Relationship between thermally forced surface wind and sea surface temperature gradient

An important part of the influence of the oceans on the atmosphere is through direct radiation, sensible heat flux and release of latent heat of evaporation, whereby all of these processes are directly related to the surface temperature of the oceans. A main effect of the atmosphere on the oceans is through momentum exchange at the air-ocean interface, and this process is directly related to the surface wind stress. The sea surface temperature (SST) and the surface wind stress are the two important components in the air-ocean system. If SST is given, a thermally forced boundary layer atmospheric circulation can be simulated. On the other hand, if the surface wind stress is given, the wind-driven ocean waves and ocean currents can be computed.The relationship between SST and surface wind is a coupling of the atmosphere and the oceans. It changes a one-way effect (ocean mechanically driven by atmosphere, or atmosphere thermally forced by oceans) into two-way air-sea interactions. Through this coupling the SST distribution, being an output from an ocean model, leads to the thermally forced surface winds, which feeds back into the ocean model as an additional forcing.Based on Kuo's planetary boundary layer model a linear algebraic equation is established to link the SST gradient with the thermally forced surface wind. The surface wind blows across the isotherms from cold to warm region with some deflection angle to the right (left) in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere. Results from this study show that the atmospheric stratification reduces both the speed and the deflection angle of the thermally forced wind, however, the Coriolis' effect increases the wind speed in stable atmosphere (Ri>10^–4) and increases the deflection angle.     

THE INFLUENCE OF RAINFALL ON TRANSPORT OF BEACH SAND BY WIND

This paper deals with the effect of rainfall on the process of wind erosion of beach sands and presents results from both field and wind tunnel experiments. Although sediment transport by splash is of secondary importance on coastal dunes, splash–saltation processes can move sediments in conditions where no motion is predicted by aeolian processes. The effect of raindrop impact on the movement of soil particles by wind was measured on a sand beach plain using an acoustic sediment sampler. In general, an increase of particle movement by wind at the sensor heights was observed during rainfall. Rainfall also affected the wind erosion process during and after rain by changing the cohesive conditions of the surface. The influence of the surface moisture content on the initiation of wind erosion and on the vertical distribution of transported sand particles was studied in a wind tunnel. Moisture significantly increased threshold wind velocities for the initiation of sediment transport and modified vertical sediment profiles.     

On the attenuation of sea waves by rain

Abstract

Some conflicting evidence on Reynolds' (1900) hypothesis that rain should attenuate any wave motion on the sea surface is discussed. It is concluded that rain drops ought to produce vortex rings in the sea which mix the water to a sufficient depth to affect most waves, as asserted by Reynolds. By introducing vertical and horizontal eddy viscosities to model the mixing process, an estimate is found for the rate of attenuation of wave energy by the rain. Consequently, the net effect on the wave field of attenuation by rain and generation by wind is calculated.     

机载SAR探测图像中归一化雷达截面随入射角变化规律应用

机载SAR对海探测时,探测范围小和时空匹配难等局限使其无法借助风条纹和辅助资料反演海面风矢量.本文在仿真研究CMOD5.N地球物理模型参数的函数关系,实例分析机载SAR探测图像中距离向均值曲线变化规律的基础上,发现相同风向、风速条件下,CMOD5.N模型构建的标准曲线和探测图像的距离向均值曲线遵循统一的归一化雷达截面随入射角变化规律,且两者具有良好的相关性.据此,本文提出将距离向均值曲线与标准曲线逐条匹配,采用相关系数判定两者的相关程度,选择使得相关系数绝对值最大的标准曲线作为最优匹配曲线,进而直接确定风向和风速的海面风矢量反演方法.机载SAR飞行探测实验结果表明,海面风矢量反演结果与浮标观测结果的均方根误差为风向11.3°,风速0.9m·s-1,高于反演精度指标要求,原因在于该方法既避免了机载SAR探测图像中斑点噪声的影响,又不会产生局部最优解,提高了海面风矢量反演精度.     

