Review of electromagnetic coupling between the Earth's atmosphere and the space environment

We review our understanding of the electrical properties of the lower and upper atmosphere along with various possible sources of the electromagnetic energy near and far above the Earth's surface. The transport of electromagnetic energy from the atmosphere to the ionosphere and then to the magnetosphere and back to the Earth's surface via ionosphere and lower atmosphere is discussed. The electromagnetic coupling of various regions is also discussed.     

A 14.7 Ka record of earth surface processes from the arid‐monsoon transitional zone of China

The stability of Earth's critical zone is intimately linked with erosion, weathering and vegetation type and density. Therefore, it affects global biogeochemical processes which in turn affect the global climate by absorbing and reflecting solar radiation, and by altering fluxes of heat, water vapour, carbon dioxide and other trace gases through various feedback mechanisms. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how Earth's critical zone processes have changed over time and their link with past monsoon variability, especially in Asia. The study of lake sediments, which contain a suite of inorganic elemental and isotopic proxies, may facilitate the understanding of the Earth's critical zone processes on millennial timescales. Here we reconstruct the history of erosion–weathering–vegetation interactions since ~14.7 ka using geochemical records from a radiocarbon‐dated sediment core from Lake Gonghai in the monsoon‐arid transitional zone of north China. Detrital (Al, Ti, K, Rb) and authigenic (Ca, Sr) elemental records reveal distinct, millennial‐scale, late deglacial‐Holocene erosion and weathering patterns and transitions with the former (latter) elements showing higher (lower) values in warm intervals and vice versa. Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) molar, a humidity proxy, suggests low humidity during the late deglacial ~11.5–14.7 ka, high humidity during the early‐mid Holocene ~11.5–3.2 ka, and intermediate humidity during the late Holocene interval since ~3.2 ka. The results of cross‐spectral analysis and comparison of our records with other climate reconstructions also suggest a pattern of orbitally‐phased humidity changes in north China. Overall, our results provide evidence for the solar‐forcing of Earth's surface processes in mid‐latitude China under natural climatic conditions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trends in the F2 ionospheric layer due to long-term variations in the Earth's magnetic field

The Earth's magnetic field presents long-term variations with changes in strength and orientation. Particularly, changes in the dip angle (I) and, consequently, in the sin(I)cos(I) factor, affect the thermospheric neutral winds that move the conducting plasma of the ionosphere. In this way, a lowering or lifting of the F2-peak (hmF2) is induced together with changes in foF2, depending on season, time and location. A simple theoretical approximation, developed in a previous work, is extended to a worldwide latitude–longitude grid to assess hmF2 and foF2 trends due to Earth's magnetic field secular variations. Compared to the greenhouse gases effects over the ionosphere, the Earth's magnetic field may be able to produce stronger trends which vary with season, time and location. However, to elucidate the origin of F2-region trends, long-term variations in the three possible known mechanisms should be considered altogether—greenhouse gases, geomagnetic activity and Earth's magnetic field.     

Shortwave forcing of the Earth's climate: Modern and historical variations in the Sun's irradiance and the Earth's reflectance

Changes in the Earth's radiation budget are driven by changes in the balance between the thermal emission from the top of the atmosphere and the net sunlight absorbed. The shortwave radiation entering the climate system depends on the Sun's irradiance and the Earth's reflectance. Often, studies replace the net sunlight by proxy measures of solar irradiance, which is an oversimplification used in efforts to probe the Sun's role in past climate change. With new helioseismic data and new measures of the Earth's reflectance, we can usefully separate and constrain the relative roles of the net sunlight's two components, while probing the degree of their linkage. First, this is possible because helioseismic data provide the most precise measure ever of the solar cycle, which ultimately yields more profound physical limits on past irradiance variations. Since irradiance variations are apparently minimal, changes in the Earth's climate that seem to be associated with changes in the level of solar activity—the Maunder Minimum and the Little Ice age for example—would then seem to be due to terrestrial responses to more subtle changes in the Sun's spectrum of radiative output. This leads naturally to a linkage with terrestrial reflectance, the second component of the net sunlight, as the carrier of the terrestrial amplification of the Sun's varying output. Much progress has also been made in determining this difficult to measure, and not-so-well-known quantity. We review our understanding of these two closely linked, fundamental drivers of climate.     

Local turbulence in the Earth's core

Abstract

It is shown that in the Earth's core, where the geodynamo is at work (and is supplied with energy by the prevailing unstable density stratification), a buoyancy instability of a local character exists which is highly supercritical. This instability results in fully developed turbulence dominated by small scale vortices. The influence of the Earth's rotation and of the magnetic field produced by the geodynamo makes this small scale turbulence highly anisotropic. A qualitative picture of this local anisotropic turbulence is devised and the main parameters characterizing it are estimated. Expressions for the turbulent diffusivity are developed and discussed.     

