The D-CIXS X-ray mapping spectrometer on SMART-1

The D-CIXS Compact X-ray Spectrometer will provide high quality spectroscopic mapping of the Moon, the primary science target of the ESA SMART-1 mission. D-CIXS consists of a high throughput spectrometer, which will perform spatially localised X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It will also carry a solar monitor, to provide the direct calibration needed to produce a global map of absolute lunar elemental abundances, the first time this has been done. Thus it will achieve ground breaking science within a resource envelope far smaller than previously thought possible for this type of instrument, by exploiting two new technologies, swept charge devices and micro-structure collimators. The new technology does not require cold running, with its associated overheads to the spacecraft. At the same time it will demonstrate a radically novel approach to building a type of instrument essential for the BepiColombo mission and potential future planetary science targets.     

A distributed approach for calculating inundation height based on Dijkstra's algorithm

This research proposed a parallelized approach to scaling up the calculation of inundation height, the minimum sea‐level rise required to inundate a cell on a digital elevation model, which is based on Dijkstra's algorithm for shortest‐path calculations on a graph. Our approach is based on the concepts of spatial decomposition, calculate‐and‐correct, and a master/worker parallelization paradigm. The approach was tested using the U.S. Coastal Relief Model (CRM) dataset from the National Geophysical Data Center on a multicore desktop computer and various supercomputing resources through the U.S. Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program. Our parallel implementation not only enables computations that were larger than previously possible, but also significantly outperforms serial implementations with respect to running time and memory footprint as the number of processing cores increases. The efficiency of the scalability seemed to be tied to tile size and flattened out at a certain number of workers.     

An in-situ integrated suspended sediment stream sampler (IS3)

An inexpensive, lightweight stream sampler is described which provides a method for continuous collection of suspended stream sediments. The IS^3* sampler collects integrated suspended stream samples, and because the sampler relies on basic sedimentation principles, it can be deployed to collect suspended sediment stream samples for environmental studies or geochemical exploration in remote areas. The sampler trapped from 0.45 to 1.2 g of dry sediment during 7- to 8-d field tests conducted during 1985.     

A METHOD FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND ELIMINATION OF CONTAMINATION DURING CARBON ISOTOPIC ANALYSES OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL SAMPLES

The study of carbon abundance and isotopic composition in extraterrestrial samples is fraught with problems related to contamination in the terrestrial environment and during sample handling. A stepped combustion method is described which demonstrates that progress can be made towards resolving the indigenous species from contamination which for the most part burns at low temperature (< 425 ± 25 ±C). The proposed method is not applicable to samples which have indigenous phases burning at low temperatures e.g. the C1 and C2 carbonaceous chondrites. A number of examples where its application is possible are given. Even meteorites collected immediately after their fall, such as Allende, contain a proportion of extraneous carbon which has deleterious effects on any bulk estimate of isotopic composition. “Falls” which have spent a considerable time in museum collections and “finds” (other than Antarctic samples) can be considered as grossly contaminated. Bulk isotope and carbon abundance measurements in the literature for most samples having less than 1 wt% C are thus of questionable value. Antarctic samples have much less contamination of an organic nature but all seem to contain a weathering component which can be easily recognised and hence disregarded in estimates of bulk composition. Stepped combustion, applied to an Apollo 11 lunar soil which has not been specially stored and which now contains, due to contamination, nearly twice as much carbon as when originally collected, can still afford data closely resembling those obtained from the sample when it was first returned to Earth.     

Properties of sea grass and sand flat sediments from the intertidal zone of St. Andrew Bay,Florida

Organic and carbonate carbon and textural properties of the substrates underlyingHalodule wrightii andThalassia testudinum sea grass beds in the intertidal zone of St. Andrew Bay, Florida were compared to adjacent unvegetated sand flats by physiographic divisions within the bay and to the subtidal slopes of the bay. Sea grass and sand flat sediments were principally fine-grained quartz sands. The mean particle-size of the sea grass sediments were finer-grained than those of the sand flats only in the west arm and lagoon of the bay. Size-frequency distributions of the sea grass sediments were generally slightly more negatively skewed and more leptokurtic than those of the sand flats. The sea grass sediments were less well sorted than were the sand flat sediments. The average organic and carbonate carbon contents of the sea grass beds were 1.9-fold greater than that of the sand flats but much less than that of the subtidal sea grass meadows. In the areas of pollution, sea grasses were absent; near this areaHalodule wrightii was the dominant sea grass.     

