Groundwater Quality Assessment in a Hyper-arid Region of Rajasthan,India

Groundwater is an important source of livelihood in regions where rainfall is scanty, surface water sources are absent, and all domestic and agricultural needs are fulfilled with groundwater. This study deals with groundwater quality assessment in a hyper-arid region using multivariate statistical analysis. A total of 43 samples were collected and analyzed using principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to model the relationship and interdependence among the various physicochemical variables contributing to groundwater quality in the study area. The results of the statistical techniques showed that the variables are in strong correlation with each other. Cluster analysis proved to be a good tool to ascertain the spatial similarity between the contributing variables. The methodology adopted in the present study has been found to be effective and can be utilized to establish strong water quality monitoring network in similar areas.

     

Stable isotopic and geochemical data for inferring sources of recharge and groundwater flow on the volcanic island of Rishiri,Japan

An isotopic and chemical study was conducted on precipitation, spring water, streams, groundwater wells and submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to constrain the recharge areas and flow paths of SGD. The isotopic values of precipitation were used to determine the local meteoric water lines (LMWLs) of Rishiri Island. The d-excess values of precipitation showed seasonal variation, with lows of 2.5‰ in the summer and highs of 24.2‰ in the winter. The d-excess values of spring water, streams, groundwater wells and SGD ranged from 12.5‰ to 23.0‰, indicating that the resulting waters were a mix of two seasons of precipitation. The isotopic composition of the groundwater wells sampled along the coast and SGD showed more negative values than that of the spring water sampled along the coast. This indicated that SGD recharged at high altitudes and flowed into the sea. The isotopic and chemical composition of SGD indicated unidirectional flow from land to sea.     

Black Hole Dynamic Potentials

In the following paper, certain black hole dynamic potentials have been developed definitively on the lines of classical thermodynamics. These potentials have been refined in view of the small differences in the equations of the laws of black hole dynamics as given by Bekenstein and those of thermodynamics. Nine fundamental black hole dynamical relations have been developed akin to the four fundamental thermodynamic relations of Maxwell. The specific heats C _??,?? and C _J,Q have been defined. For a black hole, these quantities are negative. The ??dA equation has been obtained as an application of these fundamental relations. Time reversible processes observing constancy of surface gravity are considered and an equation connecting the internal energy of the black hole E, the additional available energy defined as the first free energy function K, and the surface gravity ??, has been obtained. Finally as a further application of the fundamental relations, it has been proved for a homogeneous gravitational field in black hole space times or a de Sitter black hole that $C_{\Omega ,\Phi } -C_{J,Q} =\kappa \left[ {\left( {\frac{\partial J}{\partial \kappa }} \right)_{\Omega ,\Phi } \left( {\frac{\partial \Omega }{\partial \kappa }} \right)_{J,Q} +\left( {\frac{\partial Q}{\partial \kappa }} \right)_{\Omega ,\Phi } \left( {\frac{\partial \Phi }{\partial \kappa }} \right)_{J,Q} } \right]$ . This is dubbed as the homogeneous fluid approximation in context of the black holes.     

Fluid territories: Rethinking state territorialisation in Palk Bay,South Asia

The study objective was to gain a better understanding of the transboundary fishing conflict between Indian trawl fishers and Sri Lankan small-scale fishers in Palk Bay using a relational approach to territoriality. The authors employed different ethnographic methods, including open, structured, and semi-structured interviews, and performed a media analysis in order to understand the everyday practices of Indian trawl fishers within the wider geopolitical context of a 30-year war in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The relational approach moves away from seeing cross-border fishing merely as an act of counter-territorialisation. The results revealed that the cross-border fishing underlying the crisis has largely resulted from a complex network of changing relationships between on the one hand Indian trawl fishers and India, and on the other hand Sri Lankan state agencies and Sri Lankan fishers, resulting in a porous international maritime boundary. The authors conclude that this in turn has resulted in a fluid international maritime boundary line.     

