RX J0744−52: a probable new intermediate polar

We present optical and X-ray data of the cataclysmic variable RX 0744−52 discovered using ROSAT by Motch et al. High-resolution spectroscopy centred on the Hα line indicates a probable orbital period of 3.60 h. From its distance (obtained using polarimetry), its X-ray luminosity, its X-ray colour and its X-ray/UV+optical ratio, we suggest that RX 0744−52 is a new intermediate polar. The absence of a significant coherent modulation in the X-ray light curve suggests either that RX 0744−52 has a low inclination or that the rotational and magnetic axes must be closely aligned. This is consistent with its small radial velocity amplitude.     

A comparison of white dwarf mass estimators using the intermediate polar XY Ari

We determine the mass of the white dwarf in the eclipsing intermediate polar XY Ari following the method given in Cropper, Ramsay &38; Wu using a multitemperature bremsstrahlung model. By fitting X-ray spectra from Ginga RXTE and ASCA we find that the mean of the best fits to the data taken using different detectors is M _wd = 1.28 ± 0.04 M⊙. This figure is too high to be consistent with the mass of the white dwarf found by Hellier from X-ray eclipse timings. There are also small systematic differences between the masses derived using different X-ray satellites.     

Nannofossils: the smoking gun for the Canarian hotspot

The origin of volcanism in the Canary Islands has been a matter of controversy for several decades. Discussions have hinged on whether the Canaries owe their origin to seafloor fractures associated with the Atlas Mountain range or to an underlying plume or hotspot of superheated mantle material. However, the debate has recently come to a conclusion following the discovery of nannofossils preserved in the products of the 2011–2012 submarine eruption at El Hierro, which tell us about the age and growth history of the western‐most island of the archipelago. Light coloured, pumice‐like ‘floating rocks’ were found on the sea surface during the first days of the eruption and have been shown to contain fragments of pre‐island sedimentary strata. These sedimentary rock fragments were picked up by ascending magma and transported to the surface during the eruption, and remarkably retained specimens of pre‐island Upper Cretaceous to Pliocene calcareous nannofossils (e.g. coccolithophores). These marine microorganisms are well known biostratigraphical markers and now provide crucial evidence that the westernmost and youngest island in the Canaries is underlain by the youngest sediment relative to the other islands in the archipelago. This finding supports an age progression for the onset of volcanism at the individual islands of the archipeligo. Importantly, as fracture‐related volcanism is known to produce non‐systematic age‐distributions within volcanic alignments, the now‐confirmed age progression corroberates to the relative motion of the African plate over an underlying mantle plume or hotspot as the cause for the present‐day Canary volcanism.     

An intercontinental correlation of the mid-Neoproterozoic Eastern Indian tectonic zone: evidence from the gneissic clasts in Elan Bank conglomerate, Kerguelen Plateau

The Kerguelen Plateau is a submarine, Cretaceous Large Igneous Province in the southern Indian Ocean. Drilling on Elan Bank, a western salient of the Kerguelen Plateau, yielded a ~26 m section of fluvial conglomerate intercalated with basalt. Chemical dating of monazite within garnet and matrix monazite in metapelitic clasts from the conglomerate indicates that high-grade metamorphism of the pelitic protolith occurred between 785 ± 12 and 694 ± 18 Ma. A calculated P–T pseudosection indicates that the observed core-to-inner rim compositional zoning in garnet is consistent with P/T decrease from 10.2 kb/760°C to 6.2 kb/560°C. In an Early Cretaceous paleogeographic reconstruction, the Elan Bank drill site is located on a SSW continuation of the Eastern Indian Tectonic Zone (EITZ), a 876–784 Ma, NNE–SSW metamorphic belt with sinistral shear zones in eastern India. The retrograde P–T path of the Elan Bank metapelitic clast overlaps with that of the EITZ metapelite, and the Elan Bank monazite chemical dates and previously determined 824–675 Ma U–Pb isotope monazite dates by the TIMS method are remarkably similar to the monazite chemical dates from the EITZ metapelites and high-grade metamorphic rocks from the eastern margin of the Eastern Ghats Belt. Based on the demonstrable affinity of metamorphic, geochronologic, and spatial data, this study concludes that the EITZ was likely a continuous, ~1,800–km-long tectono-metamorphic belt in the Rodinia supercontinent stretching from eastern India through the Eastern Ghats to the basement of Elan Bank and probably to the Rayner Complex of East Antarctica.     

