Influence of Azores High pressure on Middle Eastern rainfall

Several studies demonstrate that North Atlantic Oscillation influences variability of climate over Middle East. We use the centers of action approach for the study of winter rainfall variability over Middle East, taking into account variations in the components of the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Azores High and the Icelandic Low pressure systems. The results show there is a negative relation between the interannual variations of winter rainfall over Middle East and Azores High pressure. The east–west shifts of Indian Ocean high pressure has also impact on precipitation over Middle East, there being more precipitation when the Indian Ocean High shifts eastward versus when it is westward. We present a regression model for Middle East precipitation in which the Azores High pressure and the Indian Ocean High longitude are independent variables and it explains 40 % of the variance of precipitation during 1952–2002. Furthermore, the ongoing decrease in winter precipitation over the Middle East is attributed to the increasing pressure of the Azores High over the same period.     

High-resolution records of the response of coastal wetland systems to long-term and short-term sea-level variability

While it is well known that coastal systems respond to long-term sea-level changes, the importance of short-term sea-level dynamics is often overlooked. Year-to-year variability in annual mean sea level along the North American Atlantic coast is part of a regionally consistent pattern that is coupled to low atmospheric pressure and high wind field anomalies persisting over 100s to 1000s of km. These short-term sea-level dynamics, along with long-term sea-level changes are shown to be closely coupled to a set of high resolution excess ²¹⁰Pb geochronologies from four physiographically distinct salt marsh estuaries surrounding Long Island, NY, USA. However, the degree to which a marsh responds to either forcing depends on its physiographic setting. Accretion and mineral deposition rates in marshes situated in embayments with long fetches and low-tidal ranges are shown to respond most to the short-term dynamically driven changes in sea level. On the other hand, accretion and mineral deposition in a marsh in an embayment with a high-tidal range and reduced fetch best track the long-term changes in mean sea level, presumably because the physiography limited the meteorological drivers of short-term sea-level change. The close coupling between marsh accretion, physiographic setting and indices of sea-level change indicates that these coastal system respond both differently and rapidly (2–5 yr) to climate variability.     

Analyzing the runoff response to soil and water conservation measures in a tropical humid Ethiopian highland

Abstract

Different soil and water conservation (SWC) practices have been implemented in many drought-prone parts of Ethiopia since the 1980s. We assessed the effect of SWC practices on runoff response and experimentally derived and tested the validity of the runoff curve number (CN) model parameter for the tropical humid highland climate of the Kasiry watershed in northwestern Ethiopia. We recorded daily rainfall and runoff depth from 18 runoff plots (30 m long × 6 m wide) representing the five main land-use types with various SWC practices and two slope classes (gentle and steep). CN values were derived using the lognormal geometric mean CN procedure. Runoff was significantly less from plots with SWC measures, with average reductions of 44 and 65% observed in cultivated and non-agricultural lands, respectively. Runoff on plots representing non-agricultural land was relatively accurately predicted with the derived CN method, but predictions were less accurate for plots treated with a SWC practice. We conclude that predicting the effect of SWC practices on runoff requires parameterization with separate sets of CN value for each SWC practice.     

A three-step strategy for generalization of 3D building models based on CityGML specifications

3D building models of the world exhibit multi-scale properties. Different level-of-details (LoDs) are important for different applications. Therefore, generation of multi-scale representation of 3D building models to fulfill the demands of these applications is a generalization problem. In order to generalize 3D buildings, different pieces of information need to be preserved or removed to restrict the amount of data represented on a certain LoD. In this work, a three-step strategy based on simplification, aggregation and reconstruction of generalized buildings represented in City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) is proposed. The minimum length of edges (threshold value) for removal of amount of data is restricted to generalization specifications of CityGML characterized by differing accuracies and minimal dimensions of objects for each LoD. The main part of this paper is simplification of ground plans. For this purpose, a new approach is proposed to restrict number of edges, curves, and corners of ground plan of 3D building model on a certain LoD. Algorithms for simplification with the aim to derive LoD1 from exterior shells of buildings at LoD3 are implemented and tested on a number of buildings of Putrajaya city. The experiments showed that length of edge as threshold value is directly proportional to the size of generalized models.     

Performance evaluation of HWRF model during post monsoon tropical cyclone Nilofar

An accurate tropical cyclone track and intensity forecast is very important for disaster management. Specialized numerical prediction models have been recently used to provide high-resolution temporal and special forecasts. Hurricane Weather Research and Forecast (HWRF) model is one of the emerging numerical models for tropical cyclone forecasting. This study evaluates the performance of HWRF model during the post monsoon tropical cyclone Nilofar on the north Indian Ocean basin. The evaluation uses the best track data provided by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC). Cyclone track, central pressure, and wind speed are covered on this evaluation. Generally, HWRF was able to predict the Nilofar track with track error less than 230 km within the first 66 h of forecast time span. HWRF predicted more intense tropical cyclone. It predicted the lowest central pressure to be 922 hPa while it reached 950 hPa according to IMD and 937 hPa according to JTWC. Wind forecast was better as it predicted maximum wind speed of 122 kt while it reached 110 and 115 kt according to IMD and JTWC, respectively.     

