Lightning optical pulse statistics from storm overflights during the Altus Cumulus Electrification Study

The Altus Cumulus Electrification Study (ACES) was conducted during the month of August 2002 in an area near Key West, Florida. One of the goals of this uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) study was to collect time resolved optical pulse data from thunderstorms. During the month long campaign, we acquired 5256 lightning generated optical pulses. Most of these observations were made while quite close to the top of the storms. We divided our data into two amplitude groups based on prior NASA U2 aircraft optical data and the pulse characteristics. The group of strong pulses with radiance greater than 2.1 mW m^{− 2} sr^{− 1} had mean and median 10–10% optical pulse widths of 770 and 740 μs, respectively, 50–50% pulse widths of 399 and 355 μs, respectively, and 10–90% risetimes of 292 and 260 μs. These values are very similar to the previous U2 based optical results The other group of pulses consisting of slightly more than a quarter of the total pulses observed had radiances less than the minimum values detected in the U2 study. These weak pulses were narrower than the strong pulses with 50–50% mean and median values of 199 and 160 μs, respectively. Only 12% of the flashes observed contained only weak pulses. The source of these weak pulses is unknown, but we suspect that some are artifacts of the close proximity of the aircraft to cloud top.     

A First Comparison of the Surface Brightness Fluctuation Survey Distances with the Galaxy Density Field: Implications for H0 and Omega

We compare the peculiar velocities measured in the surface brightness fluctuation survey of galaxy distances with the predictions from the density fields of the IRAS 1.2 Jy flux-limited redshift survey and the optical redshift survey (ORS) to derive simultaneous constraints on the Hubble constant H0 and the density parameter beta=Omega0.6&solm0;b, where b is the linear bias. We find that betaI=0.42+0.10-0.06 and betaO=0.26+/-0.08 for the IRAS and ORS comparisons, respectively, and that H0=74+/-4 km s-1 Mpc (with an additional 9% uncertainty due to the Cepheids themselves). The match between predicted and observed peculiar velocities is good for these values of H0 and beta, and although there is covariance between the two parameters, our results clearly point toward low-density cosmologies. Thus, the unresolved discrepancy between the "velocity-velocity" and "density-density" measurements of beta continues.     

地下水水源保护区范围计算的KLF法及其在徐州张集地区的应用

详细介绍了地下水水源保护区范围的计算方法:Krijgsman-Lobo-Ferreira(KLF)法,分别推导出了正水流梯度方向、负水流梯度方向和垂直于地下水流方向保护区范围的计算公式,并就方法的适用性及参数取值等问题进行了探讨.在徐州张集地区应用的结果表明,KLF法提供了一种计算地下水保护区范围的便捷、科学、有效的方法,计算结果对于确定地下水源保护区范围及有效保护地下水源具有实际意义.     

A review of the assessments of the major fisheries resources in South Africa

The waters off South Africa's coastline boast a rich mix of commercially fished species. Quantitative assessments of these marine resources have developed from simple methods first applied in the 1970s, to models that encompass a wide range of methodologies. The more valuable resources have undergone regular assessments in recent decades, with frequencies closely related to the management approach employed for each fishery. Many of these assessments form the operating models used to simulation-test candidate management procedures. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the assessments of 11 of the most important fisheries resources in South Africa. Some assessments use simple biomass dynamics models, whereas others are a hybrid of age- and length-based models, each designed to model the specific characteristics of the resource and fishery concerned. Many of the assessments have been disaggregated by species/stock and/or area as related multispecies/stock/ distribution hypotheses have arisen. This paper explores the similarities and differences in the data available and the methods applied. The review indicates that, whereas the status of three of these resources cannot be estimated reliably at present, the status of six resources is considered to be reasonable to good, whereas that of abalone Haliotis midae and West Coast rock lobster Jasus lalandii remains poor.     

Predatory pelagic fishes of the Bijagós Archipelago (Guinea-Bissau) show high overlap in diets dominated by sardinella

Knowledge of trophic interactions between the key components of marine communities is required to understand food-web dynamics and develop ecosystem-based management approaches. In West Africa, where fisheries sustain the livelihoods of a significant part of the human population, this understanding is even more urgent, especially in the face of rapidly expanding fisheries and some stock collapses in the region. We studied the feeding ecology of the Crevalle jack Caranx hippos, West African Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus tritor and Guinean barracuda Sphyraena afra in the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. These are the most abundant pelagic predatory teleost fishes in the area, but little is known about their ecology despite being species with commercial and recreational value, and they likely also play an important role in various African coastal ecosystems. Our findings show a high degree of dietary overlap among these three predator species, despite some degree of segregation by prey size and type. All three predators depend on Sardinella maderensis as the most important prey, which together with other members of the Clupeidae represented 47–96% of the ingested prey items. There was little difference in the diets of the predators between the dry and rainy seasons. These novel findings suggest a ‘wasp-waist’-structured ecosystem in the Bijagós Archipelago in which S. maderensis is the central small-sized pelagic fish species, and stress the need for an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management in the region, with precautionary measures taken to avoid the overexploitation of clupeids.     

