Global Dynamics of the MLT

The transition between the middle atmosphere and the thermosphere is known as the MLT region (for mesosphere and lower thermosphere). This area has some characteristics that set it apart from other regions of the atmosphere. Most notably, it is the altitude region with the lowest overall temperature and has the unique characteristic that the temperature is much lower in summer than in winter. The summer-to-winter-temperature gradient is the result of adiabatic cooling and warming associated with a vigorous circulation driven primarily by gravity waves. Tides and planetary waves also contribute to the circulation and to the large dynamical variability in the MLT. The past decade has seen much progress in describing and understanding the dynamics of the MLT and the interactions of dynamics with chemistry and radiation. This review describes recent observations and numerical modeling as they relate to understanding the dynamical processes that control the MLT and its variability. Results from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), which is a comprehensive high-top general circulation model with interactive chemistry, are used to illustrate the dynamical processes. Selected observations from the Sounding the Atmosphere with Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument are shown for comparison. WACCM simulations of MLT dynamics have some differences with observations. These differences and other questions and discrepancies described in recent papers point to a number of ongoing uncertainties about the MLT dynamical system.     

River loads of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Degradation of coastal ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon, Australia, has been linked with increased land-based runoff of suspended solids, nutrients and pesticides since European settlement. This study estimated the increase in river loads for all 35 GBR basins, using the best available estimates of pre-European and current loads derived from catchment modelling and monitoring. The mean-annual load to the GBR lagoon for (i) total suspended solids has increased by 5.5 times to 17,000ktonnes/year, (ii) total nitrogen by 5.7 times to 80,000tonnes/year, (iii) total phosphorus by 8.9 times to 16,000tonnes/year, and (iv) PSII herbicides is 30,000kg/year. The increases in river loads differ across the 10 pollutants and 35 basins examined, reflecting differences in surface runoff, urbanisation, deforestation, agricultural practices, mining and retention by reservoirs. These estimates will facilitate target setting for water quality and desired ecosystem states, and enable prioritisation of critical sources for management.     

Internal and forced variability along a section between Greenland and Portugal in the CLIPPER Atlantic model

Numerical models are used to estimate the meridional overturning and transports along the paths of two hydrographic cruises, carried out in 1997 and 2002 from Greenland to Portugal. We have examined the influence of the different paths of the two cruises and found that it could explain 0.4 to 2 Sv of difference in overturning (the precise value is model-dependent). Models show a decrease in the overturning circulation between 1997 and 2002, with different amplitudes. The CLIPPER ATL6 model reproduces well the observed weakening of the overturning in density coordinates between the cruises; in the model, the change is due to the combination of interannual and high-frequency forcing and internal variability associated with eddies and meanders. Examination of the -coordinate overturning reveals model–data discrepancies: the vertical structure in the models does not change as much as the observed one. The East Greenland current variability is mainly wind-forced in the ATL6 model, while fluctuations due to eddies and instabilities explain a large part of the North Atlantic Current variability. The time-residual transport of dense water and heat due to eddy correlations between currents and properties is small across this section, which is normal to the direction of the main current.     

Breaking rocks made easy. Blending stress control concepts to advance geomorphology

All landscapes are subject to stress fields, conditioned by their formation and ongoing tectonic and geomorphic changes. With this ESEX Commentary we wish to stimulate a debate on this invisible but persistent stress control on landforms, processes and materials in geomorphology. We address the legacy of active and passive stress fields, which translates into the concept of ‘tectonic predesign’, in conjunction with a perspective of geomorphic processes being driven by subcritical stresses. These concepts complement each other as ‘subcritical processes’ are controlled by tectonic predesign and in turn modulate the stress fields. This offers new theoretical and practical perspectives on how landscapes evolve, processes form materials and how rocks break easily. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strong intrusions of the Northern Mediterranean Current on the eastern Gulf of Lion: insights from in-situ observations and high resolution numerical modelling

The Northern Mediterranean Current is the return branch of the cyclonic circulation of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Because of geostrophic constraints, this warm and oligotrophic current is forced to flow westward along the continental slope of the Gulf of Lion. But, occasionally, it penetrates on the shelf and strongly impacts the local biogeochemistry and in turn the primary production. By combining in situ observations and high-resolution modelling, it is shown that intrusions on the eastern part of the gulf are mainly forced by easterly or northwesterly wind events, through physical mechanisms that are very different in nature. Easterlies induce a piling of water along the Gulf of Lion coast that drives, through geostrophy, an alongshore shelf-intruding current. This intrusive current occurs independently of the stratification and is concomitant with the wind forcing. On the other hand, intrusions due to northwesterlies only occur during stratified conditions and are related to the development of upwellings along the Gulf of Lion coasts. When the upwelling develops, a northwestward alongshore pressure force balances the Coriolis force associated with the onshore flow at depth. When the winds drop, the upwelling relaxes and the onshore flow weakens. Consequently, the Coriolis force no longer counterbalances the pressure force that ultimately dominates the momentum balance, causing the displacement of the Northern Current on the Gulf of Lion shelf approximately 1 day after the wind relaxation. This time lag between the northwesterlies decrease and the intrusions permits to anticipate possible changes in the biogeochemistry of the Gulf of Lion.     

