Vertical accuracy evaluation of freely available latest high-resolution (30 m) global digital elevation models over Cameroon (Central Africa) with GPS/leveling ground control points.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) contain topographic relief data that are vital for many geoscience applications. This study relies on the vertical accuracy of publicly available latest high-resolution (30?m) global DEMs over Cameroon. These models are (1) the ALOS World 3D-30?m (AW3D30), (2) the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 1 Arc-Second C-Band Global DEM (SRTM 1) and (3) the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Global DEM Version 2 (ASTER GDEM 2). After matching their coordinate systems and datums, the horizontal positional accuracy evaluation was carried out and it shows that geolocation errors significantly influence the vertical accuracy of global DEMs. After this, the three models are compared among them, in order to access random and systematic effects in the elevation data each of them contains. Further, heights from 555 GPS/leveling points distributed all over Cameroon are compared to each DEM, for their vertical accuracy determination. Traditional and robust statistical measures, normality test, outlier detection and removal were used to describe the vertical quality of the DEMs. The test of the normality rejected the hypothesis of normal distribution for all tested global DEMs. Overall vertical accuracies obtained for the three models after georeferencing and gross error removal in terms of Root Mean Square (RMS) and Normalized Median Absolute Deviation (NMAD) are: AW3D30 (13.06?m and 7.75?m), SRTM 1 (13.25?m and 7.41?m) and ASTER GDEM 2 (18.87?m and 13.30?m). Other accuracy measures (MED, 68.3% quantile, 95% quantile) supply some evidence of the good quality of AW3D30 over Cameroon. Further, the effect of land cover and slope on DEM vertical accuracy was also analyzed. All models have proved to be worse in the areas dominated by forests and shrubs areas. SRTM 1 and AW3D30 are more resilient to the effects of the scattering objects respectively in forests and cultivated areas. The dependency of DEMs accuracy on the terrain roughness is evident. In all slope intervals, AW3D30 is performing better than SRTM 1 and ASTER GDEM 2 over Cameroon. AW3D30 is more representative of the external topography over Cameroon in comparison with two others datasets and SRTM 1 can be a serious alternative to AW3D30 for a range of DEM applications in Cameroon.     

Modeling the early evolution of Vesta

The early evolution of the asteroid Vesta has been extensively studied because of the availability of relevant data, especially important new studies of HED meteorites which originated from Vesta and the Dawn mission to Vesta in 2011–2012. These studies have concluded that an early melting episode led to the differentiation of Vesta into crust, mantle, and core. This melting episode is attributed to the decay of ²⁶Al, which has a half‐life of 7.17 × 10⁵ yr. This heating produced a global magma ocean. Surface cooling of this magma ocean will produce a solid crust. In this paper, we propose a convective heat‐transfer mechanism that effectively cools the asteroid when the degree of melting reaches about 50%. We propose that a cool solid surface crust, which is gravitationally unstable, will founder into the solid–liquid mix beneath and will very effectively transfer heat that prevents further melting of the interior. In this paper, we quantify this process. If Vesta had a very early formation, melting would commence at an age of about 1,30,000 yr, and solidification would occur at an age of about 10 Myr. If Vesta formed with a time delay greater than about 2 Myr, no melting would have occurred. An important result of our model is that the early melting episode is restricted to the first 10 Myr. This result is in good agreement with the radiometric ages of the HED meteorites.     