Geospace imaging using Thomson scattering

We evaluate the potential of imaging for the first time, the near-earth space plasma environment seamlessly from the ionosphere through the magnetosphere by remotely sensing Thomson scattering of solar visible light by geospace electrons. Using state of the art first principles models of the magnetosphere/ionosphere system, we show that the column emission rates are weak, generally less than 10 Rayleighs, but detectable with currently available instrument technology recently deployed for heliospheric imaging. We demonstrate that distinct features such as the bow shock, magnetosheath and magnetopause are detectable in synthetic images simulated using modified solar coronagraphs and white light imagers, providing that the large background signals are properly quantified. The availability of global geospace images of the electron concentration will enable major advances in our understanding of how Earth's near-space environment responds as a coupled system to changing solar forcings. Such images are expected to play a central role in space weather assessment and forecasting, from which significant capabilities will accrue, much as the imaging of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere has advanced understanding and forecasting of tropospheric weather.     

Ocean tidal effects on Earth rotation

Tidal forces due to the tide-raising potential deform the solid and fluid regions of the Earth, causing the Earth's inertia tensor to change, and hence causing the Earth's rate of rotation and length-of-day to change. Because both the tide-raising potential and the solid Earth's elastic response to the tidal forces caused by this potential are well-known, accurate models for the effects of the elastic solid body tides on the Earth's rotation are available. However, models for the effect of the ocean tides on the Earth's rotation are more problematic because of the need to model the dynamic response of the oceans to the tidal forces. Hydrodynamic ocean tide models that have recently become available are evaluated here for their ability to account for long-period ocean tidal signals in length-of-day observations. Of the models tested here, the older altimetric data-constrained model of Kantha et al. (1998) is shown to still do the best job of accounting for ocean tidal effects in length-of-day, particularly at the fortnightly tidal frequency. The model currently recommended by the IERS is shown to do the worst job.     

Ion-cyclotron wave generation by planetary ion pickup

Ion-cyclotron waves play important roles in planetary magnetospheres and are diagnostic of the processes operating in the magnetosphere and of the composition of the plasma producing the waves. At Jupiter, Io's exosphere interacts with the corotating magnetospheric plasma. At Saturn, the neutral torus around the E ring interacts with the corotating plasma. At the unmagnetized planets, Mars and Venus, the interaction is between the solar-wind flow and the planetary exosphere. A possible analog of these processes exists in the vicinity of the Earth's polar cusp where the shocked solar-wind plasma penetrates the Earth's exosphere.     

Contemporary glacigenic inputs to the dust cycle

The importance of glacigenic dust in the Earth's system during glacial periods is widely acknowledged. Under contemporary conditions, the world's largest dust sources are in low‐lying, hot, arid regions and this is where most aeolian research is focused. However the processes of dust production and emissions are still operating in cold climate regions, particularly in proglacial areas. This paper assesses current understanding of the relationship between glacierised landscapes and dust emissions and inputs to the global dust cycle. It focuses on how elements in the glacial and aeolian geomorphic sub‐systems interact to determine the magnitude, frequency and timing of aeolian dust emissions, and on feedback mechanisms between the systems. Where they have been measured, dust emission intensity and deposition rates in glacierised catchments are very high, in some cases far exceeding those in lower latitudes, however, few studies span long time scales. The impact of future glacier retreat on the balance between sediment supply, availability and aeolian transport capacity and implications for glacigenic dust emissions is also considered. This balance depends on relative spatial and temporal changes in meltwater suspended sediment concentration and wind strengths, which promote dust emissions, and patterns and rates of soil development and vegetation succession on recently‐deglaciated terrain which protect sediments from deflation. Retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet could mean that in future glacigenic contributions to the dust cycle exceed those of non‐glacigenic sources in the southern hemisphere. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a realistic theory of the geodynamo

Abstract

The physics of the geodynamo is discussed. The main processes relevant for the buoyancy driven geodynamo are isolated. The successive stages of development of geodynamo theory are briefly described. The mechanism of local turbulence in the Earth's core is explained, and an estimate is presented of the turbulent transport of density inhomogeneities in the Earth's core. The significance of this turbulent transport to the geodynamo mechanism is stressed. The general scheme of the complete geodynamo theory of the future is outlined.     

