Land quality index assessment for agricultural purpose using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)

In this study, an attempt has been made to apply Remote Sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) to determine land quality for agriculture purpose using analytic hierarchy process technique. In this study, various thematic layers were used like organic matter content, soil texture, soil depth, soil pH, soil P, soil K, geomorphology, run-off potential, slope and land use/land cover to assess the land quality index of the study area for the agriculture purpose which were generated in the RS and GIS environment. The study area can be divided into four zones, viz. high quality, moderately quality, marginally quality and low quality according to their suitability of land quality for agriculture purpose. It was found that about 39.09, 31.24, 20.41 and 9.26% of the study area falls under high quality zone, moderately quality, marginally quality and low quality zone, respectively, for agricultural purpose.     

TropFlux wind stresses over the tropical oceans: evaluation and comparison with other products

In this paper, we present TropFlux wind stresses and evaluate them against observations along with other widely used daily air-sea momentum flux products (NCEP, NCEP2, ERA-I and QuikSCAT). TropFlux wind stresses are computed from the COARE v3.0 algorithm, using bias and amplitude corrected ERA-I input data and an additional climatological gustiness correction. The wind stress products are evaluated against dependent data from the TAO/TRITON, PIRATA and RAMA arrays and independent data from the OceanSITES mooring networks. Wind stress products are more consistent amongst each other than surface heat fluxes, suggesting that 10 m-winds are better constrained than near-surface thermodynamical parameters (2 m-humidity and temperature) and surface downward radiative fluxes. QuikSCAT overestimates wind stresses away from the equator, while NCEP and NCEP2 underestimate wind stresses, especially in the equatorial Pacific. QuikSCAT wind stress quality is strongly affected by rain under the Inter Tropical Convergence Zones. ERA-I and TropFlux display the best agreement with in situ data, with correlations >0.93 and rms-differences <0.012 Nm^?2. TropFlux wind stresses exhibit a small, but consistent improvement (at all timescales and most locations) over ERA-I, with an overall 17 % reduction in root mean square error. ERA-I and TropFlux agree best with long-term mean zonal wind stress observations at equatorial latitudes. All products tend to underestimate the zonal wind stress seasonal cycle by ~20 % in the western and central equatorial Pacific. TropFlux and ERA-I equatorial zonal wind stresses have clearly the best phase agreement with mooring data at intraseasonal and interannual timescales (correlation of ~0.9 versus ~0.8 at best for any other product), with TropFlux correcting the ~13 % underestimation of ERA-I variance at both timescales. For example, TropFlux was the best at reproducing westerly wind bursts that played a key role in the 1997–1998 El Niño onset. Hence, we recommend the use of TropFlux for studies of equatorial ocean dynamics.     

Impacts of enhanced CCN on the organization of convection and recent reduced counts of monsoon depressions

Monsoon depressions, that form during the Indian summer monsoon season (June to September) are known to be baroclinic disturbances (horizontal scale 2,000–3,000 km) and are driven by deep convection that carries a very large vertical slope towards cold air aloft in the upper troposphere. Deep convection is nearly always organized around the scale of these depressions. In the maintenance of the monsoon depression the generation of eddy kinetic energy on the scale of the monsoon depression is largely governed by the “in scale” covariance of heating and temperature and of vertical velocity and temperature over the region of the monsoon depression. There are normally about 6–8 monsoon depressions during a summer monsoon season. Recent years 2009, 2010 and 2011 saw very few (around 1, 0 and 1 per season respectively). The best numerical models such as those from ECMWF and US (GFS) carried many false alarms in their 3–5 day forecasts, more like 6–8 disturbances. Even in recent years with fewer observed monsoon depressions a much larger number of depressions is noted in ECMWF forecasts. These are fairly comprehensive models that carry vast data sets (surface and satellite based), detailed data assimilation, and are run at very high resolutions. The monsoon depression is well resolved by these respective horizontal resolutions in these models (at 15 and 35 km). These models carry complete and detailed physical parameterizations. The false alarms in their forecasts leads us to suggest that some additional important ingredient may be missing in these current best state of the art models. This paper addresses the effects of pollution for the enhancement of cloud condensation nuclei and the resulting disruption of the organization of convection in monsoon depressions. Our specific studies make use of a high resolution mesoscale model (WRF/CHEM) to explore the impacts of the first and second aerosol indirect effects proposed by Twomey and Albrecht. We have conducted preliminary studies including examination of the evolution of radar reflectivity (computed inversely from the model hydrometeors) for normal and enhanced CCN effects (arising from enhanced monsoon pollution). The time lapse histories show a major disruption in the organization of convection of the monsoon depressions on the time scale of a week to 10 days in these enhanced CCN scenarios.     

