Petrology of the G and H Chromitite Zones in the Mountain View Area of the Stillwater Complex, Montana

The Ultramafic Series of the Stillwater Complex in the MountainView area of the intrusion consists of 17 cyclic units thathave been numbered stratigraphically. A typical unit has olivinecumulates at the base, olivine–bronzite cumulates at intermediatelevels, and bronzite cumulates at the top. Most cyclic unitsalso have chromite-rich layers near their base, the thickestbeing the G and H chromitite zones in units 10 and 11. The Gand H zones are each separated from the top of the underlyingcyclic unit by 1–3 m of coarse-grained olivine cumulateand pegmatite; and they are both succeeded by thinner chromititezones, respectively called the hanging wall G (HWG) and thehanging wall H (HWH) zones, situated {small tilde}20 m and 5m above them. The G and H chromitite zones feature rhythmicsequences of thin layers that tend to progress upward from massivechromitite through chromite–olivine cumulate to olivine–chromitecumulate (the last with the minerals in approximately cotecticproportions of about 98:2). In cyclic units 10 and 11, variationsof Mg/Fe in the olivine and bronzite, and of Ni in the olivine,are small and show no clear stratigraphic fractionation trends.The abundance of Cr in the chromite in unit 10 does have a fractionationtrend, however, being generally highest at the bottom of theunit and lowest at the top, with a regression at the HWG zone.In general, Cr in chromite is highest at the base of a rhythmicunit and decreases upward, but it shows no overall decline throughsuccessive rhythmic units; Fe³ exhibits opposite variation,being lowest in the massive chromite, and highest in the disseminatedgrains. The G and H chromitite zones, in the Mountain View area, eachcontain enough chromite to form a single layer of massive chromitite{small tilde} 1 m thick. If their formation involved removalof only 30% of the Cr in the parental magmatic liquid (estimatedconcentration, 600 ppm), then this liquid could have amountedvolumetrically to an areally equivalent layer at least 2000m thick. Model calculations demonstrate that such a large volumeof liquid is consistent with the small variations of Mg/Fe inthe pyroxenes and olivines in the Stillwater cyclic units. We postulate that the G and H chromitite zones and cyclic unitsthat host them formed in response to the entry of new pulsesof primitive magmatic liquid into the Stillwater chamber. Fromexperimental observations, we infer that these pulses producedfountains in which the primitive liquid mixed with residualfractionated liquids, yielding hybrids that were compositionallywithin the chromite liquidus field (or volume) and that weresupercooled (supersaturated ) with respect to the oxide mineral.These effects may have been enhanced by low fO₂ (oxygen fugacity)in the primitive liquid and(or) by high fO₂ of the fractionatedliquid. The hybrid liquids probably collected at the bottomof the chamber in a zoned layer that then divided into double-diffusiveconvecting layers. In these circumstances, the lowest chromite-richlayer in a rhythmic sequence could have formed from the lowestdouble-diffusive liquid layer, and the next could then haveformed when this liquid mixed with the liquid layer above it—andso on up the sequence. We argue that the thick G and H chromititezones are situated toward the top of the Ultramafic Series becausethat level marks when the compositional contrasts between theinjected primitive liquid and the residual fractionated liquidsin the chamber were greatest.     

Climate and environment on the Karelian Isthmus, northwestern Russia, 13000-9000 cal. yrs BP

Sediment sequences retrieved from Lake Medvedevskoye (60°13'N; 29°54'E) and Lake Pastorskoye (60°13'N; 30°02'E), Karelian Isthmus, northwestern Russia, were analysed for lithology, pollen and diatom stratigraphy, total organic carbon content and mineral magnetic parameters. Age control for both sequences was provided by AMS ¹⁴C measurements and the Vedde Ash tephra. The reconstructed climatic and environmental development shows the deglaciation of the sites and the establishment of sparse shrub and herb/grass vegetation before 12650 cal. yrs BP ('Allerød'; GI-1a). Steppe tundra and cold, dry conditions prevailed until about 11000 cal. yrs BP, i.e. throughout the 'Younger Dryas' (GS-1) and the earliest Holocene. The establishment of open Picea-Pinus-Betula forest around the lakes at about 11 000 cal. yrs BP coincides with the first distinct change towards gradually warmer and more humid climatic conditions. Boreal forest with Picea, Pinus, Betula, Alnus incana and Corylus was present at the lower altitude site between c. 10700 and 10200 cal. yrs BP, while open Betula-Pinus forest continued to dominate the vegetation around the higher altitude site. After a short, possibly colder, phase around 10200-10000 cal. yrs BP, which is expressed by a marked reduction in vegetation cover and decreased lake productivity, climatic conditions became significantly warmer and possibly more humid. Boreal forest with Pinus, Betula, Picea, Alnus incana, Corylus and Ulmus became widespread in the region after 10000 cal. yrs BP. The delayed environmental response of the lakes and their catchment to hemispheric warming at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary may be explained by a sustained blocking of westerly air masses due to the presence of the Scandinavian ice sheet and associated strengthened easterlies and anticy-clonic circulation and/or extensive permafrost.     