Etude de l’évaporation de la nappe phréatique des zones arides: cas de Ouargla (Algérie)

La majorité des surfaces mises en valeur dans les zones arides et semi-arides de l’Algérie reposent sur des nappes phréatiques très minéralisées dont le niveau est proche de la surface du sol (0–1,5 m). En présence de conditions climatiques très sévères, le processus d’évaporation de ces nappes contribue en grande partie à la salinisation des terres et la dégradation du milieu. Les résultats de l’étude de l’évaporation de la nappe phréatique de la région de Ouargla montre que l’évaporation diminue au fur et à mesure que le niveau de la nappe s’éloigne de la surface du sol. L’évaporation de la nappe est maximale et égale à l’évaporation du plan d’eau lorsque le niveau de cette nappe est situé dans la couche 0–0,6 m et devient minimale au dessous de 1,7 m. Pour une meilleure mise en valeur des terres et une production agricole élevée, il est nécessaire de connaître la profondeur critique de la nappe phréatique, profondeur pour laquelle l’évaporation est faible et par conséquent le dépôt de sels est faible dans les sols à texture sableuse de la région aride de Ouargla.     

Local effects of blue mussels around turbine foundations in an ecosystem model of Nysted off-shore wind farm, Denmark

The development of off-shore wind farms along the coastline of north-west Europe is rapidly increasing; it is therefore important to study how this will affect the marine environment. The present study modelled the growth and feed-backs of blue mussels in natural beds and on turbine foundations in an off-shore wind farm (OWF) located in a shallow coastal ecosystem by coupling a dynamic energy budget (DEB) model to a small-scale 3D hydrodynamic–biogeochemical model. The model results showed that blue mussels located higher up in the water column on turbine pillars achieved a 7–18 times higher biomass than those located on the scour protection because the former experience an enhanced advective food supply. Secondly, the high biomasses of blue mussels on foundations created local ‘hot spots’ of biological activity and changed ecosystem dynamics due to their feed-backs e.g. ingestion of microplankton and copepods, excretion of ammonium and egestion of faecal pellets. The model results were supported by field measurements around foundations of Chl a concentrations and biomasses of the fauna community. Our study emphasised that OWFs seem to be particularly favourable for blue mussels in the western Baltic Sea and that the functioning of the OWFs as artificial reef ecosystems depends upon how the blue mussels interact with their local pelagic and benthic environment.     

The geopotential value <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript> for specifying the relativistic atomic time scale and a global vertical reference system

The TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) satellite alti- meter mission marked a new era in determining the geopotential constant W ₀. On the basis of T/P data during 1993–2003 (cycles 11–414), long-term variations in W ₀ have been investigated. The rounded value W ₀ = 62636856.0 ± 0.5) m ² s ⁻² has already been adopted by the International Astronomical Union for the definition of the constant L _G = W ₀/c ² = 6.969290134 × 10⁻¹⁰ (where c is the speed of light), which is required for the realization of the relativistic atomic time scale. The constant L _G , based on the above value of W ₀, is also included in the 2003 International Earth Rotation and Reference Frames Service conventions. It has also been suggested that W ₀ is used to specify a global vertical reference system (GVRS). W ₀ ensures the consistency with the International Terrestrial Reference System, i.e. after adopting W ₀, along with the geocentric gravitational constant (GM), the Earth’s rotational velocity (ω) and the second zonal geopotential coefficient (J ₂) as primary constants (parameters), then the ellipsoidal parameters (a,α) can be computed and adopted as derived parameters. The scale of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000 (ITRF2000) has also been specified with the use of W ₀ to be consistent with the geocentric coordinate time. As an example of using W ₀ for a GVRS realization, the geopotential difference between the adopted W ₀ and the geopotential at the Rimouski tide-gauge point, specifying the North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88), has been estimated.     

Embryo dune development on a large,actively accreting macrotidal beach: Calais,North Sea coast of France

Sediment budget data from an 18‐month topographic survey were analysed with data from brief experiments on wind parameters, beach moisture contents, bedforms and sand mobilization in order to monitor conditions and patterns of embryo dune development over a flat 150–1000 m wide accreting upper beach. The surface conditions over the upper beach locally affect aeolian transport, but net dune development over time depends on sustained strong winds and their orientation. Incoming marine sand supplied by storms and onshore winds is reorganized by the dominant offshore to longshore winds into elongated embryo dunes over this upper beach, imprinting a regional morphology of long‐term longshore dune ridge development. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.