Ocean circulation on the North Australian Shelf

The ocean circulation on Australia's Northern Shelf is dominated by the Monsoon and influenced by large-scale interannual variability. These driving forces exert an ocean circulation that influences the deep Timor Sea Passage of the Indonesian Throughflow, the circulation on the Timor and Arafura Shelves and, further downstream, the Leeuwin Current. Seasonal maxima of northeastward (southwestward) volume transports on the shelf are almost symmetric and exceed 10⁶ m³/s in February (June). The associated seasonal cycle of vertical upwelling from June to August south of 8.5°S and between 124°E and 137.5°E exceeds 1.5×10⁶ m³/s across 40 m depth. During El Niño events, combined anomalies from the seasonal means of high regional wind stresses and low inter-ocean pressure gradients double the northeastward volume transport on the North Australian Shelf to 1.5×10⁶ m³/s which accounts for 20% of the total depth-integrated transport across 124°E and reduce the total transport of the Indonesian Throughflow. Variability of heat content on the shelf is largely determined by Pacific and Indian Ocean equatorial wind stress anomalies with some contribution from local wind stress forcing.     

Assessing the fidelity of surface currents from a coastal ocean model and HF radar using drifting buoys in the Middle Atlantic Bight

The rapid expansion of urbanization along the world’s coastal areas requires a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the coastal ocean. Over the past several decades, numerical ocean circulation models have tried to provide such insight, based on our developing understanding of physical ocean processes. The systematic establishment of coastal ocean observation systems adopting cutting-edge technology, such as high frequency (HF) radar, satellite sensing, and gliders, has put such ocean model predictions to the test, by providing comprehensive observational datasets for the validation of numerical model forecasts. The New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System (NYHOPS) is a comprehensive system for understanding coastal ocean processes on the continental shelf waters of New York and New Jersey. To increase confidence in the system’s ocean circulation predictions in that area, a detailed validation exercise was carried out using HF radar and Lagrangian drifter-derived surface currents from three drifters obtained between March and October 2010. During that period, the root mean square (RMS) differences of both the east–west and north–south currents between NYHOPS and HF radar were approximately 15 cm s^?1. Harmonic analysis of NYHOPS and HF radar surface currents shows similar tidal ellipse parameters for the dominant M₂ tide, with a mean difference of 2.4 cm s^?1 in the semi-major axis and 1.4 cm s^?1 in the semi-minor axis and 3° in orientation and 10° in phase. Surface currents derived independently from drifters along their trajectories showed that NYHOPS and HF radar yielded similarly accurate results. RMS errors when compared to currents derived along the trajectory of the three drifters were approximately 10 cm s^?1. Overall, the analysis suggests that NYHOPS and HF radar had similar skill in estimating the currents over the continental shelf waters of the Middle Atlantic Bight during this time period. An ensemble-based set of particle tracking simulations using one drifter which was tracked for 11 days showed that the ensemble mean separation generally increases with time in a linear fashion. The separation distance is not dominated by high frequency or short spatial scale wavelengths suggesting that both the NYHOPS and HF radar currents are representing tidal and inertial time scales correctly and resolving some of the smaller scale eddies. The growing ensemble mean separation distance is dominated by errors in the mean flow causing the drifters to slowly diverge from their observed positions. The separation distance for both HF radar and NYHOPS stays below 30 km after 5 days, and the two technologies have similar tracking skill at the 95 % level. For comparison, the ensemble mean distance of a drifter from its initial release location (persistence assumption) is estimated to be greater than 70 km in 5 days.     