The application of cluster analysis in geophysical data interpretation

A clustering algorithm that is based on density and is adaptive density-reachable is developed and presented for arbitrary data point distributions in some real-world applications, especially in geophysical data interpretation. Through comparisons of the new algorithm and other algorithms, it is shown that the new algorithm can reduce the dependency of domain knowledge and the sensitivity of abnormal data points, that it can improve the effectiveness of clustering results in which data are distributed in different shapes and different densities, and that it can get a better clustering efficiency. The application of the new clustering algorithm demonstrates that data mining techniques can be used in geophysical data interpretation and can get meaningful and useful results, and that the new clustering algorithm can be used in other real-world applications.     

Early dismissals in public schools on potential severe weather days

Survey responses from 76 public school districts in Mississippi and Alabama were analyzed along with county-level demographics, tornado-path data, and tornado warning data to investigate the emerging trend of early dismissals. No two districts had identical responses, but the concern of safety was consistently mentioned. The highest number of reported dismissals would have resulted in a loss of <2 % of total annual class time. The rates of dismissals reported by districts were compared with tornado warning days to identify potential over-dismissal, which was found in 51 % of districts. Rates of dismissal and over-dismissal were analyzed with variables from survey responses, tornado warning data, tornado-path data, and county census data to determine variables that influence differences among districts. Various stepwise models indicate that districts with higher poverty levels could be less likely to dismiss. Permutation tests and stepwise models show that early dismissal and over-dismissal are more likely when a district: (1) has a higher number of killer tornadoes in the last 5 years, (2) has a higher number of recent injury-causing tornadoes, (3) has a higher number of total killer tornadoes since 1950, (4) is in a smaller county, (5) has dismissal decisions made by a team, (6) is a county district rather than a city district, and (7) has a lower level of poverty. The inverse relationship with poverty suggests that schools in poorer areas may be holding students in school because they consider them to be safer there than at home, or it could be due to a lack of resources at the school. All of these are based on a district’s location and plans, things that can be determined before a potential dismissal. These indicators can be used to highlight districts most likely to dismiss and possibly reduce rates of over-dismissal by alerting districts to their predisposed tendencies.     

Halite and stable chlorine isotopes in the Zag H3–6 breccia

Abstract— Zag is an H3‐6 chondrite regolith breccia within which we have studied 14 halite grains ≤3 mm. The purity of the associated NaCl‐H₂O brine is implied by freezing characteristics of fluid inclusions in the halite and EPMA analyses together with a lack of other evaporite‐like phases in the Zag H3–6 component. This is inconsistent with multi‐stage evolution of the fluid involving scavenging of cations in the Zag region of the parent body. We suggest that the halite grains are clastic and did not crystallize in situ. Halite and water‐soluble extracts from Zag have light Cl isotopic compositions, δ³⁷Cl = ?1.4 to ?2.8%. Previously reported bulk carbonaceous chondrite values are approximately δ³⁷Cl = +3 to +4%. This difference is too great to be the result of fractionation during evaporation, and instead, we suggest that Cl isotopes in chondrites are fractionated between a light reservoir associated with fluids and a heavier reservoir associated with higher temperature phases such as phosphates and silicates. Extraterrestrial carbon released at 600 °C from the H3–4 matrix has δ¹³C = ?20%, consistent with poorly graphitized material being introduced into the matrix rather than indigenous carbonate derived from a brine. We have also examined 28 other H chondrite falls to ascertain how widespread halite or evaporite‐like mineral assemblages are in ordinary chondrites. We did not find any more to add to Zag (H3‐6) and Monahans (H5), which suggests that such highly soluble phases were not usually preserved on the parent bodies.     

A preliminary investigation into the nature of carbonaceous material in ordinary chondrites

Abstract— The nature and isotopic composition of carbonaceous components in a variety of ordinary chondrites have been studied using stepped combustion. The samples were chosen to include falls, finds and Antarctic meteorites; specimens from all three chemical groups (H, L and LL) have been analysed. Effort was concentrated mostly on the low petrologic type meteorites (i.e., type 3); however, types 4–6 were also included in the study. Apart from terrestrial contaminants and weathering products, some of the unequilibrated ordinary chondrites appear to contain an indigenous organic component. In addition, most of the samples studied show evidence for an amorphous/graphitic component. This exists as C-rich aggregates or as carbon associated with “Huss” matrix. There does not appear to be any difference in δ¹³C for this carbon between Antarctic and non-Antarctic meteorites. In contrast, low temperature carbon in Antarctic samples is characterized by a ¹³C-enrichment. This is thought to be due to the influence of terrestrial weathering products introduced in the Antarctic. Curiously, the low temperature carbon in non-Antarctic finds appears to be intermediate in δ¹³C between Antarctic finds and non-Antarctic falls. This suggests that the weathering processes which are so obviously apparent from Antarctic samples may also extend, albeit in a more limited way, to non-Antarctic meteorites.