A coupled tide-wave model for the NW European shelf seas

Understanding the interaction of tides and waves is essential in many studies, including marine renewable energy, sediment transport, long-term seabed morphodynamics, storm surges and the impacts of climate change. In the present research, a COAWST model of the NW European shelf seas has been developed and applied to a number of physical processes. Although many aspects of wave–current interaction can be investigated by this model, our focus is on the interaction of barotropic tides and waves at shelf scale. While the COWAST model was about five times more computationally expensive than running decoupled ROMS (ocean model) and SWAN (wave model), it provided an integrated modelling system which could incorporate many wave–tide interaction processes, and produce the tide and wave parameters in a unified file system with a convenient post-processing capacity. Some applications of the model such as the effect of tides on quantifying the wave energy resource, which exceeded 10% in parts of the region, and the effect of waves on the calculation of the bottom stress, which was dominant in parts of the North Sea and Scotland, during an energetic wave period are presented, and some challenges are discussed. It was also shown that the model performance in the prediction of the wave parameters can improve by 25% in some places where the wave-tide interaction is significant.     

Ambient noise surface wave tomography of the Makran subduction zone,south-east Iran:Implications for crustal and uppermost mantle structures

Seismic ambient noise of surface wave tomography was applied to estimate Rayleigh wave empirical Green's functions(EGFs) and then to study crust and uppermost mantle structure beneath the Makran region in south-east Iran.12 months of continuous data from January 2009 through January 2010,recorded at broadband seismic stations,were analyzed.Group velocities of the fundamental mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves were obtained from the empirical Green's functions.Multiplefilter analysis was used to plot group velocity variations at periods from 10 to 50 s.Using group velocity dispersion curves,1-D vs velocity models were calculated between several station pairs.The final results demonstrate significant agreement to known geological and tectonic features.Our tomography maps display low-velocity anomaly with SW-NE trend,comparable with volcanic arc settings of the Makran region which may be attributable to the geometry of Arabian Plate subducting beneath the overriding the Lut block.The northward subducting Arabian Plate is determined by high-velocity anomaly along the Straits of Hormuz.At short periods(20 s),there is a sharp transition boundary between low- and high-velocity transition zone with the NW trending at the western edge of Makran which is attributable to the Minab fault system.     

An automated algorithm for river ice monitoring over the Susquehanna River using the MODIS data

Reliable and prompt information on river ice condition and extent is needed to make accurate hydrological forecasts to predict ice jams breakups and issue timely flood warnings. This study presents a technique to detect and monitor river ice using observations from the MODIS instrument onboard the Terra satellite. The technique incorporates a threshold‐based decision tree image classification algorithm to process MODIS data and to determine the extent of ice. To differentiate between ice‐covered and ice‐free pixels within the riverbed, the algorithm combines observations in the visible and near‐infrared spectral bands. The developed technique presents the core of the MODIS‐based river ice mapping system, which has been developed to support National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NWS's operations. The system has been tested over the Susquehanna River in northeastern USA, where ice jam events leading to spring floods are a frequent occurrence. The automated algorithm generates three products: daily ice maps, weekly composite ice maps and running cloud‐free composite ice maps. The performance of the system was evaluated over nine winter seasons. The analysis of the derived products has revealed their good agreement with the aerial photography and with in situ observations‐based ice charts. The probability of ice detection determined from the comparison of the product with the high‐resolution Landsat imagery was equal to 91%. A consistent inverse relationship was found between the river discharge and the ice extent. The correlation between the discharge and the ice extent as determined from the weekly composite product reached 0.75. The developed CREST River Ice Observation System has been implemented at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center as an operational Web tool allowing end users and forecasters to assess ice conditions on the river. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shallow gas accumulations and seepage in the sediments of the Northeast Persian Gulf

Shallow gas accumulations and gas seepage may indicate deeper hydrocarbon reservoirs. Sonar and high resolution seismic recordings were carried out to obtain gas migration and accumulation below seabed in Northeast Persian Gulf. Results revealed some structures and reflectivity effects, for example few pockmarks, gas seepage, and other surface structures in sonar and seismic data. Most of the features observed on seismic data were located at depths between 5 and 10 m (sub-sea bed) that include acoustic blanking and turbidity, gas packets, gas chimneys, and enhanced reflection. Most of the gas is accumulated on young and thin parallel layers, but the presence of acoustic effect in Aghajari Formation indicates that the origin of the gas accumulation in shallow strata may be located in a deeper reservoir.     