Sand detachment by wind‐driven raindrops

Wind movement and velocity can have a profound effect on some aspects of the soil erosion process. In the case of wind‐driven rain, differences in raindrop trajectory are expected: wind‐driven raindrops achieve some degree of horizontal velocity, which increases their resultant impact velocity and they strike the soil surface at an angle deviated from the vertical under the effects of both gravitational and drag forces. However, not much is known about the physical impact of raindrops on a soil in situations where this impact is at an angle, and it is also not precise known if oblique raindrops have stronger erosive effects than vertical ones. A series of tests was conducted to assess the effect of wind velocities on sand detachment from splash cups in a wind tunnel facility equipped with a rainfall simulator. Splash cups packed with standard sand were exposed to windless rains and to rains driven by horizontal wind velocities of 6, 10 and 14 m s^?1 to evaluate the sand detachment by wind‐driven raindrops. The average angle of rain inclination from vertical was calculated from the direct intensity measurements implemented with windward and leeward‐facing raingauges placed at different slopes. A kinetic energy sensor measured energy of windless and wind‐driven rains. Results showed that the kinetic energy flux calculated by the resultant impact velocity of drops adequately described the sand detachment from the splash cups by wind‐driven raindrops. However, an additional analysis of Pearson correlation coefficients using the velocity components rather than the resultant velocity of wind‐driven raindrops indicated that the energy flux related to the horizontal component of wind‐driven raindrops had a greater correlation with sand detachment than that related to the normal component. This finding contradicted the general assumption that the component of velocity normal to the surface is related to the detachment. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radar rainfall uncertainty modelling influenced by wind

Radar‐based estimates of rainfall are affected by many sources of uncertainties, which would propagate through the hydrological model when radar rainfall estimates are used as input or initial conditions. An elegant solution to quantify these uncertainties is to model the empirical relationship between radar measurements and rain gauge observations (as the ‘ground reference’). However, most current studies only use a fixed and uniform model to represent the uncertainty of radar rainfall, without consideration of its variation under different synoptic regimes. Wind is such a typical weather factor, as it not only induces error in rain gauge measurements but also causes the raindrops observed by weather radar to drift when they reach the ground. For this reason, as a first attempt, this study introduces the wind field into the uncertainty model and designs the radar rainfall uncertainty model under different wind conditions. We separate the original dataset into three subsamples according to wind speed, which are named as WDI (0–2 m/s), WDII (2–4 m/s) and WDIII (>4 m/s). The multivariate distributed ensemble generator is introduced and established for each subsample. Thirty typical events (10 at each wind range) are selected to explore the behaviours of uncertainty under different wind ranges. In each time step, 500 ensemble members are generated, and the values of 5th to 95th percentile values are used to produce the uncertainty bands. Two basic features of uncertainty bands, namely dispersion and ensemble bias, increase significantly with the growth of wind speed, demonstrating that wind speed plays a considerable role in influencing the behaviour of the uncertainty band. On the basis of these pieces of evidence, we conclude that the radar rainfall uncertainty model established under different wind conditions should be more realistic in representing the radar rainfall uncertainty. This study is only a start in incorporating synoptic regimes into rainfall uncertainty analysis, and a great deal of more effort is still needed to build a realistic and comprehensive uncertainty model for radar rainfall data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interpretation of mean‐field bias correction of radar rain rate using the concept of linear regression

In this study, the correction problem of mean‐field bias of radar rain rate was investigated using the concept of linear regression. Three different relationships were reviewed for their slopes to be used as the bias correction factor: Relationship 1 (R1) is based on the conventional linear regression, relationship 2 (R2) is forced to pass the origin and relationship 3 (R3) is the line whose slope is the G/R ratio. In other words, R1 is the regression line connecting the intercept and the mass centre of measurement pairs, R2 is the regression line forced to pass the origin, and R3 is the line connecting the origin and the mass centre. The slopes of all three relationships were reviewed analytically to compare them, and thereby, the effect of zero measurements could be evaluated. Additionally, the effect of using switched independent and dependent variables on the derived slopes was also evaluated. The theoretically derived results were then verified by analysing the rainfall event on 10–11 August 2010 in Korea. Finally, the difference between the bias‐corrected radar rain rate and the rain gauge rain rate was quantified by root mean square error and mean error so that it could be used as a measure for the evaluation of bias correction factors. In conclusion, the slope of R2 was found to be the best for the bias correction factor. However, when deciding the slope of this R2, the radar rain rate should be used as the independent variable in the low rain rate region, and the rain gauge rain rate in the high rain rate region above a certain threshold. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ability of a dual polarized X-band radar to estimate rainfall

