High resolution analysis of the sun's radiation received at the ground from 9 μ to 11.6 μ

Summary A brief report on the instrumentation for observations, at the ground, in the 9 to 11.6 spectral region, in the absorption of solar radiation through the terrestrial atmosphere and of the results thus obtained for the H₂O, O₃ and HNO₃ molecules.The observations have been made at Montlouis, in the south of France, at 1650 m above sea-level. Here the pollution of the atmosphere is very low because there is no industry and very little local domestic activity.The chief aim ofM. Dionne [1], who is mainly responsible for this work, was to study the weak absorption of the terrestrial atmosphere around and beyond 10 , so observation had to be made with large air masses. For if there were excess water vapour the very weak lines might disappear through the background, owing to the water vapour itself; hence the need to observe during cold weather. Great air masses and cold weather can be obtained only on fine winter days, at about sunset. The configuration of Montlouis makes it difficult to observe at sunrise, so the time of observation was very limited.Laboratoire de Physique Moléculaire et d'Optique Atmosphérique, Station de Montlouis.     

A comparative study of the sunrise and sunset effects on the integrated field intensity of VLF atmospherics

A comparative study is made of the stepped structure of atmospherics during sunrise and sunset hours at three harmonically related frequencies in the VLF band, observed at the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The occurrences of the steps, their duration, time sequence and amplitudes are critically examined. Our analysis reveals that the start times of the third and second steps of the sunrise effect are always before ground sunrise, while the start of the main step is distributed on both sides of it. During sunset hours, the onset time of the main step is before the local ground sunset, but for the second and third steps, the onset times are after that. The results are interpreted by considering the multi-hop propagation as well as the distributed noise sources surrounding the observing site.     

Effect of solar radiation refraction on the zenith angle and times of the sunrise and sunset in the atmosphere

The analytical formulas for the solar radiation refraction angle and the times of the sunrise and sunset at altitudes of the atmosphere, which make it possible to take into account the dependence of these parameters on the temperature, density, and temperature vertical gradient in the atmosphere specified at the ground level, have been obtained. It has been indicated that solar radiation refraction pronouncedly affects the times of the sunrise and sunset at altitudes of the atmosphere.     

Modeling the responses of the middle latitude ionosphere to solar flares

In this paper, we investigate the solar flare effects of the ionosphere at middle latitude with a one-dimensional ionosphere theoretical model. The measurements of solar irradiance from the SOHO/Solar EUV Monitor (SEM) and GOES satellites have been used to construct a simple time-dependent solar flare spectrum model, which serves as the irradiance spectrum during solar flares. The model calculations show that the ionospheric responses to solar flares are largely related to the solar zenith angle. During the daytime most of the relative increases in electron density occur at an altitude lower than 300 km, with a peak at about 115 km, whereas around sunrise and sunset the strongest ionospheric responses occur at much higher altitudes (e.g. 210 km for a summer flare). The ionospheric responses to flares in equinox and winter show an obvious asymmetry to local midday with a relative increase in total electron content (TEC) in the morning larger than that in the afternoon. The flare-induced TEC enhancement increases slowly around sunrise and reaches a peak at about 60 min after the flare onset.     

基于闪电双极性窄脉冲事件波形观测日出日落电离层D层变化

利用闪电作为辐射源来探测电离层D层是近年来国外学者研究的热点.本文基于江淮流域六站同步闪电观测站网,实现了一种利用闪电双极性窄脉冲事件（Narrow Bipolar Events,NBE）来探测电离层D层等效高度的方法.基于此方法,对两次分别发生在日出和日落阶段的雷暴分析结果显示,上述两个阶段D层反射高度变化特征呈现显著的不对称性：日出期间D层反射高度随时间线性降低速率为5.9 km/h;而日落期间D层反射高度随时间线性递增速率为8.6 km/h.综合日间太阳耀斑期间D层反射高度剧烈波动的观测事实,与日出、日落期间D层特征变化,结果表明太阳辐射电离中性大气分子的电子生成机制在日间D层电子密度变化中占主导地位.本文结果展现了利用NBE事件监测电离层D层变化特征的可行性,这一方法与基于地闪回击波形的D层探测方法结合在一起,有望把现有具有闪电事件定位和电磁波波形记录能力的闪电观测站网扩展为实时对电离层D层时空变化监测的网络.     

Hour-to-hour variability of the ionosphere: An application of the classical multidimensional scaling method

The classical multidimensional scaling(MDS) method is introduced and applied in the study of the hour-to-hour ionospheric variability based on the ionospheric fo F2 observed at three ionosonde stations in East-Asia in 2002 and 2007. Results from the matrix eigen decompositions indicate that the annual part of the ionospheric variation is large in middle latitude and solar maximum period(2002) while low in the low latitude and solar minimum period(2007). The connectivity maps of the hour-to-hour ionospheric variability based on MDS method show some common diurnal features. The ionospheric connectivity between adjacent hours near noon hours and near midnight hours is high. The ionospheric connectivity between adjacent hours near sunrise hours and near sunset hours is poor, especially for the sunrise hours. Also there are latitudinal and solar activity dependences in this kind of connectivity. These results revealed from the ionospheric connectivity maps are useful physically and in practice for the ionospheric forecasting on the hour-to-hour scale.     

