The Water Vapour Continuum: Brief History and Recent Developments

The water vapour continuum is characterised by absorption that varies smoothly with wavelength, from the visible to the microwave. It is present within the rotational and vibrational–rotational bands of water vapour, which consist of large numbers of narrow spectral lines, and in the many ‘windows’ between these bands. The continuum absorption in the window regions is of particular importance for the Earth’s radiation budget and for remote-sensing techniques that exploit these windows. Historically, most attention has focused on the 8–12?μm (mid-infrared) atmospheric window, where the continuum is relatively well-characterised, but there have been many fewer measurements within bands and in other window regions. In addition, the causes of the continuum remain a subject of controversy. This paper provides a brief historical overview of the development of understanding of the continuum and then reviews recent developments, with a focus on the near-infrared spectral region. Recent laboratory measurements in near-infrared windows, which reveal absorption typically an order of magnitude stronger than in widely used continuum models, are shown to have important consequences for remote-sensing techniques that use these windows for retrieving cloud properties.     

Long aseismic slip duration of the 2006 Java tsunami earthquake based on GPS data

The Java earthquake occurred on July 17,2006 with magnitude 7.8 associated to the subduction process of Indo-Australian plate and Sundaland block off southwestern coast of Java. We present postseismic deformation parameters of the 2006 Java earthquake analyzed using campaign GPS observation from 2006 to 2008 and continuous observation from 2007 to 2014. We use an analytical approach of logarithmic and exponential functions to model these GPS data. We find that the decay time in the order of hundreds of days after the mainshock as observed by 8 years' data after the mainshock for magnitude 7 earthquake is longer than a general megathrust earthquake event. Our findings suggest that the 2006 Java earthquake which is considered as ‘‘tsunami earthquake' most probably occurred in the region that has low rigidity and tends to continuously slip for long time periods.     

Middle Eocene‐Oligocene broken‐foreland evolution in the Andean Calchaqui Valley,NW Argentina: insights from stratigraphic,structural and provenance studies

Two end‐member models have been proposed for the Paleogene Andean foreland: a simple W‐E migrating foreland model and a broken‐foreland model. We present new stratigraphic, sedimentological and structural data from the Paleogene Quebrada de los Colorados (QLC) Formation, in the Eastern Cordillera, with which to test these two different models. Basin‐wide unconformities, growthstrata and changes in provenance indicate deposition of the QLC Formation in a tectonically active basin. Both west‐ and east‐vergent structures, rooted in the basement, controlled the deposition and distribution of the QLC Formation from the Middle Eocene to the Early Miocene. The provenance analysis indicates that the main source areas were basement blocks, like the Paleozoic Oire Eruptive Complex, uplifted during Paleogene shortening, and that delimits the eastern boundary of the present‐day intraorogenic Puna plateau. A comparison of the QLC sedimentary basin‐fill pattern with those of adjacent Paleogene basins in the Puna plateau and in the Santa Bárbara System highlights the presence of discrete depozones. These reflect the early compartmentalization of the foreland, rather than a stepwise advance of the deformation front of a thrust belt. The early Tertiary foreland of the southern central Andes is represented by a ca. 250‐km‐wide area comprising several deformation zones (Arizaro, Macón, Copalayo and Calchaquí) in which doubly vergent or asymmetric structures, rooted in the basement, were generated. Hence, classical foreland model is difficult to apply in this Paleogene basin; and our data and interpretation agree with a broken‐foreland model.     