Simulation of tornado over Orissa (India) on March 31, 2009, using WRF–NMM model

A severe thunderstorm produced a tornado (F3 on the Fujita-Pearson scale), which affected Rajkanika block of Kendrapara district of Orissa in the afternoon of March 31, 2009. The devastation caused by the tornado consumed 15 lives and left several injured with huge loss of property. The meteorological conditions that led to this tornado have been analyzed. An attempt is also made to simulate this rare event using Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NMM) core of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) system with a spatial resolution of 4 km for a period of 24 h, starting at 0000 UTC of March 31, 2009. The atmospheric settings resulted from synoptic, surface, upper air, satellite and radar echo studies were favorable for the occurrence of a severe thunderstorm activity over Rajkanika. The model-simulated meteorological parameters are consistent with each other, and all are in good agreement with the observation in terms of the region of occurrence of the intense convective activity. The model has well captured the vertical motion. The core of the strongest winds is shown to be very close to the site of actual occurrence of the event. The wind speed is not in good agreement with the observation as it has shown the strongest wind of only 20 ms⁻¹, against the estimated wind speed of 70 ms⁻¹. The spatial distributions as well as intensity of rainfall rates are in good agreement with the observation as model simulated 35.4 mm against the observed rainfall of 41 mm over Chandbali. The results of these analyses demonstrated the capability of high-resolution WRF–NMM model in simulation of severe thunderstorm events.     

Assessment of turbulent kinetic energy budget and boundary layer characteristics during pre-monsoon thunderstorm season over Ranchi

In the present work turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget and boundary layer characteristics are studied for an Indian tropical station Ranchi (23°25N, 85°26E), situated over Chota Nagpur plateau. The pre-monsoon months (March-May) data for years 2008–2010 has been used in the present study which is the period of severe thunderstorm over the North East India. TKE budget terms, dissipation rates, and normalized standard deviations of wind and temperature along with skewness of temperature have been analyzed to find out characteristic difference between days of thunderstorm and days of clear weather. Present study brought out significant variations in the turbulence transportation between the days of thunderstorm activity to that of fair weather days. Site and season specific relationships normalized standard deviations of wind and temperature with atmospheric stability during pre-monsoon thunderstorm and non thunderstorm days over Ranchi are proposed. One of the important outcomes of the study is proposing site specific relationships between TKE dissipation rates with respect to atmospheric stability. These results are useful in validating the mesoscale simulations of thunderstorm activity.     

Hydrochemical appraisal of groundwater and its suitability in the intensive agricultural area of Muzaffarnagar district,Uttar Pradesh,India

Muzaffarnagar is an economically rich district situated in the most fertile plains of two great rivers Ganga and Yamuna in the Indo-gangetic plains, with agricultural land irrigated by both surface water as well as groundwater. An investigation has been carried out to understand the hydrochemistry of the groundwater and its suitability for irrigation uses. Groundwater in the study area is neutral to moderately alkaline in nature. Chemistry of groundwater suggests that alkaline earths (Ca + Mg) significantly exceed the alkalis (Na + K) and weak acids exceed the strong acids (Cl + SO₄), suggesting the dominance of carbonate weathering followed by silicate weathering. Majority of the groundwater samples (62%) posses Ca–Mg–HCO₃ type of hydrochemical species, followed by Ca–Na–Mg–HCO₃, Na–Ca–Mg–HCO₃, Ca–Mg–Na–HCO₃–Cl and Na–Ca–HCO₃–SO₄ types. A positive high correlation (r ² = 0.928) between Na and Cl suggests that the salinity of groundwater is due to intermixing of two or more groundwater bodies with different hydrochemical compositions. Barring a few locations, most of the groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation uses. Chemical fertilizers, sugar factories and anthropogenic activities are contributing to the sulphate and chloride concentrations in the groundwater of the study area. Overexploitation of aquifers induced multi componential mixing of groundwater with agricultural return flow waters is responsible for generating groundwater of various compositions in its lateral extent.     

Study of thermodynamic indices in forecasting pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Kolkata during STORM pilot phase 2006–2008

The pre-monsoon convective atmosphere over Kolkata (22.52°N, 88.37°E) during STORM field phase 2006–2008 is investigated using 12 UTC radiosonde data and thermodynamic indices. In the present study, an attempt has been made to assess the skill of various indices and parameters and to propose suitable threshold values in forecasting the occurrence of thunderstorm activity at Kolkata. The thermodynamic indices and parameters used in the present study are lifted index (LI), K index (KI), severe weather threat index (SWEAT), total totals index (TTI), convective available potential energy (CAPE), deep convection index (DCI), humidity index (HI), Boyden index (BI), dew point temperature at 850 hpa (DEW), relative humidity at 700 hpa (RH), and bulk Richardson number (BRN). Validation of the suggested threshold values of indices was conducted on the days of thunderstorm activity. It was found that one index alone cannot predict the occurrence of thunderstorm over Kolkata region. The present study suggests that the indices with highest skill for thunderstorm prediction are KI, DCI, SWEAT, DEW, HI, RH, LI, TTI, while the prediction efficiency is poor for CAPE, BRN, and BI. Observed values of these indices also reveal that scattered, multi-cellular thunderstorms are possible over Kolkata during pre-monsoon months.