Surface brightness fluctuations as primary and secondary distance indicators

The surface brightness fluctuations (SBF) method measures the variance in a galaxy’s light distribution arising from fluctuations in the numbers and luminosities of individual stars per resolution element. Once calibrated for stellar population effects, SBF measurements with HST provide distances to early-type galaxies with unrivaled precision. Optical SBF data from HST for the Virgo and Fornax clusters give the relative distances of these nearby fiducial clusters with 2% precision and constrain their internal structures. Observations in hand will allow us to tie the Coma cluster, the standard of comparison for distant cluster studies, into the same precise relative distance scale. The SBF method can be calibrated in an absolute sense either empirically from Cepheids or theoretically from stellar population models. The agreement between the model and empirical zero points has improved dramatically, providing an independent confirmation of the Cepheid distance scale. SBF is still brighter in the near-IR, and an ongoing program to calibrate the method for the F110W and F160W passbands of the Wide Field Camera 3 IR channel will enable accurate distance derivation whenever a large early-type galaxy or bulge is observed in these passbands at distances reaching well out into the Hubble flow.     

On the role of “hot towers” in tropical cyclone formation

Summary The probabilistic approach to tropical cyclogenesis is advanced here by examining the role of convection in the early stages. The development of hot towers, that is tall cumulonimbus towers which reach or penetrate the tropopause, and their role in tropical cyclogenesis is investigated in two well-documented cases of formation. namely hurricane Daisy (1958) in the Atlantic and Tropical Cyclone Oliver (1993) in the Coral Sea. The hot towers in Daisy had been intensively studied by Malkus and Riehl three decades ago but remained mainly unpublished. The dynamics of Oliver genesis by merging mesoscale vortices has been recently reported, but much of the aircraft data remained. This paper adds the evolving contribution of cumulus-scale events and their associated electrification, which was made possible by the addition of an electric field mill, a numerical cloud model and other remote sensors.In their genesis stages, Daisy and Oliver appeared very different because Daisy resulted from a deepening tropical wave in the Atlantic and the pre-Oliver vortex emerged eastward from the Australian monsoon trough. However, the vertical profiles of _E in the rain areas were nearly identical, with the characteristic concave shape showing substantial midlevel minima. Therefore, both required increasing upflux of high _E subcloud air in order to accomplish the formation stage, with about two hot towers each in the nascent eyewall. In both cases, partial eyewalls developed at the edge of the convection, permitting subsidence in the forming eye, which was shown to contribute to the pressure fall. The probabilistic concept proposes that any contribution to early pressure fall raises the probability of success. When the incipient storm goes through those fragile phases more rapidly, the risk of death by the onset of unfavorable large-scale factors such as wind shear or upper-level subsidence is reduced. Daisy developed in an inactive, moist environment with light, variable winds throughout the troposphere while in Oliver, strong divergent upper outflow apparently outweighed strong wind shear, although the latter was responsible for a slow and messy development of a closed, circular eye.In both storms, the hot towers in the major rainband were taller and stronger than those in the early eyewall. Onedimensional time-dependent model runs were used to simulate both in Oliver with two important results: 1) the taller rainband clouds permitted greater high level heating, if it could be retained; and 2) greater electrification and more lighting occurred in the rainband although the partial eyewall clouds also showed strong electrification. Airborne radar, electrification measurements and models are fitted together to understand their relationship. An important result is the clear inference that fairly deep mixed phase regions existed in both eyewall and rainband, in which the DC-8 aircraft experienced liquid water at temperatures colder than –40°C below freezing. These results show that the claims of no supercooled liquid water in tropical cyclones require re-examination with the proper measurements of electricification that are now feasible.With 13 Figures     

Natural iodine in a clay formation: Implications for iodine fate in geological disposals

Iodine is one of the most problematic radioisotopes in the context of nuclear waste geological disposal due to its high mobility. Considerable effort has been dedicated to the measurement of its potential retardation during diffusive transport leading to conflicting results, from no retardation to significant retardation, leading in turn to considerable debate. The present study aims at providing new insights into this aspect of the iodine problem by careful quantification of iodine reservoirs in the Callovian-Oxfordian (COx) clay rock taken here as model material for these studies. The present study confirmed the ubiquitous presence of iodine at 1-5 mg kg⁻¹ level in the COx clayey formation. The iodide concentration level in the porewater is also confirmed at a value in the range ∼20-40 μmol L⁻¹, i.e. higher than the expected range of radio-iodine concentration in the far-field of the storage. Surprisingly, most of the iodine was found not to be associated with organic matter but rather in an inorganic form associated with carbonate minerals. This result has potentially significant implications for the fate of radio-iodine. In undisturbed far-field conditions, most natural iodine would not be accessible for isotopic exchange with radioactive iodine, reducing the effective Kd to negligible values. During laboratory experiments, good monitoring of the geochemical parameters (at least the Eh, pH, P_CO2, [Ca] and [Mg]) is mandatory to avoid iodine-bearing carbonate precipitation and to enable rigorous interpretation of the iodide diffusion/retention experiments.     

地球静止轨道闪电探测

利用高空NASAU 2飞机的探测资料与其他科学研究方法 ,开发了一种空间探测器。其空间分辨率为 10km ,检测效率 90 % ,具有昼夜映像地球静止轨道的云内和云对地放电的能力。这种闪电图像探测器 (LMS)可连续监视风暴。闪电探测器中新的固态马赛克聚焦平面和较强信号处理相结合 ,为检测微弱的背景受污染信号提供具有权威性的技术 ,并满足白天监测闪电。LMS的视场为10 .5° ,覆盖全美国大陆 ,大范围海域、中美洲、包括安第斯山脉及亚马逊河流域在内的南美大部以及热带辐合区的大部分地区。 2 0世纪 90年代中期LMS会随GOES卫星飞行。该文介绍LMS的特性和设计以及应用这种仪器进行科学研究的可能性