Unexpected records of ‘deep‐sea’ carnivorous sponges Asbestopluma hypogea in the shallow NE Atlantic shed light on new conservation issues

Marine cave communities have been a continued source of ecological surprises, among other things because of their close ecological and evolutionary ties with the deep sea. The discovery of cladorhizid sponges, the deepest occurring poriferan family, in shallow Mediterranean caves in the 1990s was one such surprise, leading to the generally accepted hypothesis that the whole family was carnivorous, an unprecedented feeding mode for sponges. The recent observation of the cave species Asbestopluma hypogea in the Mediterranean bathyal, confirmed the view that some shallow caves can occasionally shelter otherwise deep‐dwelling species. Here we present new distribution data of A. hypogea, from deep Mediterranean locations, and for the first time from Atlantic locations. Among the new Atlantic records, the most surprising ones are located in three different geographic areas (Ria de Arousa, Groix Island and Cherbourg) of the NW European coasts, from the Iberian Peninsula to the English Channel, where A. hypogea reaches SCUBA depths (5–50 m), while not sheltered in marine caves. The carnivorous sponge however reaches its shallowest occurrence (5 m), in a small cave at Groix Island. The ecological significance of these discoveries, particularly the very patchy distribution and peculiar dynamics, are noteworthy, and the shallow occurrence of A. hypogea, together with other deep‐water or uncommon species, constitute unique assemblages that must be considered in conservation plans.     

Simulation of digital earthquake accelerograms using the inverse discrete Fourier transform

Acceleration time histories of horizontal earthquake ground motion are obtained by inverting the discrete Fourier transform, which is defined by modelling the probability distribution of the Fourier phase differences conditional on the Fourier amplitude. The Fourier amplitude spectrum is modelled as a scaled, lognormal probability density function. Three parameters are necessary to define the Fourier amplitude spectrum. They are the total energy of the accelerogram, the central frequency, and the spectral bandwidth. The Fourier phase differences are simulated conditional on the Fourier amplitudes. The amplitudes are classified into three categories: small, intermediate and large. For each amplitude category, a beta distribution or a combination of a beta distribution and a uniform distribution are defined for the phase differences. Seven parameters are needed to completely define the phase difference distributions: two for each of the three beta distributions, and the weight of the uniform distribution for phase differences corresponding to small Fourier amplitudes. Approximately 300 uniformly processed horizontal ground motion records from recent California earthquakes are used to develop prediction formulas for the model parameters, as well as to validate the simulation model. The moment magnitude of the earthquakes ranges from 5.8 to 7.3. The source to site distance for all the records is less than 100 km. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS dataset II: Land use,hydrology and sediment production monitoring in Houay Pano,northern Lao PDR

Mountain regions of the humid tropics are characterized by steep slopes and heavy rains. These regions are thus prone to both high surface runoff and soil erosion. In Southeast Asia, uplands are also subject to rapid land-use change, predominantly as a result of increased population pressure and market forces. Since 1998, the Houay Pano site, located in northern Lao PDR (19.85°N 102.17°E) within the Mekong basin, aims at assessing the long-term impact of the conversion of traditional slash-and-burn cultivation systems to commercial perennial monocultures such as teak tree plantations, on the catchment hydrological response and sediment yield. The instrumented site monitors hydro-meteorological and soil loss parameters at both microplot (1 m²) and small catchment (0.6 km²) scales. The monitored catchment is part of the network of critical zone observatories named Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS (M-TROPICS). The data shared by M-TROPICS in Houay Pano are (1) rainfall, (2) air temperature, air relative humidity, wind speed, and global radiation, (3) catchment land use, (4) stream water level, suspended particulate matter, bed particulate matter and stones, (5) soil surface features, and (6) soil surface runoff and soil detachment. The dataset has already been used to interpret suspended particulate matter and bed particulate matter sources and dynamics, to assess the impact of land-use change on catchment hydrology, soil erosion, and sediment yields, to understand bacteria fate and weed seed transport across the catchment, and to build catchment-scale models focused on hydrology and water quality issues. The dataset may be further used to, for example, assess the role of headwater catchments in large tropical river basin hydrology, support the interpretation of new variables measured in the catchment (e.g., contaminants other than faecal bacteria), and assess the relative impacts of both climate and land-use change on the catchment.     

Effect of ramp size and sample spinning speed on CPMAS C NMR spectra of soil organic matter

Cross polarization (CP) magic angle spinning (MAS) ¹³C NMR spectroscopy is a solid state NMR technique widely applied to study the chemical composition of natural organic matter. In high magnetic fields (>7 T), fast sample spinning is required in order to reduce the influence of spinning sidebands underlying other chemical shift regions. As the spinning speed increases, the Hartmann-Hahn matching profiles break down into a series of narrow matching bands. In order to account for this instability variable amplitude cross polarization techniques (e.g. VACP, ramp-CP) have been developed. In the present study, we experimentally verified the stability of the Hartmann-Hahn condition under two MAS speeds for different samples with known structure and two different humic acids. For a complete restoration of flat matching profiles, large ramp sizes were needed. The matching profiles of the humic acids showed that both samples needed different ramp sizes to restore flat profiles. A set up based on the matching profiles of the commonly used glycine would have led to an insufficient ramp size for one of the humic acids. For the characterization of natural organic matter, we hence recommend to roughly set the matching conditions with a standard and subsequently optimize the matching conditions on a more complex, preferably representative, sample such as a humic acid. We would suggest to either run an array of different ramp sizes until maximum signal intensity is reached for all chemical shift regions or, in the case of unavailable measurement time, to use a ramp size twice the spinning speed.