Atmospheric circulation and storminess derived from Royal Navy logbooks: 1685 to 1750

This paper is concerned with the use of Royal Navy ships’ logbooks for the period 1685 to 1750, thereby embracing the oldest members of this documentary series that extends to the present day. The geographic range of the undertaking is confined to the English Channel and its western approaches where the abundance of logbooks for this period allows for the abstraction of a daily series of wind force and direction data. These are verified and processed for inclusion in a database from which indices are derived for air circulation patterns based on the frequency of winds from north, east, south and west quarters, and of gale frequency, based on the contemporary terminology of wind force. The methods by which the data are abstracted and processed are described, as is the nature of the raw data and source material. The results provide a uniquely detailed insight into the changing patterns of air circulation over this critical period that marked the transition from the depths of the Little Ice Age in the late seventeenth century. Attention is also drawn to the changing nature of gale frequency, which revealed a notable decrease over the study period. Associations between changing circulation patterns and temperature regimes are also explored.     

PHYSICO‐GEOCHEMICAL AND MINERAL COMPOSITION OF NEEM TREE SOILS AND RELATION TO ORGANIC PROPERTIES

The Neem tree, the oil of which has a long history of pesticide, fertilizer and medicinal use in India, has been studied extensively for its organic compounds. Here we present a physical, mineralogical and geochemical database resulting from the analyses of two Neem soil profiles (epipedons) in India. Neem tree derivatives are used in the manufacture of a variety of products, from anti‐bacterial drugs and insecticides to fertilizers and animal feeds. A preliminary geochemical and mineralogical analysis of Neem soils is made to explore the potential for chemical links between Neem tree derivatives and soils. Physical soil characteristics, including colour, texture and clay mineralogy, suggest the two pedons formed under different hydrological regimes, and hence, are products of different leaching environments, one well‐drained site, the other poorly drained. Geochemically, the two Neem soils exhibit similarities, with elevated concentrations of Th and rare earth elements. These elements are of interest because of their association with phosphates, especially monazite and apatite, and the potential link to fertilizer derivatives. Higher concentrations of trace elements in the soils may be linked to nutritional derivatives and to cell growth in the Neem tree.     

The Reliability of Using the Iterative Proportional Fitting Procedure*

This paper demonstrates the utility of the iterative proportional fitting procedure (IPF) in generating disaggregated spatial data from aggregated data and evaluates the performance of the procedure. Estimates of individual level data created by IPF using data of equal-interval categories are reliable, but the performance of the estimation can be improved by increasing sample size. The improvement usually is enough to offset the increase in error created by other factors. If the two variables defining the cross-classification have a significant interaction effect and the number of categories in each variable is larger than two, then IPF is preferred over an independent model.