fluids are used in conjunction with pressure, temperature and enthalpy data to obtain a model of the drilled part of the Krafla geothermal field (Northeast Iceland).A magma chamber is located at 3–8 km depth under the field. Magmatic gases emanate from the chamber and travel via a channel reaching the surface at the Hveragil eruptive fissure. The composition of the gases is apparently modified on the way, in that sulphur, which presumably is in the form of sulphur dioxide to begin with, is removed on the way, and what remains is in the form of hydrogen sulphide at the end. It is suggested that the major removal mechanism is the deposition of pyrite and pyrrhotite during the passage of the gases through the hydrothermal system.The hydrothermal system is divided into a lower part whose temperature exceeds 300°C and whose fluids are to a varying extent affected by the magmatic gases, and an upper part whose temperature is ca 200°C. This upper part is a run-off from the lower part but the magmatic effects have mostly disappeared there.     

A new method to detect transitory signatures and local time/space variability structures in the climate system: the scale-dependent correlation analysis

The study of transitory signals and local variability structures in both/either time and space and their role as sources of climatic memory, is an important but often neglected topic in climate research despite its obvious importance and extensive coverage in the literature. Transitory signals arise either from non-linearities, in the climate system, transitory atmosphere–ocean couplings, and other processes in the climate system evolving after a critical threshold is crossed. These temporary interactions that, though intense, may not last long, can be responsible for a large amount of unexplained variability but are normally considered of limited relevance and often, discarded. With most of the current techniques at hand these typology of signatures are difficult to isolate because the low signal-to-noise ratio in midlatitudes, the limited recurrence of the transitory signals during a customary interval of data considered. Also, there is often a serious problem arising from the smoothing of local or transitory processes if statistical techniques are applied, that consider all the length of data available, rather than taking into account the size of the specific variability structure under investigation. Scale-dependent correlation (SDC) analysis is a new statistical method capable of highlighting the presence of transitory processes, these former being understood as temporary significant lag-dependent autocovariance in a single series, or covariance structures between two series. This approach, therefore, complements other approaches such as those resulting from the families of wavelet analysis, singular-spectrum analysis and recurrence plots. A main feature of SDC is its high-performance for short time series, its ability to characterize phase-relationships and thresholds in the bivariate domain. Ultimately, SDC helps tracking short-lagged relationships among processes that locally or temporarily couple and uncouple. The use of SDC is illustrated in the present paper by means of some synthetic time-series examples of increasing complexity, and it is compared with wavelet analysis in order to provide a well-known reference of its capabilities. A comparison between SDC and companion techniques is also addressed and results are exemplified for the specific case of some relevant El Niño-Southern Oscillation teleconnections.     

Sequence stratigraphy of Holocene incised-valley fills and coastal evolution in the Gulf of Cádiz (southern Spain)

This first sedimentary interpretation of two incised-valley fills in the Gulf of Cádiz (southern Spain), which accumulated during the last fourth-order eustatic cycle in response to fluvial incision, changes of sea level, and correlative deposition, relates the filling of the estuarine basins and their barriers with four regional progradation phases, H₁ to H₄. The cases studied are the wave-dominated Guadalete, and the mixed, tide and wave-dominated Odiel-Tinto estuaries. The sequence boundary is a type-1 surface produced during the lowstand of the Last Glacial period ca. 18 000 ¹⁴C yr BP. No fluvial lowstand deposits were found in the area. Due to rapid transgression the valley fills consist of transgressive and highstand sediments. The maximum landward advance of the estuarine barriers occurred ca. 6500–6000 ¹⁴C yr BP during the maximum of the Flandrian transgression, but there is no evidence of sea level rising appreciably above the present. A large part of the estuaries was filled during H₁ (ca. 6500–4400 ¹⁴C yr BP) but ravinement by shifting tidal inlets destroyed most of the coeval barriers. During the H₂ phase (ca. 4200–2550 ¹⁴C yr BP) sedimentation was favoured by arid conditions and concentrated in the axial estuarine zones and the barriers. Between H₂ and H₃ prevailing winds changed from W to WSW, increasing spit growth to the east and south-east. Progradation of bay-head deltas and flood-plains during H₃ (ca. 2300–800 ¹⁴C yr BP) and H₄ (500 yr ago to the present) further reduced the accommodation space in the largely-filled valleys, and sediment by-passed the estuaries and accumulated in the estuarine barriers as fast-growing spits. Arid conditions and increasing human activity have caused rapid coastal modifications.     

DISTRIBUTION OF DYNAMIC WATER LEVEL IN A SHALLOW LAKE

ABSTRACT

The shore of a large and shallow reservoir or lake may incur damages caused by high or low static water level, as well as from dynamic water level rises induced by wind; thus, the random variables representing, respectively, static water level and wind-induced rise must be added. The case study of Lake Balaton, Hungary, illustrates a proposed methodology to estimate, on the one hand, the distribution function of monthly static water level and on the other hand, that of monthly maximum rise caused by wind (seiche plus waves). We consider one section of lake shore which is homogeneous from the viewpoints of types of structure, dominant winds and corresponding values of fetch, so that a well-defined damage function can be used later for that section. A convolution of the two distribution functions is performed to yield the distribution function of monthly maximum water level. On the basis of existing data, normal distributions are suggested for either static or dynamic water levels. Extensions and transferability of the methodology are discussed.