Application of singular value decomposition (SVD) and semi-discrete decomposition (SDD) techniques in clustering of geochemical data: an environmental study in central Iran

Common multivariate clustering techniques are ineffective in identifying subtle patterns of correlation, and clustering of variables or samples within complex geochemical datasets. This study compares the combination of singular value decomposition (SVD) and semi discrete decomposition (SDD), with that of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), to examine patterns within a multielement soil geochemical dataset from an agricultural area in the vicinity of Pb–Zn mining operations in central Iran. SVD was used to both identify patterns of correlation between variables and samples and to “denoise” the data, and SDD to simultaneously cluster the samples and variables. The results reveal various spatial associations of mining waste-associated metals As, Ba, Pb and Zn, and within the remaining elements whose distribution is largely controlled by the major oxides. SVD–SDD was found to be superior to HCA, in its ability to detect subtle clusters in soil geochemistry indicative of mine-related contamination in the study area.     

Surface nuclear magnetic resonance signals recovery by integration of a non‐linear decomposition method with statistical analysis

Presence of noise in the acquisition of surface nuclear magnetic resonance data is inevitable. There are various types of noise, including Gaussian noise, spiky events, and harmonic noise that affect the signal quality of surface nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. In this paper, we describe an application of a two‐step noise suppression approach based on a non‐linear adaptive decomposition technique called complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition in conjunction with a statistical optimization process for enhancing the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the surface nuclear magnetic resonance signal. The filtering procedure starts with applying the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition method to decompose the noisy surface nuclear magnetic resonance signal into a finite number of intrinsic mode functions. Afterwards, a threshold region based on de‐trended fluctuation analysis is defined to identify the noisy intrinsic mode functions, and then the no‐noise intrinsic mode functions are used to recover the partially de‐noised signal. In the second stage, we applied a statistical method based on the variance criterion to the signal obtained from the initial phase to mitigate the remaining noise. To demonstrate the functionality of the proposed strategy, the method was evaluated on an added‐noise synthetic surface nuclear magnetic resonance signal and on field data. The results show that the proposed procedure allows us to improve the signal‐to‐noise ratio significantly and, consequently, extract the signal parameters (i.e., and V₀) from noisy surface nuclear magnetic resonance data efficiently.     

(235)U, (238)U, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs activity concentrations in marine sediments along the northern coast of Oman Sea using high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry

The natural radioactivity levels in sediment samples of the northern coast of Oman Sea, covering the coastal strip from Hormoz canyon to Goatr seaport, as the first time has been determined. The results of measurements will serve as background reference level for Oman Sea coastlines. Sediments from 36 coastal and near shore locations were collected for analysis. Analysis on the collected samples were carried out to determine (235)U, (238)U, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs using two high purity germanium detectors with 38.5% and 55% relative efficiencies. The concentration of (235)U, (238)U, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs in sediment samples ranged between 1.01 and 2.87Bq/kg, 11.83 and 22.68Bq/kg, 10.7 and 25.02Bq/kg, 222.89 and 535.07Bq/kg and 0.14 and 2.8Bq/kg, respectively. The radium equivalent activity was well below the defined limit of 370Bq/kg. The external hazard indices were found to be less than 1, indicating a low dose.     

Soil organic carbon pools in particle-size fractions as affected by slope gradient and land use change in hilly regions, western Iran

This study was conducted to explore the effects of topography and land use changes on particulate organic carbon(POC),particulate total nitrogen(PTN),organic carbon(OC) and total nitrogen(TN) associated with different size primary particle fractions in hilly regions of western Iran.Three popular land uses in the selected site including natural forest(NF),disturbed forest(DF) and cultivated land(CL) and three slope gradients(0-10 %,S1,10-30 %,S2,and 30-50%,S3) were employed as the basis of soil sampling.A total of 99 soil samples were taken from the 0-10 cm surface layer in the whole studied hilly region studied.The results showed that the POC in the forest land use in all slope gradients was considerably more than the deforested and cultivated lands and the highest value was observed at NF-S1 treatment with 9.13%.The values of PTN were significantly higher in the forest land use and in the down slopes(0.5%) than in the deforested and cultivated counterparts and steep slopes(0.09%) except for the CL land use.The C:N ratios in POC fraction were around 17-18 in the forest land and around 23 in the cultivated land.In forest land,the silt-associated OC was highest among the primary particles.The enrichment factor of SOC,EC,was the highest for POC.For the primary particles,EC of both primary fractions of silt and clay showed following trend for selected land uses and slope gradients:CL> DF> NF and S3 > S2> S1.Slope gradient of landscape significantly affected the OC and TN contents associated with the silt and clay particles,whereas higher OC and TN contents were observed in lower positions and the lowest value was measured in the steep slopes.Overall,the results showed that native forest land improves soil organic carbon storage and can reduce the carbon emission and soil erosion especially in the mountainous regions with high rainfall in west of Iran.