The aim of this study is to assess rainfall estimates by a dual polarized X-band radar. This study was part of the European project FRAMEA (Flood forecasting using Radar in Alpine and Mediterranean Areas). Two radars were set up near the small town of Collobrières in South Eastern France. The first radar was a dual polarized X-band radar (Hydrix^®) associated with a ZPHI^® algorithm while the second one was an S-band radar (Météo France). We compared radar rainfall data with measurements obtained by two rain gauge networks (Météo France and Cemagref). During the experiments from February 2006 to June 2007, four significant rainfall events occurred. The accuracy of the rain rate obtained with both S-band and X-band radars decreased significantly beyond 60 km, in particular for the X-band radar. At closer ranges, such as 30–60 km from the radars, the X-band and the S-band radar retrievals showed similar performance with Nash criteria around 0.80 for the X-band radar and 0.75 for the S-band radar. Furthermore, the X-band radar did not require calibration on rainfall records, which tends to make it a useful method to assess rainfall in areas without a rain gauge network.     

Measurements of rain splash on bench terraces in a humid tropical steepland environment

Soil loss continues to threaten Java's predominantly bench‐terraced volcanic uplands. Sediment transport processes on back‐sloping terraces with well‐aggregated clay‐rich oxisols in West Java were studied using two different techniques. Splash on bare, cropped, or mulched sub‐horizontal (2–3°) terrace beds was studied using splash cups of different sizes, whereas transport of sediment on the predominantly bare and steep (30–40/deg ) terrace risers was measured using a novel device combining a Gerlach‐type trough with a splash box to enable the separate measurement of transport by wash and splash processes. Measurements were made during two consecutive rainy seasons. The results were interpreted using a recently developed splash distribution theory and related to effective rainfall erosive energy. Splash transportability (i.e. transport per unit contour length and unit erosive energy) on the terrace risers was more than an order of magnitude greater than on bare terrace beds (0·39–0·57 versus 0·013–0·016 g m J^?1). This was caused primarily by a greater average splash distance on the short, steep risers (>11 cm versus c. 1 cm on the beds). Splashed amounts were reduced by the gradual formation of a protective ‘pavement’ of coarser aggregates, in particular on the terrace beds. Soil aggregate size exhibited an inverse relationship with detachability (i.e. detachment per unit area and unit erosive energy) and average splash length, and therefore also with transportability, as did the degree of canopy and mulch cover. On the terrace risers, splash‐creep and gravitational processes transported an additional 6–50% of measured rain splash, whereas transport by wash played a marginal role. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flood simulation using the gauge‐adjusted radar rainfall and physics‐based distributed hydrologic model

This paper reports the results of an investigation into flood simulation by areal rainfall estimated from the combination of gauged and radar rainfalls and a rainfall–runoff model on the Anseong‐cheon basin in the southern part of Korea. The spatial and temporal characteristics and behaviour of rainfall are analysed using various approaches combining radar and rain gauges: (1) using kriging of the rain gauge alone; (2) using radar data alone; (3) using mean field bias (MFB) of both radar and rain gauges; and (4) using conditional merging technique (CM) of both radar and rain gauges. To evaluate these methods, statistics and hyetograph for rain gauges and radar rainfalls were compared using hourly radar rainfall data from the Imjin‐river, Gangwha, rainfall radar site, Korea. Then, in order to evaluate the performance of flood estimates using different rainfall estimation methods, rainfall–runoff simulation was conducted using the physics‐based distributed hydrologic model, Vflo^?. The flood runoff hydrograph was used to compare the calculated hydrographs with the observed one. Results show that the rainfall field estimated by CM methods improved flood estimates, because it optimally combines rainfall fields representing actual spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mesosphere summer echoes,temperature, and meridional wind variations at mid- and polar latitudes