Hydrological impact and potential flooding of convective rain cells in a semi-arid environment

Abstract

t Spatio-temporal storm properties have a large impact on catchment hydrological response. The sensitivity of simulated flash floods to convective rain-cell characteristics is examined for an extreme storm event over a 94 km² semi-arid catchment in southern Israel. High space–time resolution weather radar data were used to derive and model convective rain cells that then served as input into a hydrological model. Based on alterations of location, direction and speed of a major rain cell, identified as the flooding cell for this case, the impacts on catchment rainfall and generated flood were examined. Global sensitivity analysis was applied to identify the most important factors affecting the flash flood peak discharge at the catchment outlet. We found that the flood peak discharge could be increased three-fold by relatively small changes in rain-cell characteristics. We assessed that the maximum flash flood magnitude that this single rain cell can produce is 175 m³/s, and, taking into account the rest of the rain cells, the flash flood peak discharge can reach 260 m³/s.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor R.J. Moore

Citation Morin, E. and Yakir, H., 2013. Hydrological impact and potential flooding of convective rain cells in a semi-arid environment. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (7), 1275–1284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.841315     

Nature of the sunrise effect in daily electric field variations at Kamchatka: 2. Electric field frequency variations

The power spectra of time variations in the electric field strength in the near-Earth’s atmosphere and in the geomagnetic field horizontal component, which were simultaneously observed at the Paratunka observatory (φ = 52°58.3′ N; λ = 158°14.9′ E) in September 1999, have been studied. The periods of the day (including sunrise, sunset, and night) have been considered. It has been indicated that oscillations with periods T ～ 2.0–2.5 h are present in the power spectra of these parameters during the day. The intensity of these oscillations increases noticeably and the oscillations in the band of periods T < 1 h increase simultaneously in the field strength power spectra at sunrise. The variations in the argument of the cross-spectrum of these parameters indicated that oscillations in the 2.0–2.5 h period band are caused by sources that are located above the ionospheric dynamo region; at the same time, oscillations in the 0.5–1 h period band are caused by sources in the lower atmosphere. A possible mechanism by which these oscillations are generated, related to the vortex motion of convective cells that originate at sunrise in the boundary atmospheric layer, is proposed.     

Lower hybrid resonance spherics

Summary After a fractional-hop whistler, a trace of limited frequency range with somewhat higher dispersion, markedly growing when approaching the lower cutoff frequency, is frequently observed on spectrograms of broadband VLF measurements made by satellites moving in the outer ionosphere. This phenomenon, which we have called LHR spheric, has been studied on VLF measurements made by the Interkosmos-14 satellite in the height range of 500–1700 km. The results show that LHR spherics are created by the same mechanism as LHR whistlers that sometimes appear after ducted whistlers. In this event, it is a part of the electromagnetic energy radiated by a lightning flash which, on passing trough the ionosphere, has been transformed to quasi-electrostatic resonance waves. They reach the satellite in the same way as whistler-mode waves. Transformation of a part of the energy radiated by a lightning flash to electrostatic quasi-resonance waves is possible in the ionosphere due to the scattering of the original whistler wave on small-scale turbulence.     

Solar terminator and auroral sources for traveling ionospheric disturbances in the midlatitude F region

The occurrence of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) at a midlatitude location (London, Canada, 43°N, 81°W) has been examined using data recorded by standard 5 min ionograms during the year 2000. It is found that the dominant source of TIDs during daytime appears to be the sunrise terminator but during nighttime the sunset terminator and magnetic disturbances both contribute to the TIDs. The daytime TIDs show a weak semiannual variation with maxima in solstices. The nighttime TIDs show insignificant annual variation.     

Trends in planetary wave activity inferred from Hungarian radio wave absorption measurements

Summary The nighttime and sunset LF radio wave absorption measured at Nagycenk, western Hungary over 1967–1991 is used to infer planetary wave activity and its long-term trend in the upper middle atmosphere (85 – 100 km). The very moderate positive and mostly statistically insignificant trends are consistent with the pattern provided by previous analyses of various day- and night-time absorption measurements. The trends could be of anthropogenic origin.     

