Diurnal variations of upper winds in summer in Alberta

Abstract

Analysis of diurnal variations of upper winds in summer in Alberta reveals features consistent with the hypothesis of a thermally‐induced wind system resulting from the juxtaposition of the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies. These include diurnal variation of flow that is most pronounced at two levels, one near the surface and one near the level of the mountain tops. Attempts to find a connection between such a system and occurrence of hail were unsuccessful.     

Stormwater quantity and quality response to climate change using artificial neural networks

This research investigates the potential impacts of climate change on stormwater quantity and quality generated by urban residential areas on an event basis in the rainy season. An urban residential stormwater drainage area in southeast Calgary, Alberta, Canada is the focus of future climate projections from general circulation models (GCMs). A regression‐based statistical downscaling tool was employed to conduct spatial downscaling of daily precipitation and daily mean temperature using projection outputs from the coupled GCM. Projected changes in precipitation and temperature were applied to current climate scenarios to generate future climate scenarios. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) developed for modelling stormwater runoff quantity and quality used projected climate scenarios as network inputs. The hydrological response to climate change was investigated through stormwater runoff volume and peak flow, while the water quality responses were investigated through the event mean value (EMV) of five parameters: turbidity, conductivity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH. First flush (FF) effects were also noted. Under future climate scenarios, the EMVs of turbidity increased in all storms except for three events of short duration. The EMVs of conductivity were found to decline in small and frequent storms (return period < 5 years); but conductivity EMVs were observed to increase in intensive events (return period ≥ 5 years). In general, an increasing EMV was observed for water temperature, whereas a decreasing trend was found for DO EMV. No clear trend was found in the EMV of pH. In addition, projected future climate scenarios do not produce a stronger FF effect on dissolved solids and suspended solids compared to that produced by the current climate scenario. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ecosystem-sensitive approaches to fishing: reconciling fisheries with conservation through improvements in fishing technology

This session focused on the role of gear technology in the conservationand sustainable exploitation of fish stocks and other marineresources, and how it has contributed to more ecosystem-basedapproaches to fishery management that strive to fulfil the commitmentsof the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and theConvention on Biodiversity (CBD). Within this context, SessionII benefited from a keynote presentation by Simon Jennings andAndrew Revill (Jennings and Revill, 2007) that addressed preciselythese issues. They highlighted the need for a decision-supportframework or "toolbox" that would allow managers to determinewhen it was appropriate or cost-effective to seek a solutionto a particular environmental problem through technologicalsolutions to gear design, or its use with other possible mitigationmeasures, such as effort reduction or area closures. Examplesare well documented of gear technology providing     

Imbrium provenance for the Apollo 16 Descartes terrain: Argon ages and geochemistry of lunar breccias 67016 and 67455

In order to improve our understanding of impact history and surface geology on the Moon, we obtained ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar incremental heating age data and major + trace element compositions of anorthositic and melt breccia clasts from Apollo 16 feldspathic fragmental breccias 67016 and 67455. These breccias represent the Descartes terrain, a regional unit often proposed to be ejecta from the nearby Nectaris basin. The goal of this work is to better constrain the emplacement age and provenance of the Descartes breccias.Four anorthositic clasts from 67016 yielded well-defined ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar plateau ages ranging from 3842 ± 19 to 3875 ± 20 Ma. Replicate analyses of these clasts all agree within measurement error, with only slight evidence for either inheritance or younger disturbance. In contrast, fragment-laden melt breccia clasts from 67016 yielded apparent plateau ages of 4.0-4.2 Ga with indications of even older material (to 4.5 Ga) in the high-T fractions. Argon release spectra of the 67455 clasts are more variable with evidence for reheating at 2.0-2.5 Ga. We obtained plateau ages of 3801 ± 29 to 4012 ± 21 Ma for three anorthositic clasts, and 3987 ± 21 Ma for one melt breccia clast. The anorthositic clasts from these breccias and fragments extracted from North Ray crater regolith (Maurer et al., 1978) define a combined age of 3866 ± 9 Ma, which we interpret as the assembly age of the feldspathic fragmental breccia unit sampled at North Ray crater. Systematic variations in diagnostic trace element ratios (Sr/Ba, Ti/Sm, Sc/Sm) with incompatible element abundances show that ferroan anorthositic rocks and KREEP-bearing lithologies contributed to the clast population.The Descartes breccias likely were deposited as a coherent lithologic unit in a single event. Their regional distribution suggests emplacement as basin ejecta. An assembly age of 3866 ± 9 Ma would be identical with the accepted age of the Imbrium basin, and trace element compositions are consistent with a provenance in the Procellarum-KREEP Terrane. The combination of age and provenance constraints points toward deposition of the Descartes breccias as ejecta from the Imbrium basin rather than Nectaris. Diffusion modeling shows that the older apparent plateau ages of the melt brecia clasts plausibly result from incomplete degassing of ancient crust during emplacement of the Descartes breccias. Heating steps in the melt breccia clasts that approach the primary crystallization ages of lunar anorthosites show that earlier impact events did not completely outgas the upper crust.     

The small scatter in BH–host correlations and the case for self-regulated BH growth

Supermassive black holes (BHs) obey tight scaling relations between their mass and host galaxy properties such as total stellar mass, velocity dispersion and potential well depth. This has led to the development of self-regulated models for BH growth, in which feedback from the central BH halts its own growth upon reaching a critical threshold. However, models have also been proposed in which feedback plays no role: so long as a fixed fraction of the host gas supply is accreted, relations like those observed can be reproduced. Here, we argue that the scatter in the observed BH–host correlations presents a demanding constraint on any model for these correlations, and that it favours self-regulated models of BH growth. We show that the scatter in the stellar mass fraction within a radius R in observed ellipticals and spheroids increases strongly at small R . At a fixed total stellar mass (or host velocity dispersion), on very small scales near the BH radius of influence, there is an order-of-magnitude scatter in the amount of gas that must have entered and formed stars. In short, the BH appears to 'know more' about the global host galaxy potential on large scales than the stars and gas supply on small scales. This is predicted in self-regulated models; however, models where there is no feedback would generically predict order-of-magnitude scatter in the BH–host correlations. Likewise, models in which the BH feedback in the 'bright' mode does not regulate the growth of the BH itself, but sets the stellar mass of the galaxy by inducing star formation or blowing out a mass in gas much larger than the galaxy stellar mass, are difficult to reconcile with the scatter on small scales.     

An orbiting clock experiment to determine the gravitational red shift

Plans are presented for an experiment to measure the gravitational red shift of the Earth by comparing a ground-based and satellite-borne hydrogen maser clock. The limiting accuracy is estimated to yield a determination of the red shift to 1 part in 10⁵, corresponding to a clock stability of 3 parts in 10¹⁵.This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.