Effective sea ice area based on a thickness threshold

As Arctic sea ice declines in response to climate change, a shift from thick multiyear ice to a thinner ice cover is occurring. With this transition, ice thicknesses approach a threshold below which ice no longer insulates the atmosphere from oceanic surface fluxes. While this is well known, there are no estimates of the magnitude of this threshold, nor of the proportion of sea ice area that is below this threshold as ice thins. We determine this threshold by simulating the atmospheric response to varying thicknesses, ranging from 0.0 to 2.0 m and determine that threshold to be 0.40–0.50 m. The resulting “effective” ice area is 4–14% lower than reported total ice area, as 0.39–0.97 × 10⁶ km² of the total ice area falls below the threshold throughout the twentieth century, including during notable ice minima. The atmosphere above large non-insulating ice-covered regions is susceptible to more than 2 °C of warming despite ice presence. Observed mean Arctic Ocean ice thickness is projected to fall below this threshold as early as the mid-2020s. Studies on ocean–atmosphere interactions in relation to sea ice area should focus on this insulating sea ice area, where ice is at least 0.40–0.50 m thick, and treat ice regions below 0.40–0.50 m thickness with caution.

     

Groundwater flow model, recharge estimation and sustainability in an arid region of Patagonia, Argentina

The Península Valdés, in northeastern Patagonia, Argentina, is characterised by its arid climate and the lack of perennial watercourses; thus, all economic activities depend on the groundwater resources. Water demand is mainly associated with tourism, which is centralised in Puerto Pirámides and supplied by a water desalination plant, and to sheep farming, supplied by the local aquifer. Due to the exponential growth of tourism, the government is planning to exploit groundwater and convey it by aqueduct to the abovementioned locality. The objectives of this study were to corroborate the conceptual geohydrological model, to develop a mathematical model to simulate the response of the aquifer to different scenarios, and to assess the incidence of water input into the system as a variable—a function that poses difficulties in the models for arid regions. The Visual Modflow 4.1 code was used, calibrating it in trial-and-error mode, changing the recharge and hydraulic conductivity parameters with different variants in the recharge zone and in the inclusion or exclusion of the evapotranspiration module. Results indicate the importance of the recharge analysis by treating rainfall at daily time steps. The adjusted model was exposed to four scenarios with variations in water input and in output by pumping. It can be concluded that under different input conditions, but with a controlled extraction, the system responds in a sustainable manner.     

The South Atlantic dipole and variations in the characteristics of the South American Monsoon in the WCRP-CMIP3 multi-model simulations

This study investigates relationships between Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) and the variability of the characteristics of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS), such as the onset dates and total precipitation over central eastern Brazil. The observed onset and total summer monsoon precipitation are estimated for the period 1979?C2007. SST patterns are obtained from the Empirical Orthogonal Function. It is shown that variations in SST on interannual timescales over the South Atlantic Ocean play an important role in the total summer monsoon precipitation. Negative (positive) SST anomalies over the topical South Atlantic along with positive (negative) SST anomalies over the extratropical South Atlantic are associated with early (late) onsets and wet (dry) summers over southeastern Brazil and late (early) onset and dry (wet) summers over northeastern Brazil. Simulations from Phase 3 of the World Climate Research Programme Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP-3) are assessed for the 20th century climate scenario (1971?C2000). Most CMIP3 coupled models reproduce the main modes of variability of the South Atlantic Ocean. GFDL2.0 and MIROC-M are the models that best represent the SST variability over the South Atlantic. On the other hand, these models do not succeed in representing the relationship between SST and SAMS variability.     

Parallel distributed computing using Python

This work presents two software components aimed to relieve the costs of accessing high-performance parallel computing resources within a Python programming environment: MPI for Python and PETSc for Python.MPI for Python is a general-purpose Python package that provides bindings for the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard using any back-end MPI implementation. Its facilities allow parallel Python programs to easily exploit multiple processors using the message passing paradigm. PETSc for Python provides access to the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) libraries. Its facilities allow sequential and parallel Python applications to exploit state of the art algorithms and data structures readily available in PETSc for the solution of large-scale problems in science and engineering.MPI for Python and PETSc for Python are fully integrated to PETSc-FEM, an MPI and PETSc based parallel, multiphysics, finite elements code developed at CIMEC laboratory. This software infrastructure supports research activities related to simulation of fluid flows with applications ranging from the design of microfluidic devices for biochemical analysis to modeling of large-scale stream/aquifer interactions.