Vertical profiling of Saharan dust with Raman lidars and airborne HSRL in southern Morocco during SAMUM

Three ground-based Raman lidars and an airborne high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) were operated during SAMUM 2006 in southern Morocco to measure height profiles of the volume extinction coefficient, the extinction-to-backscatter ratio and the depolarization ratio of dust particles in the Saharan dust layer at several wavelengths. Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Sun photometer observations and radiosoundings of meteorological parameters complemented the ground-based activities at the SAMUM station of Ouarzazate. Four case studies are presented. Two case studies deal with the comparison of observations of the three ground-based lidars during a heavy dust outbreak and of the ground-based lidars with the airborne lidar. Two further cases show profile observations during satellite overpasses on 19 May and 4 June 2006. The height resolved statistical analysis reveals that the dust layer top typically reaches 4–6 km height above sea level (a.s.l.), sometimes even 7 km a.s.l.. Usually, a vertically inhomogeneous dust plume with internal dust layers was observed in the morning before the evolution of the boundary layer started. The Saharan dust layer was well mixed in the early evening. The 500 nm dust optical depth ranged from 0.2–0.8 at the field site south of the High Atlas mountains, Ångström exponents derived from photometer and lidar data were between 0–0.4. The volume extinction coefficients (355, 532 nm) varied from 30–300 Mm⁻¹ with a mean value of 100 Mm⁻¹ in the lowest 4 km a.s.l.. On average, extinction-to-backscatter ratios of 53–55 sr (±7–13 sr) were obtained at 355, 532 and 1064 nm.     

Comment on "Air pollution and precipitation suppression over SE Australia: critical review of evidence presented by Rosenfeld (2000) and Rosenfeld (2006)" by Greg Ayers

Rosenfeld (2000, hereafter R00), in applying new satellite methodology to analyse case studies in Southeastern Australia and elsewhere, provided evidence that urban and industrial air pollution can suppress precipitation from shallow clouds. He concluded that 'Air pollution must be an important factor in determining the precipitation amounts in the Snowy Mountains'. These satellite observations were the impetus for our proposed detailed follow-on research program to further validate and quantify these inferences, publicly offered in Rosenfeld et al. (2006, hereafter R06) and repeated here, thereby recognizing the remaining large uncertainties. In response, Ayers (2009, hereafter A09) attempts to deny the significance and validity of the observations of R00. His scientific arguments are refuted here. Furthermore, A09 wrote erroneously that 'a hypothesis that air pollution in the form of small particles has caused a secular decrease in precipitation over SE Australia was advanced by Rosenfeld (2000) , who concluded that the hypothesis was proven.' But R00 did not make such a claim, although this is a viable hypothesis that warrants testing (R06). In fact, R00 wrote: 'trend analyses of snow, winter temperature, and total winter rainfall for the period 1910–1991 showed statistically insignificant decreases… ( Duus, 1992 )'.     

An analysis of regional climate model performance over the tropical Americas. Part II: simulating subseasonal variability of precipitation associated with ENSO forcing

The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) constitutes a major source of potential predictability in the tropics. The majority of past seasonal prediction studies have concentrated on precipitation anomalies at the seasonal mean timescale. However, fields such as agriculture and water resource management require higher time frequency forecasts of precipitation variability. Regional climate models (RCMs), with their increased resolution, may offer one means of improving general circulation model forecasts of higher time frequency precipitation variability.
Part I of this study evaluated the ability of the Rossby Centre regional atmospheric model (RCA), forced by analysed boundary conditions, to simulate seasonal mean precipitation anomalies over the tropical Americas associated with ENSO variability. In this paper the same integrations are analysed, with the focus now on precipitation anomalies at subseasonal (pentad) timescales.
RCA simulates the climatological annual cycle of pentad-mean precipitation intensity quite accurately. The timing of the rainy season (onset, demise and length) is well simulated, with biases generally of less than 2 weeks. Changes in the timing and duration of the rainy season, associated with ENSO forcing, are also well captured. Finally, pentad-mean rainfall intensity distributions are simulated quite accurately, as are shifts in these distributions associated with ENSO forcing.     