VHF Radar echoes in the summer mesosphere at mid- and polar latitudes ([P]MSE—[polar] mesosphere summer echoes) are connected with very cold temperatures where ice particles can exist. Temperature variations can cause conditions for the generation and evaporation of ice particles and affect the [P]MSE occurrence. The impact of temperature and meridional wind oscillations on [P]MSE is described. Generally at mid-latitudes, strong mesosphere summer echoes are strongly affected by meridional wind variations if the mean temperature is near the frost point of water vapor. In contrast, at polar latitudes there is mostly no significant impact of the meridional wind on radar echoes. A mean temperature well below the frost point and a weaker meridional temperature gradient than at mid-latitudes are reasons for this reduced influence. Due to higher temperatures in 2002, long period temperature and meridional wind variations impact the PMSE more than during the other years.     

SfM-MVS Photogrammetry for Splash Erosion Monitoring under Natural Rainfall

An understanding of splash erosion is the basis to describe the impact of rain characteristics on soil disturbance. In typical splash cup experiments, splashed soil is collected, filtered, and weighed. As a way to collect additional data, our experiments have been supplemented by a photogrammetric approach. A total of three soils were tested across three sites, one in the Czech Republic and two in Austria, all equipped with rain gauges and disdrometers to measure rainfall parameters. The structure from motion multiview stereo (SfM-MVS) photogrammetric method was used to measure the raindrops impact on the soil surface. The images were processed using Agisoft PhotoScan, resulting in orthophotos and digital elevation models (DEMs) with a resolution of 0.1 mm/pix. The surface statistics included the mean surface height (whose standard deviation was used as a measure of surface roughness), slope, and other parameters. These parameters were evaluated depending on soil texture and rainfall parameters. The results show a linear correlation between consolidation and splash erosion with a coefficient of determination (R²) of approximately 0.65 for all three soils. When comparing the change in soil volume with rainfall parameters, the best correlation was found with the maximum 30-minintensity (I₃₀), resulting in R² values of 0.48 (soil A, silt loam, 26% clay), 0.59 (soil B, silt loam, 18% clay), and 0.68 (soil C, loamy sand, 12% clay). The initial increase in the sample volume for the lowest splashed mass corresponds with the increase in the clay content of each of the soils. Soil A swells the most. Soil B swells less. Soil C does not swell at all and consolidates the most. We derived the relationship between the photogrammetrically measured change in surface height and the splash erosion (measured by weight) by accounting for the effect of the clay content.     

Estimating fog deposition at a Puerto Rican elfin cloud forest site: comparison of the water budget and eddy covariance methods

The deposition of fog to a wind‐exposed 3 m tall Puerto Rican cloud forest at 1010 m elevation was studied using the water budget and eddy covariance methods. Fog deposition was calculated from the water budget as throughfall plus stemflow plus interception loss minus rainfall corrected for wind‐induced loss and effect of slope. The eddy covariance method was used to calculate the turbulent liquid cloud water flux from instantaneous turbulent deviations of the surface‐normal wind component and cloud liquid water content as measured at 4 m above the forest canopy. Fog deposition rates according to the water budget under rain‐free conditions (0·11 ± 0·05 mm h^?1) and rainy conditions (0·24 ± 0·13 mm h^?1) were about three to six times the eddy‐covariance‐based estimate (0·04 ± 0·002 mm h^?1). Under rain‐free conditions, water‐budget‐based fog deposition rates were positively correlated with horizontal fluxes of liquid cloud water (as calculated from wind speed and liquid water content data). Under rainy conditions, the correlation became very poor, presumably because of errors in the corrected rainfall amounts and very high spatial variability in throughfall. It was demonstrated that the turbulent liquid cloud water fluxes as measured at 4 m above the forest could be only ～40% of the fluxes at the canopy level itself due to condensation of moisture in air moving upslope. Other factors, which may have contributed to the discrepancy in results obtained with the two methods, were related to effects of footprint mismatch and methodological problems with rainfall measurements under the prevailing windy conditions. Best estimates of annual fog deposition amounted to ～770 mm year^?1 for the summit cloud forest just below the ridge top (according to the water budget method) and ～785 mm year^?1 for the cloud forest on the lower windward slope (using the eddy‐covariance‐based deposition rate corrected for estimated vertical flux divergence). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Field experiments constraining the probability distribution of particle travel distances during natural rainstorms on different slope gradients