The fluvial flux of particulate organic matter from the UK: the emission factor of soil erosion

Soil erosion has been identified as a potential global carbon sink since eroded organic matter is replaced at source and eroded material is readily buried. However, this argument has relied on poor estimates of the total fate of in‐transit particulates and could erroneously imply soil erosion could be encouraged to generate carbon stores. These previous estimates have not considered that organic matter can also be released to the atmosphere as a range of greenhouse gases, not only carbon dioxide (CO₂), but also the more powerful greenhouse gases methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). As soil carbon lost by erosion is only replaced by uptake of CO₂, this could represent a considerable imbalance in greenhouse gas warming potential, even if it is not significant in terms of overall carbon flux. This work therefore considers the flux of particulate organic matter through UK rivers with respect to both carbon fluxes and greenhouse gas emissions. The results show that, although emissions to the atmosphere are dominated by CO₂, there are also considerable fluxes of CH₄ and N₂O. The results suggest that soil erosion is a net source of greenhouse gases with median emission factors of 5.5, 4.4 and 0.3 tonnes CO_2eq/yr for one tonne of fluvial carbon, gross carbon erosion and gross soil erosion, respectively. This study concludes that gross soil erosion would therefore only be a net sink of both carbon and greenhouse gases if all the following criteria are met: the gross soil erosion rate were very low (<91 tonnes/km²/yr); the eroded carbon were completely replaced by new soil organic matter; and if less than half of the gross erosion made it into the stream network. By establishing the emission factor for soil erosion, it becomes possible to properly account for the benefits of good soil management in minimizing losses of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as a by‐product of soil erosion. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of model assumptions on computations of cosmic ray induced ionization in the atmosphere

The longitudinal profile of atmospheric cascades is sensitive to the energy, mass of the primary particle and to atmospheric state. In this work are compared ionization yield functions Y for winter, summer and US standard profiles of Earth's atmosphere. The various profiles are obtained on the basis of CORSIKA 6.52 code simulations using FLUKA 2006 and QGSJET II hadronic interaction subroutines. The energy deposit of proton induced cascade processes in the atmosphere is calculated for different types of atmospheres. The ion pair production in the atmosphere and the contribution of the different shower components, precisely the electromagnetic, muon and hadronic is estimated according applied atmospheric types. In addition simulations with different hadronic interaction models GHEISHA 2002, FLUKA 2006 and QGSJET II are carried out. The ion pair production in the atmosphere and the contribution of different shower components is estimated according the assumed hadronic interaction models. The yield function Y for total ionization, respectively, for the different components is compared. The observed differences are widely discussed. General conclusion concerning the application of various atmospheric profiles and hadron interaction models is carried out.     

Geocenter motion and its geodetic and geophysical implications

The horizontal transport of water in Earth's surface layer, including sea level change, deglaciation, and surface runoff, is a manifestation of many geophysical processes. These processes entail ocean and atmosphere circulation and tidal attraction, global climate change, and the hydrological cycle, all having a broad range of spatiotemporal scales. The largest atmospheric mass variations occur mostly at synoptic wavelengths and at seasonal time scales. The longest wavelength component of surface mass transport, the spherical harmonic degree-1, involves the exchange of mass between the northern and southern hemispheres. These degree-1 mass loads deform the solid Earth, including its surface, and induce geocenter motion between the center-of-mass of the total Earth system (CM) and the center-of-figure (CF) of the solid Earth surface. Because geocenter motion also depends on the mechanical properties of the solid Earth, monitoring geocenter motion thus provides an additional opportunity to probe deep into Earth's interior. Most modern geodetic measurement systems rely on tracking data between ground stations and satellites that orbit around CM. Consequently, geocenter motion is intimately related to the realization of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) origin, and, in various ways, affects many of our measurement objectives for global change monitoring. In the last 15 years, there have been vast improvements in geophysical fluid modeling and in the global coverage, densification, and accuracy of geodetic observations. As a result of these developments, tremendous progress has been made in the study of geocenter motion over the same period. This paper reviews both the theoretical and measurement aspects of geocenter motion and its implications.     

Quantifying the effect of thermospheric parameterization in a global model

Global climate models have become useful tools for studying the important physical processes that affect the Earth's upper atmosphere. However, the results produced by all models contain uncertainty that stems for the manner in which the model is driven, as well as in the treatment of the internal physics and numerics. In order to fully understand the scientific value of the model results then, it is necessary to have a quantitative understanding of the uncertainty in the model. In this study, the global ionosphere–thermosphere model is used to investigate how uncertainty in the use of parameters in a large scale model can affect the model results. Eight parameters are studied that ultimately have an effect on the thermospheric temperature equation. It is found that among these, uncertainty in the thermal conductivity, NO cooling, and NO binary diffusion coefficients most strongly translate to uncertainty in the temperature and density results. In addition, variations in the eddy diffusion coefficient are shown to result in significant uncertainty in the thermospheric composition, and ultimately the electron density.     