An unconventional approach for assimilating aliased radar radial velocities

An aliasing operator is introduced to mimic the effect of aliasing that causes discontinuities in radial-velocity observations, and to modify the observation term in the costfunction for direct assimilations of aliased radar radial-velocity observations into numerical models. It is found that if the aliasing operator is treated as a part of the observation operator and applied to the analysed radial velocity in a conventional way, then the analysis is not ensured to be aliased (or not aliased) in consistency with the aliased (or not aliased) observation at every observation point. Thus, the analysis-minus-observation term contains a large alias error whenever an inconsistency occurs at an observation point. This causes fine-structure discontinuities in the costfunction. An unconventional approach is thus introduced to apply the aliasing operator to the entire analysis-minus-observation term at each observation point in the observation term of the costfunction. With this approach, the costfunction becomes smooth and concave upwards in the vicinity of the global minimum. The usefulness of this approach for directly assimilating aliased radar radial-velocity observations under certain conditions is demonstrated by illustrative examples.     

The anthropogenic influence on carbonaceous aerosol in the European background

To constrain the relatively uncertain anthropogenic impact on the organic aerosol load, radiocarbon analyses were performed on aerosol samples, collected year-round, at six non-urban sites including a maritime background and three remote mountain stations, lying on a west-east transect over Western Europe. From a crude three component model supported by TOC and levoglucosan filter data, the fossil fuel, biomass burning and biogenic TOC fraction are estimated, showing at all stations year-round, a relatively constant fossil fuel fraction of around  (26 ± 6)%  , a dominant biogenic contribution of on average  (73 ± 7)%  in summer and the continental as well as the maritime background TOC to be only about 50% biogenic. Assuming biomass burning as completely anthropogenic, the carbonaceous aerosol concentration at the mountain sites was found to have increased by a factor of up to  (1.4 ± 0.2)  in summer and up to  (2.5 ± 1.0)  in winter. This figure is significantly lower, however, than the respective TOC change since pre-industrial times seen in an Alpine ice core. Reconciling both observations would require an increase, since pre-industrial times, of the background biogenic aerosol load, which is estimated at a factor of 1.3–1.7.     

Retrieval of aerosol optical thickness for desert conditions using MERIS observations during the SAMUM campaign

Approximately 30% of the land surface is arid, having desert or semi-desert conditions. Aerosol originating from these regions plays a significant role in climate and atmospheric chemistry of the atmosphere. Retrieving aerosol properties from space-borne platforms above desert conditions, where the surface reflectance is usually very bright, is a challenging task. The proportion of the surface to top of atmosphere (TOA) reflectance can reach values over 90%, especially for wavelength above 500 nm. For these reasons detailed knowledge of aerosol and surface optical properties from these regions is required to separate atmosphere from intrinsically bright surfaces.
An approach to retrieve aerosol properties over arid and semi-arid regions based on the Bremen Aerosol Retrieval (BAER) has been developed and validated within the Dust Aerosol Retrievals from Space-Born Instruments (DREAMS) Project, which is part of the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment ( SAMUM, 2006 ). Combining measurements of the backscattered radiation from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument aboard Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) and ground-based measurements in Morocco in radiation closure experiments yields the aerosol optical properties of mineral dust at selected locations.     

Exploring CO pollution episodes observed at Rishiri Island by chemical weather simulations and AIRS satellite measurements: long-range transport of burning plumes and implications for emissions inventories

The summer of 2003 was an active forest fire season in Siberia. Several events of elevated carbon monoxide (CO) were observed at Rishiri Island in northern Japan during an intensive field campaign in September 2003. A simulation with a global chemistry-transport model is able to reproduce the general features of the baseline levels and variability in the observed CO, and a source attribution for CO in the model suggests that the contribution from North Asia dominated, accounting for approximately 50% on average, with contributions of 7% from North America and 8% from Europe and 30% from oxidation of hydrocarbons. With consideration of recent emission estimates for East Asian fossil fuel and Siberian biomass burning sources, the model captures the timing and magnitude of the CO enhancements in two pollution episodes well (17 and 24 September). However, it significantly underestimates the amplitude during another episode (11–13 September), requiring additional CO emissions for this event. Daily satellite images from AIRS reveal CO plumes transported from western Siberia toward northern Japan. These results suggest that CO emissions from biomass burning in western Siberia in 2003 are likely underestimated in the inventory and further highlight large uncertainties in estimating trace gas emissions from boreal fires.