Rain splash erosion is an important soil transport mechanism on steep hillslopes. The rain splash process is highly stochastic; here we seek to constrain the probability distribution of splash transport distances on natural hillslopes as a function of hillslope gradient and total precipitation depth. Field experiments were conducted under natural precipitation events to observe splash travel on varying slope gradients. The downslope fraction of splash transport on 15°, 25° and 33° gradients were 85%, 96% and 96%, respectively. Maximum splash transport (L_max) was related to the rain splash detachment of soil particles and slope gradient. An empirical relationship of L_max to the precipitation depth and gradient was obtained; it is linearly proportional to hillslope gradient and logarithmically related to precipitation depth. Measured splash distances were calibrated to the fully two‐dimensional (2D) model of splash transport of Furbish et al. (Journal of Geophysical Research 112 : F01001, 2007) that is based on the assumption that radial splash distances are exponentially distributed; calibrated values of mean splash transport distances are an order of magnitude greater than those previously determined in a controlled laboratory setting. We also compared measured data with several one‐dimensional (1D) probability distributions to asses if splash transport distances could be better explained by a heavy‐tailed probability distribution rather than an exponential probability distribution. We find that for hillslopes of 15° and 25°, although a log‐normal probability distribution best describes the data, we find its likelihood is nearly indistinguishable from an exponential distribution based on computing maximum likelihood estimators for all 1D distributions (exponential, log‐normal and Weibull). At 33°, however, we find stronger evidence that measured travel distances are heavy‐tailed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanics of interrill erosion with wind‐driven rain

The vector physics of wind‐driven rain (WDR) differs from that of wind‐free rain, and the interrill soil detachment equations in the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model were not originally developed to deal with this phenomenon. This article provides an evaluation of the performance of the interrill component of the WEPP model for WDR events. The interrill delivery rates were measured in the wind tunnel facility of the International Center for Eremology (ICE), Ghent University, Belgium with an experimental setup to study different raindrop impact velocity vectors. Synchronized wind and rain simulations with wind velocities of 6, 10 and 14 m s^–1 were applied to a test surface placed on windward and leeward slopes of 7, 15 and 20%. Since both rainfall intensity and raindrop impact velocity varied greatly depending on differences in the horizontal wind velocity under WDRs, the resultant kinetic energy flux (KE_r, in J m^–2 s^–1) was initially used in place of the WEPP model intensity term in order to incorporate the effect of wind on impact velocity and frequency of raindrops. However, our results showed only minor improvement in the model predictions. For all research data, the model Coefficients of Determination (r²) were 0·63 and 0·71, when using the WEPP and the KE_r approaches, respectively. Alternately, integrating the angle of rain incidence into the model by vectorally partitioning normal kinetic energy flux (KE_rn, in J m^–2 s^–1) from the KE_r greatly improved the model's ability to estimate the interrill sediment delivery rates (r² = 0·91). This finding suggested that along with the fall trajectory of wind‐driven raindrops with a given frequency, raindrop velocity and direction at the point of impact onto the soil surface provided sufficient physical information to improve WEPP sediment delivery rate predictions under WDR. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On forecasting abnormal climatic events in the tropical Atlantic Ocean