Diagnostics of subseasonal prediction biases of the Asian summer monsoon by the NCEP climate forecast system

Biases of subseasonal prediction of the Asian summer monsoon are diagnosed using daily data from the hindcasts of 45-day integrations by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System version 2. The retrospective forecasts often show apparent systematic biases, which are mostly represented by the underestimation of the whole Asian monsoon. Biases depend not only on lead time, but also on the stage of monsoon evolution. An abrupt turning point of bias development appears around late June and early July, when ensemble spread and bias growth of winds and precipitation show a significant change over the northwestern Pacific (NWP) and the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) region. The abrupt turning of bias development of winds, precipitation, and surface temperature is also captured by the first two modes of multivariate empirical orthogonal function analysis. Several features appear associated with the abrupt change in bias development: the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) begins its first northward jump and the surface temperature over the Tibetan Plateau commences a transition from warm bias to cold bias, and a reversal of surface temperature biases occurs in the eastern tropical Indian Ocean and the SASM region. The shift of WPSH position and the transition of surface thermal bias show close relationships with the formation of bias centers in winds and precipitation. The rapid growth in bias due to the strong internal atmospheric variability during short leads seems to mainly account for the weak WPSH and SASM in the model. However, at certain stages, particularly for longer-lead predictions, the biases of slowly varying components may also play an important role in bias development of winds and precipitation.     

Kaluza-Klein dark energy cosmological model in scale Co-variant Theory of Gravitation

A five dimensional Kaluza-Klein dark energy model with variable EoS parameter is investigated in the scale co-variant theory of gravitation proposed by Canuto et al. (in Phys. Rev. 39:429, 1977) in a five dimensional Kaluza-Klein space-time in the presence of perfect fluid source. Using the special law of variation for Hubble’s parameter proposed by Berman (in Nuovo Cimento B 74:183, 1983), we have obtained a determinate solution which represents a dark energy cosmological model in the theory. We have also used the result that the scalar expansion is proportional to shear scalar of the space-time. It is observed that the EoS parameter, skewness parameter in the model turn out to be functions of cosmic time. Some physical and Kinematical properties of the model are also discussed.     

The general class of Bianchi cosmological models with viscous fluid and particle creation in Brans-Dicke theory

This paper deals with the general class of Bianchi cosmological models with bulk viscosity and particle creation described by full causal thermodynamics in Brans-Dicke theory. We discuss three types of average scale-factor solutions for the general class of Bianchi cosmological models by using a special law for the deceler- ation parameter which is linear in time with a negative slope. The exact solutions to the corresponding field equations are obtained in quadrature form and solutions to the Einstein field equations are obtained for three different physically viable cosmologies. All the physical parameters are calculated and discussed in each model.     

Higher Dimensional FRW Cosmological Models in Self-Creation Theory

The field equations of Barber's (1982) second self-creation theory of gravitation are solved for 5D Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space time using perfect fluid energy momentum tensor. By assuming an equation of state p= ε ρ, (0 ≤ ε ≤ 1), the solutions of the field equations, in different scenarios, in Barber's second self-creation theory are presented and discussed. Some properties of these models are also discussed.