电离层春秋分不对称的地方时依赖

利用全球203个电离层测高仪台站的F_2层临界频率(f_oF_2)和E层临界频率(f_oE),以及美国喷气推进实验室(JPL)提供的电离层总电子含量(TEC)地图数据统计分析了电离层春秋分(March Equinox and September Equinox,ME and SE)不对称的特点.基于电离层参量随年积日(Day of Year,DoY)和太阳活动指数F_(10.7)变化的傅里叶级数模型,对f_oF_2、f_oE及TEC数据分别进行最小二乘法拟合,将电离层参量归算到低太阳活动(F_(10.7)=80)、中等太阳活动(F_(10.7)=150)和高太阳活动(F_(10.7)=200)水平.该方法定量分离了实际观测数据中包含的电离层参量随季节和太阳活动的变化,因而得到了更为定量、精确的电离层春秋分不对称性特征.分析了不同地方时(LT)的春秋分不对称性指数(Asymmetry Index,AI)和春秋分差值Δ(=ME-SE)的全球分布特征与太阳活动依赖性.结果表明,foE日出时全球主要表现为9月分点值高于3月分点值,午后春秋分不对称性几乎消失,而日落时则反转为3月分点值高于9月分点值;f_oF_2日出时除少数地区外也主要表现为9月分点值高于3月分点值,而其他时段则相反;TEC日出时低太阳活动时的全球及中高太阳活动时的低纬地区表现为9月分点值高于3月分点值,而其他时段则相反.fo_E春秋分不对称性受太阳活动影响较弱,而f_oF_2和TEC的春秋分不对称随太阳活动有明显的变化,其3月分点值相对于9月分点值增加.计算了F_2层峰高(h_mF_2)处对应的氧氮浓度比([O]/[N_2],由大气模型NRLMSISE-00计算得到)和h_mF_2的春秋分不对称性,提取了TEC年变化的幅度及相位信息.氧氮浓度比和h_mF_2的春秋分不对称性能够部分解释电离层的春秋分不对称性,而TEC春秋分不对称的全球分布特征可以用TEC年变化的相位的全球分布解释.     

Statistical analysis of ionospheric TEC anomalies before global <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>w</Subscript> ≥ 7.0 earthquakes using data of CODE GIM

Based on Center of Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) global ionospheric map (GIM) data, a statistical analysis of local total electron content (TEC) anomalies before 121 low-depth (D ≤ 100 km) strong (M _w ≥ 7.0) earthquakes has been made using the sliding median differential calculation method combining with a new approach of image processing technique. The results show that significant local TEC anomalies could be observed 0–6 days before 80 earthquakes, about 66.1% out of the total. The positive anomalies occur more often than negative ones. For 26 cases, both positive and negative anomalies are observed before the shock. The pre-earthquake TEC anomalies show local time recurrence for 38 earthquakes, which occur around the same local time on different days. The local time distribution of the pre-earthquake TEC anomalies mainly concentrates between 19 and 06 LT, roughly from the sunset to sunrise. Most of the pre-earthquake TEC anomalies do not locate above the epicenter but shift to the south. The pre-earthquake TEC anomalies could be extracted near the magnetic conjugate point of the epicenter for 40 events, which is 50% out of the total 80 cases with significant local TEC anomalies. In general, the signs of the anomalies around epicenter and its conjugate point are the same, but the abnormal magnitude and lasting time are not.     

Detection of the wave-like structures in the F-region electron density: Two station measurements

Comparative studies of short-term ionospheric variability in the F region ionosphere during rapid sequence sounding campaign “HIRAC/SolarMax” (23–29 April 2001) are presented. The ionospheric short-term fluctuations have been studied in detail using measurements from vertical sounding at Ebro (40.8 °N, 0.5 ° E) and Průhonice (49.9 °N, 14.5 °E) in the period range from 15 minutes to 2 hours. The electron density measurements contain variations that indicate the possible presence of propagating gravity waves. Regular wave-like bursts were found during quiet days at both stations in electron concentration in F region, with an increase of the oscillation activity after sunrise and then during late afternoon, and at sunset and after sunset. Solar Terminator is assumed to be one of the sources of the regular wave bursts detected in the ionosphere during campaign HIRAC. As expected, substantial intensification in longer period gravity waves was found to occur during the disturbed period on April 28. Particular enhancement of the wave-like activity during disturbed day is discussed, being significant evidences of a change of the wave-like activity pattern at a height around 200 km.     

Test of the EEPAS Forecasting Model on the Japan Earthquake Catalogue

The EEPAS (Every Earthquake a Precursor According to Scale) model is a method of forecasting earthquakes based on the notion that the precursory scale increase () phenomenon occurs at all scales in the seismogenic process. The rate density of future earthquake occurrence is computed directly from past earthquakes in the catalogue. The EEPAS model has previously been fitted to the New Zealand earthquake catalogue and successfully tested on the California catalogue.Here we describe a further test of the EEPAS model in the Japan region spanning 1965–2001, initially on earthquakes with magnitudes exceeding the threshold value 6.75. A baseline model and the Gutenberg-Richter b-value were fitted to the JMA catalogue over the learning period 1926–1964. The performance of EEPAS, with the key parameters unchanged from the New Zealand values, was compared with that of the baseline model over the testing period, using a likelihood ratio criterion. The EEPAS model proved superior. A sensitivity analysis shows that this result is not sensitive to the choice of the learning period or b-value, but that the advantage of EEPAS over the baseline model diminishes as the magnitude threshold is lowered. When key model parameters are optimised for the Japan catalogue, the advantage of EEPAS over the baseline model is consistent for all magnitudes above 6.25, although less than in the New Zealand and California regions.These results add strength to the proposition that the EEPAS model is effective at a variety of scales and in a variety of seismically active regions.