Modelling and observational evidence indicate that interannual variabilities of dynamic height and sea surface temperature (SST) in the eastern part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Guinea) are largely induced by preceding fluctuations in wind stress, mainly in the western equatorial basin. A wind-driven linear ocean model is used here to test the possibility of forecasting the abnormal dynamic heights. A control run of the model, forced by 1964–1993 wind stress monthly means, is first conducted. Yearly test runs (1964-1994) are subsequently performed from January to August by forcing the model with observed winds from January to May, and then by forcing with the May wind assumed to persist from June to August. During the last three decades the largest deviations of dynamic height simulated by the control run in the Gulf of Guinea in boreal summer would have been correctly forecast from wind data related only to conditions in May of each year. However, for weak climatic anomalies, the model may forecast overestimated values. For the most part (about 20 times during the last 30 years), the sign of the observed SST anomaly in the centre of the Gulf of Guinea during the boreal summer is identical to the sign of simulated anomalies of dynamic height deduced from both control and test runs. Along the eastern equatorial waveguide, the sea level forecasting skill slowly decreases from the first 2 weeks of June until the second 2 weeks of August, but remains high on both sides of the equator throughout boreal summer, as is expected from the adjustment in a linear ocean model. It is established that throughout the year in the Gulf of Guinea the accuracy of the 1-month forecast dynamic height anomaly provided by the simple linear method is greater than that of the 1-month forecast assuming persistence.     

Rain properties controlling soil splash detachment

Laboratory experiments have been conducted to study the effects of various rain properties on sand detachment resulting from raindrop impact. Splash cups were exposed to simulated rainfall intensities ranging between 10 and 140 mm h⁻¹. The detached sand was collected and weighed whereas rain intensity, equivalent drop diameter and fall velocity of raindrops were measured with an optical spectro‐pluviometer (OSP). The properties of the simulated rain (i.e. median volume diameter and kinetic energy) were compared with those observed in natural conditions. Statistical analyses have been undertaken in order to evaluate which rain variable best predicts the mass of sand detached. Linear and non‐linear correlations between the mass of detached sediment and the product of drop size (d) by drop velocity (v), i.e. D^αV^β, with values of α varying between 1 and 6 and β between 0 and 3, have been computed. The results indicate that the coefficient of determination (R²) for α ranging between 3 and 5 and β lower or equal to 2 are satisfying. Although kinetic energy (D³V²) described splash detachment relatively well, the product of momentum by drop diameter (D⁴V) was slightly superior in describing splash detachment. Therefore, the momentum multiplied by the drop diameter is recommended as the best rain variable to describe splash detachment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Backtracking drifting objects using surface currents from high-frequency (HF) radar technology

In this work, the benefits of high-frequency (HF) radar ocean observation technology for backtracking drifting objects are analysed. The HF radar performance is evaluated by comparison of trajectories between drifter buoys versus numerical simulations using a Lagrangian trajectory model. High-resolution currents measured by a coastal HF radar network combined with atmospheric fields provided by numerical models are used to backtrack the trajectory of two dataset of surface-drifting buoys: group I (with drogue) and group II (without drogue). A methodology based on optimization methods is applied to estimate the uncertainty in the trajectory simulations and to optimize the search area of the backtracked positions. The results show that, to backtrack the trajectory of the buoys in group II, both currents and wind fields were required. However, wind fields could be practically discarded when simulating the trajectories of group I. In this case, the optimal backtracked trajectories were obtained using only HF radar currents as forcing. Based on the radar availability data, two periods ranging between 8 and 10?h were selected to backtrack the buoy trajectories. The root mean squared error (RMSE) was found to be 1.01?km for group I and 0.82?km for group II. Taking into account these values, a search area was calculated using circles of RMSE radii, obtaining 3.2 and 2.11?km² for groups I and II, respectively. These results show the positive contribution of HF radar currents for backtracking drifting objects and demonstrate that these data combined with atmospheric models are of value to perform backtracking analysis of drifting objects.