Spatial distribution and temporal trends of rainfall and erosivity in the Eastern Africa region

Soil erosion by water is one of the main environmental concerns in the drought‐prone Eastern Africa region. Understanding factors such as rainfall and erosivity is therefore of utmost importance for soil erosion risk assessment and soil and water conservation planning. In this study, we evaluated the spatial distribution and temporal trends of rainfall and erosivity for the Eastern Africa region during the period 1981–2016. The precipitation concentration index, seasonality index, and modified Fournier index have been analysed using 5 × 5‐km resolution multisource rainfall product (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations). The mean annual rainfall of the region was 810 mm ranging from less than 300 mm in the lowland areas to over 1,200 mm in the highlands being influenced by orography of the Eastern Africa region. The precipitation concentration index and seasonality index revealed a spatial pattern of rainfall seasonality dependent on latitude, with a more pronounced seasonality as we go far from the equator. The modified Fournier index showed high spatial variability with about 55% of the region subject to high to very high rainfall erosivity. The mean annual R‐factor in the study region was calculated at 3,246 ± 1,895 MJ mm ha^?1 h^?1 yr^?1, implying a potentially high water erosion risk in the region. Moreover, both increasing and decreasing trends of annual rainfall and erosivity were observed but spatial variability of these trends was high. This study offers useful information for better soil erosion prediction as well as can support policy development to achieve sustainable regional environmental planning and management of soil and water resources.     

Paleoenvironment of deposition of the Dupi Tila Formation,Lalmai Hills,Comilla, Bangladesh

The Dupi Tila Formation is composed of yellow to light brown medium to very fine moderately hard to loose sandstone, siltstone, silty clay, mudstone and shale with some conglomerates with clasts of petrified wood. The lithofacies of matrix supported conglomerate, trough cross bedded conglomerate, massive sandstone, trough cross bedded sandstone, planar cross bedded sandstone, ripple cross laminated sandstone-siltstone, flaser laminated sandstone-shale, lenticular laminated sandstone-siltstone-shale, parallel laminated sandstone-siltstone, wavy laminated shale, parallel laminated blue shale, and mudstone are delineated within this formation. Based on the grain size, sedimentary structures, water depth and genesis of individual facies, facies are grouped into three types of facies associations like (i) coarse-grained conglomerate facies association in relation to tractive current deposits of alluvial fan set up at the base of litho-succession (FAC), (ii) medium to fine-grained sandstone-siltstone-mudstone facies association or facies association in relation to strong tide (FAT) characterizing the middle part of litho-succession, (iii) very fine-grained sandstone-siltstone-mudstone facies association in relation to less frequent weak tide or heterolithic facies association (FAHL) characterizing upper part of litho-succession and shallow marine facies association (FASM) composing the uppermost litho-succession. Presence of gluconite indicates that the depositional environment was shallow to deep marine. The dominant paleoflow direction during the deposition of Dupi Tila Formation was toward southeast to southwestern direction. The rivers were of braided type at the piedmont alluvial depositional set up at the lower part, which later changed to estuarine-tidal flat type environmental set up in the middle part to upper part and paleo-environment was shallow marine in the uppermost part.     

Assessment of subsurface structural elements around greater Cairo by using integrated geophysical tools

Geophysical techniques such as gravity, magnetic and seismology are perfect tools for detecting subsurface structures of local, regional as well as of global scales. The study of the earthquake records can be used for differentiating the active and non-active fault elements. In the current study, more than 2,200 land magnetic stations have been measured using two proton magnetometers. The data are corrected for diurnal variations and then reduced by the International Geomagnetic Reference Field. The corrected data have been interpreted by different techniques after filtering the data to separate shallow sources (basaltic sheet) from the deep sources (basement complex). Both Euler deconvolution and 3-D magnetic modeling were carried out. The results of interpretation indicate that the depth to the upper surface of basaltic sheet ranges from <10 to 600 m, depth to the lower surface ranges from 60 to 750 m, while the thickness of the basaltic sheet varies from <10 to 450 m. Moreover, gravity measurements are conducted at 2,250 stations using a CG-3 gravimeter. The measured values are corrected to construct a Bouger anomaly map. The least squares technique is then applied for regional–residual separation. The third order of least squares is found to be the most suitable to separate the residual anomalies from the regional one. The resultant third-order residual gravity map is used to delineate the structural fault systems of different characteristic trends. The trends show an NW–SE trend parallel to that of Gulf of Suez, an NE–SW trend parallel to the Gulf of Aqaba and an E–W trend parallel to that of the Mediterranean Sea. Taking seismological records into consideration, it is found that most of the 24 earthquake events recorded in the study area are located on fault elements. This gives an indication that the delineated fault elements are active.