Climate change impacts on extreme floods I: combining imperfect deterministic simulations and non-stationary frequency analysis

Flood quantiles are routinely used in hydrologic engineering to design hydraulic structures, optimize erosion control structure and map the extent of floodplains. As an increasing number of papers are pointing out cycles and trends in hydrologic time series, the use of stationary flood distributions leads to the overestimation or underestimation of the hydrologic risk at a given time. Several authors tried to address this problem by using probability distributions with time-varying parameters. The parameters of these distributions were assumed to follow a linear or quadratic trend in time, which may be valid for the short term but may lead to unrealistic long-term projections. On the other hand, deterministic rainfall-runoff models are able to successfully reproduce trends and cycles in stream flow data but can perform poorly in reproducing daily flows and flood peaks. Rainfall-runoff models typically have a better performance when simulation results are aggregated at a larger time scale (e.g. at a monthly time scale vs. at a daily time scale). The strengths of these two approaches are combined in this paper where the annual maximum of the time-averaged outputs of a hydrologic model are used to modulate the parameters of a non-stationary GEV model of the daily maximum flow. The method was applied to the Kemptville Creek located in Ontario, Canada, using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model as rainfall-runoff model. The parameters of the non-stationary GEV model are then estimated using Monte Carlo Markov Chain, and the optimal span of the time windows over which the SWAT outputs were averaged was selected using Bayes factors. Results show that using the non-stationary GEV distribution with a location parameter linked to the maximum 9-day average flow provides a much better estimation of flood quantiles than applying a stationary frequency analysis to the simulated peak flows.     

Evaluation of a climate simulation in Europe based on the WRF–NOAH model system: precipitation in Germany

The Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model with its land surface model NOAH was set up and applied as regional climate model over Europe. It was forced with the latest ERA-interim reanalysis data from 1989 to 2008 and operated with 0.33° and 0.11° resolution. This study focuses on the verification of monthly and seasonal mean precipitation over Germany, where a high quality precipitation dataset of the German Weather Service is available. In particular, the precipitation is studied in the orographic terrain of southwestern Germany and the dry lowlands of northeastern Germany. In both regions precipitation data is very important for end users such as hydrologists and farmers. Both WRF simulations show a systematic positive precipitation bias not apparent in ERA-interim and an overestimation of wet day frequency. The downscaling experiment improved the annual cycle of the precipitation intensity, which is underestimated by ERA-interim. Normalized Taylor diagrams, i.e., those discarding the systematic bias by normalizing the quantities, demonstrate that downscaling with WRF provides a better spatial distribution than the ERA interim precipitation analyses in southwestern Germany and most of the whole of Germany but degrades the results for northeastern Germany. At the applied model resolution of 0.11°, WRF shows typical systematic errors of RCMs in orographic terrain such as the windward–lee effect. A convection permitting case study set up for summer 2007 improved the precipitation simulations with respect to the location of precipitation maxima in the mountainous regions and the spatial correlation of precipitation. This result indicates the high value of regional climate simulations on the convection-permitting scale.     

X-ray emissions from two-temperature accretion flows within a dipole magnetic funnel

We investigate the hydrodynamics of accretion channelled by a dipolar magnetic field (funnel flows). We consider situations in which the electrons and ions in the flow cannot maintain thermal equilibrium [two-temperature (2T) effects] due to strong radiative loss, and determine the effects on the keV X-ray properties of the systems. We apply this model to investigate the accretion shocks of white dwarfs in magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCVs). We have found that the incorporation of 2T effects could harden the keV X-rays. Also, the dipolar model yields harder X-ray spectra than the standard planar model if white dwarf is sufficiently massive  (≳1 M_⊙)  . When fitting observed keV X-ray spectra of mCVs, the inclusion of 2T hydrodynamics and a dipolar accretion geometry lowers estimates for white dwarf masses when compared with masses inferred from models excluding these effects. We find mass reductions ≲9 per cent in the most massive cases.     

Enhancements to,and forthcoming developments in the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) has undergone substantial changes since its inception in 1997. These changes include the data sources used to generate the product, methodology of product creation, and even changes in the output. Among the most notable of the past upgrades to the IMS are a 4‐km resolution grid output, ingest of an automated snow detection algorithm, expansion to a global extent, and a static Digital Elevation Model for mapping based on elevation. Further developments to this dynamic system will continue as NOAA strives to improve snow parameterization for weather forecast modeling. Several future short‐term enhancements will be evaluated for possible transition to operations before the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2006–2007. Current and historical data will be adopted to a geographic information systems (GIS) format before 2007, as well. Longer‐term enhancements are also planned to account for new snow data sources, mapping methodologies and user requirements. These modifications are being made with care to preserve the integrity of the long‐standing satellite‐derived snow record that is vital to global change detection. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.