Earth tides

The main geometrical characteristics and mechanical properties of bodily tides are described, using the convenient elastic parameters of Love. The problem of the Earth's deformation is a problem of spherical elasticity of the sixth order. The importance of Earth tides in astronomy and geophysics is emphasized by their relation to the precession-nutation and tesseral tidal problems, the secular retardation of the Earth's speed of rotation due to the dissipation of energy in sectorial tides, the periodic variations of the speed of rotation due to zonal tides, the satellite orbit perturbations due to the Earth's potential variation, and the radial deformations in laser distance measurements. The possibility that dynamical effects would be produced in the Earth's liquid core was pointed out by Poincaré and developed by Jeffreys, Vicente, and Molodensky. An experimental confirmation is presented here. The role of the Earth tide phenomenon in gravimetry and oceanography is also described, as are the perturbing effects due to regional tectonic features. Instrumental developments are critical in the acquisition of precise data; the calibration problem is fundamental for a correct comparison with Earth models.     

Variability of dissolved organic carbon in precipitation during storms at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory

Organic compounds are removed from the atmosphere and deposited to the Earth's surface via precipitation. In this study, we quantified variations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in precipitation during storm events at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory, a forested watershed in central Pennsylvania (USA). Precipitation samples were collected consecutively throughout the storm during 13 events, which spanned a range of seasons and synoptic meteorological conditions, including a hurricane. Further, we explored factors that affect the temporal variability by considering relationships of DOC in precipitation with atmospheric and storm characteristics. Concentrations and chemical composition of DOC changed considerably during storms, with the magnitude of change within individual events being comparable or higher than the range of variation in average event composition among events. Although some previous studies observed that concentrations of other elements in precipitation typically decrease over the course of individual storm events, results of this study show that DOC concentrations in precipitation are highly variable. During most storm events, concentrations decreased over time, possibly as a result of washing out of the below‐cloud atmosphere. However, increasing concentrations that were observed in the later stages of some storm events highlight that DOC removal with precipitation is not merely a dilution response. Increases in DOC during events could result from advection of air masses, local emissions during breaks in precipitation, or chemical transformations in the atmosphere that enhance solubility of organic carbon compounds. This work advances understanding of processes occurring during storms that are relevant to studies of atmospheric chemistry, carbon cycling, and ecosystem responses.     

地球自转周期、极移和章动与全球强震关联分析

目前,人们还无法准确地预报地震。找到地震和某种物理量之间的关系,积极地研究地震的触发因素具有非常深远的意义。漂浮在软流层上的地球板块随地球一起转动,地球自转变化可能对强震有一定的触发作用。统计2000年以后全球M_W7.9以上强震和地球自转周期、极移以及章动的关系,发现全球强震和大约13～15天的日长变化、大约一年周期极移变化以及十几天左右不规则章动有很强的关联性。通过贝叶斯公式分析,强震发生在日长变化拐点处的概率为随机概率的3倍,发生在极移X方向拐点处的概率为随机概率的6倍,发生在极移Y方向拐点处的概率为随机概率的3倍,发生在章动拐点处的概率为随机概率的2倍。这种拐点不是固定周期,它受到各种摄动因素而发生不规则漂移,全球强震往往发生在上述周期变化的拐点处。希望以上结论能对大地震预报提供有益的参考信息。     

Hydrologic impact of regional climate change for the snowfed and glacierfed river basins in the Republic of Tajikistan: hydrological response of flow to climate change

The warming of the Earth's atmosphere system is likely to change temperature and precipitation, which may affect the climate, hydrology and water resources at the river basins over the world. The importance of temperature change becomes even greater in snow or glacier dominated basins where it controls the snowmelt processes during the late‐winter, spring and summer months. In this study hydrologic responses of streamflow in the Pyanj and Vaksh River basins to climate change are analysed with a watershed hydrology model, based on the downscaled atmospheric data as input, in order to assess the regional climate change impact for the snowfed and glacierfed river basins in the Republic of Tajikistan. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the annual mean river discharge is increasing in the future at snow and glacier dominated areas due to the air temperature increase and the consequent increase in snow/ice melt rates until about 2060. Then the annual mean flow discharge starts to decrease from about 2080 onward because the small glaciers start to disappear in the glacier areas. It was also found that there is a gradual change in the hydrologic flow regime throughout a year, with the high flows occuring earlier in the hydrologic year, due to the warmer climate in the future. Furthermore, significant increases in annual maximum daily flows, including the 100‐year return period flows, at the Pyanj and Vaksh River basins toward the end of the 21st century can be inferred from flood frequency analysis results. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Climate Change Challenges

Anthropogenic climate change has emerged as one of the major challenges for mankind in the centuries to come. The strongly modified composition of the atmosphere, due to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosol particles, leads to an enhanced greenhouse effect and also intensified backscattering of solar radiation by aerosol particles. The resulting global mean warming will have a major impact on the entire cryosphere, with global consequences via mean sea level rise and redistributed precipitation. This introductory presentation will summarize the emergence of the topic, its already observed consequences for the cryosphere, and it will also discuss issues in climate policy making when dealing with the climate change challenge.