Winter-spring precipitation reconstructions from tree rings for northeast Mexico

The understanding of historic hydroclimatic variability is basic for planning proper management of limited water resources in northeastern Mexico. The objective of this study was to develop a network of tree-ring chronologies to reconstruct hydroclimate variability in northeastern Mexico and to analyze the influence of large-scale circulation patterns, such as ENSO. Precipitation sensitive tree-ring chronologies of Douglas-fir were developed in mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre Oriental and used to produce winter-spring precipitation reconstructions for central and southern Nuevo Leon, and southeastern Coahuila. The seasonal winter-spring precipitation reconstructions are 342 years long (1659–2001) for Saltillo, Coahuila and 602 years long (1400–2002) for central and southern Nuevo Leon. Both reconstructions show droughts in the 1810s, 1870s, 1890s, 1910s, and 1970s, and wet periods in the 1770s, 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s. Prior to 1800s the reconstructions are less similar. The impact of ENSO in northeastern Mexico (as measured by the Tropical Rainfall Index) indicated long-term instability of the Pacific equatorial teleconnection. Atmospheric circulation systems coming from higher latitudes (cold fronts or `nortes’) and others developed in the Gulf of Mexico (tropical storms, hurricanes) also influence the climatic conditions characterizing this region. The recent development of new and longer tree-ring chronologies for the region will contribute to a better understanding of the interannual and multidecadal climatic variability of northeastern Mexico.     

Speckle filtering of Synthetic Aperture Radar images using filters with object-size-adapted windows

Speckle degrades the radiometric quality of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image. Previous methods for speckle reduction have used a fixed-size window for filtering the entire image. This, however, may not be effective for the entire image, as land covers of different sizes require different filtering windows. In this paper, a novel method is proposed by which each pixel in the image is filtered with a window appropriate for the size of object within it. The real in-phase and the imaginary quadrature components of the SAR images determine the best window size and the pixels in the intensity image are filtered using their own optimal windows. The proposed method is presented for both single- and multi-polarized SAR images, and the results of several common filters that were modified are presented. This approach is applied to two RADARSAT-2 images: one over San Francisco, California, USA and the other over St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, producing results that were similar to, or outperformed, comparable filters while retaining details and suppressing speckle effectively. While the method was successful for single-look intensity data, it offers great potential for multi-look and amplitude data as well.     

Abundance and Distribution of Reef-Associated Fishes Around Small Oil and Gas Platforms in the Northern Gulf of Mexico’s Hypoxic Zone

Oil and gas platforms (platforms) provide high-relief habitat in the northern Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone that are important to associated fishes. Hypoxia develops near the bottom and reef-associated fishes utilize vertical structure in the well-oxygenated waters overlaying hypoxia. A video array was used to profile the water column and to estimate abundances and depth distributions of fishes before, during, and after summer hypoxia at platforms experiencing intense (seaward) and mild hypoxia (shoal). Gray snapper abundance increased at shoal platforms (10× greater after vs. before the hypoxia season), while abundance remained stable at seaward platforms. However, there was no significant relationship between gray snapper abundance and oxygen concentrations. Sheepshead, Atlantic spadefish, blue runner, and Atlantic bumper abundances varied throughout the summer, but there was no significant effect of hypoxia. Occupation of bottom waters by fishes was consistent throughout the study period at shoal platforms, but fishes were rarely observed in the bottom 3 m and congregated in the water immediately above the hypoxic layer when hypoxia was present at seaward platforms. Nevertheless, patterns of fish abundances were not driven by the presence or absence of hypoxia. The vertical dimension of platforms is a unique and key aspect of their ecological value, especially in the hypoxic zone, and should be considered for artificial reef management.     

Characterisation of a Natural Quartz Crystal as a Reference Material for Microanalytical Determination of Ti,Al, Li,Fe, Mn,Ga and Ge

A natural smoky quartz crystal from Shandong province, China, was characterised by laser ablation ICP‐MS, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and solution ICP‐MS to determine the concentration of twenty‐four trace and ultra trace elements. Our main focus was on Ti quantification because of the increased use of this element for titanium‐in‐quartz (TitaniQ) thermobarometry. Pieces of a uniform growth zone of 9 mm thickness within the quartz crystal were analysed in four different LA‐ICP‐MS laboratories, three EPMA laboratories and one solution‐ICP‐MS laboratory. The results reveal reproducible concentrations of Ti (57 ± 4 μg g^?1), Al (154 ± 15 μg g^?1), Li (30 ± 2 μg g^?1), Fe (2.2 ± 0.3 μg g^?1), Mn (0.34 ± 0.04 μg g^?1), Ge (1.7 ± 0.2 μg g^?1) and Ga (0.020 ± 0.002 μg g^?1) and detectable, but less reproducible, concentrations of Be, B, Na, Cu, Zr, Sn and Pb. Concentrations of K, Ca, Sr, Mo, Ag, Sb, Ba and Au were below the limits of detection of all three techniques. The uncertainties on the average concentration determinations by multiple techniques and laboratories for Ti, Al, Li, Fe, Mn, Ga and Ge are low; hence, this quartz can serve as a reference material or a secondary reference material for microanalytical applications involving the quantification of trace elements in quartz.     

SWIFT-DASH: Spatial Heterodyne Spectroscopy Approach to Stratospheric Wind and Ozone Measurement

Abstract

Passive wind measurements using Doppler shifts from atmospheric emissions were well demonstrated by the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) and the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) instruments on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, operated from 1991 to 2005. For WINDII these emissions were from visible region upper atmospheric airglow in the altitude range from 80 to 300?km. Application of the same technique in the stratosphere requires using thermal emission from a minor constituent, and an ozone line near 1133?cm^?1 (about 8.8?μm) has been identified as a suitable target line. The WINDII method employed a Doppler Michelson Interferometer, in which the wind is measured from phase shifts of a single spectral line. Isolating a single ozone spectral line is a major challenge but using Spatial Heterodyne Spectroscopy (SHS) offers a way to resolve a number of interferogram spectral components (fringes) within a narrow spectral range. The instrument is a Michelson interferometer similar to WINDII but one in which the two mirrors are replaced by diffraction gratings. A developmental instrument capable of measuring the phase shifts from several ozone lines within a spectral range of 4?cm^?1 has been designed, built, and operated in the laboratory. Simulated retrievals using the measurement parameters of this instrument demonstrate the capability of wind measurement with an accuracy better than 3?m?s^?1 over an altitude range of 24 to 60?km. The retrieval employs four spectral lines for wind and three fringe frequencies for ozone concentration (of about 30 possible), each of which provides an optimal measurement for a particular altitude range. Ozone concentrations are also provided with an accuracy better than 10% from 20 to 50?km. Further detailed tests of this instrument are planned for the future. This work is supported by the Canadian Space Agency.     

Treating risk as relational on shore platforms and implications for public safety on microtidal rocky coasts

Natural Hazards - Drowning on rocky coasts is a problem with global significance, but it is a particularly acute issue in Australia where rocky coasts account for 19% of coastal drownings. The risk...     

Alternative framings of alternative food: A typology of practice

‘Alternative’ food initiatives (AFIs) are often interpreted as political movements, constructed as defiant alternatives to industrial agri‐food relations, and represented by a performance of singular alterity. This understanding of alternative collapses into a mere politics of identity, criticised in the literature for its oversimplification. In this paper, we utilise an established methodological framework that retains AFI diversity, to create a novel typology of AFIs by diverse and embodied practice rather than animating political project. In doing so, we point to the political potential for AFIs to ‘do’ food otherwise and make different worlds.