Electric fields within the martian magnetosphere and ion extraction: ASPERA-3 observations

Observations made by the ASPERA-3 experiment onboard the Mars Express spacecraft found within the martian magnetosphere beams of planetary ions. In the energy (E/q)-time spectrograms these beams are often displayed as dispersive-like, ascending or descending (whether the spacecraft moves away or approach the planet) structures. A linear dependence between energy gained by the beam ions and the altitude from the planet suggests their acceleration in the electric field. The values of the electric field evaluated from ion energization occur close to the typical values of the interplanetary motional electric field. This suggests an effective penetration of the solar wind electric field deep into the martian magnetosphere or generation of large fields within the magnetosphere. Two different classes of events are found. At the nominal solar wind conditions, a ‘penetration’ occurs near the terminator. At the extreme solar wind conditions, the boundary of the induced magnetosphere moves to a more dense upper atmosphere that leads to a strong scavenging of planetary ions from the dayside regions.     

A re‐investigation of the low Reynolds number uniform flow past a porous spherical shell

This work reinvestigates the flow field of a uniform flow past a porous spherical shell based on Song and Huang's (2000) theory of laminar poroelastic media flow with proper boundary conditions. The analytical solution of this study not only indicates viscous effects inside the porous spherical shell, but it also preserves the continuities of tangential velocity and shear stress at the interfaces. The result reveals that as the porosity approaches unity, the flow is entirely comprised of the incident stream; as the porosity approaches zero, the well‐known Stokes' solution of a uniform flow past a sphere with low Reynolds number is obtained. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The storage potential of different surface coverings for various scale storms on Wu-Tu watershed,Taiwan

An impervious surface cover is continuously spreading over the Wu-Tu upstream watershed due to the concentrated population and raised economical demands, while that area also frequently suffers from heavy storms or typhoons during the summer season. The increased flood volume due to this extended imperviousness causes a greater potential hazard than that of the past. In order to evaluate the urbanized impacts on the watershed, a set of methods were used to estimate the changes of the watershed storage. This research chose 51 observed events from three raingauges on the Wu-Tu upstream watershed, Taiwan, to study the volume characteristic of abstracted rainwater. In the study, the block Kriging method was used to estimate the area rainfall and the hourly excess was derived through the non-linear programing (NLP). A total of 40 samples were calibrated through the hydrological model and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) model using the optimum seeking method in order to search out and establish the best parameters that illustrate the hydrological and geomorphic conditions at that time. Eleven cases were used to examine the established relationship of the parameters and the impervious coverings. A design storm approach was used to view the changes of the volume for various scale storms/typhoons because of the different degrees of urbanization. Then, a diagram was designed to show the relationships that exist among the runoff coefficient, return period, and impervious surface. The satisfactory results show that storage capability of rainwater for various scale storms on the Wu-Tu watershed would be respectively reduced about 42–156 cms in different decrements up to now.     

Simplified approach to estimate the maximum wall deflection for deep excavations with cross walls in clay under the undrained condition

Previous studies have shown that use of cross walls in deep excavations can reduce the wall deflection to a very small amount. However, design of cross walls is costly because the deflection behavior of the diaphragm wall with cross walls is in nature three dimensional. The objective of this study was to establish a simplified approach used as a first approximation to design cross walls such that the lateral wall deflection can satisfy a design criterion. A series of parametric studies using a three-dimensional numerical method was performed to obtain the influence factors on wall deflections, including excavation geometry, wall system stiffness, axial stiffness of strut, axial stiffness of the cross wall, normalized undrained shear strength of clay and the cross wall depth. Then, a simplified formula for predicting the wall deflection for excavations without and with cross walls was established using multivariate regression analysis, respectively. The formulas were validated through 36 excavation cases without cross walls and 12 cases with cross walls. The simplified formulas can be used to develop a spreadsheet that estimates the cross wall sizes and intervals based on the entered excavation geometry, material properties of retaining-strut system, in situ undrained shear strength and tolerable wall deflection. The estimated cross wall sizes and intervals should be verified by an appropriate full numerical analysis.     

Removal of sulfamethazine antibiotics using cow manure-based carbon adsorbents

Low-cost adsorbents, e.g., cow manure-based carbon, provide alternatives to remove veterinary antibiotic sulfamethazine (SMT) from contaminated water bodies. In this study, the chemical structures and compositions of cow manure (CM) carbonized at 400, 600, and 800 °C (CM400, CM600, and CM800) were examined using elemental analyzer (EA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and spectroscopic techniques. Adsorptions of SMT on CM samples were conducted as functions of pH, hydrophobicity, and ionic strengths. Results of EA and spectroscopic analyses suggested that the raw CM and CM400 samples contained the highest amounts of O-containing groups and aliphatic domains. Amounts of such two chemical groups decreased as carbonization temperatures increased. The specific surface areas and total pore volumes of CM samples increased significantly when the carbonization temperatures exceeded 600 °C. SMT adsorption on CM samples could be described essentially by the pseudo-second-order kinetic, intra-particle diffusion, and Freundlich isotherm models. Low pH and ionic strength were favorable for SMT adsorption in CM samples, particularly for the CM800, because a strong π ⁺–π electron donor–acceptor interaction (π ⁺–π EDA) was formed between SMT and CM surfaces enriched with hydrophobic domains. Further, the high adsorption affinity of SMT to the CM600 and CM800 samples was attributed in part to their larger surface areas and total pore volumes. Generally, CM-based materials carbonized >600 °C showed relatively stable structures and exhibited strong aromatic properties. Moreover, maximum adsorption capacities of SMT on the CM800 sample (37–39 mM/kg) were significantly higher than those of other common adsorbents (0.02–35.93 mM/kg).     

Surface water flow over a pervious pavement

This work investigates the profiles of surface water flow over a pervious pavement, for example, highway, during a uniform rainfall. The pavement, such as porous asphalt or open‐graded asphalt friction course, is regarded as a porous medium, and the flow inside the layer is porous media flow. At first, the velocity distributions are solved based on the simplified Navier–Stokes equations and Biot's theory of poroelasticity for the water layer and the permeable layer, respectively. Then, the flow profiles can be found via the continuity equation. Because the closed form of the water depth cannot be obtained, a numerical technique is employed to find the flow profiles on the pavement surface. A critical permeability factor related to the material and structure of pavement is illustrated to be η = 1.36 × 10^{? 4}m as the half road width L = 20 m, the cross slope S = 0.02,the pavement thickness H = 0.05 m, and rainfall intensity i = 100 mm/h. The water on the road surface can be drained very fast, whereas the parameter is greater than the critical value. Another illustration of allowable/safety water depth is made for the design of the pavement thickness. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sources and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments of Kaoping River and submarine canyon system, Taiwan

In this study, we measured and analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediment samples collected from the Kaoping river and submarine canyon (KPSC) system to determine the compositional patterns and characteristic distributions of PAH and to elucidate the transport and fate of these land-derived particles. Concentrations of total PAH (sum of 28 PAH compounds) ranged from 22.6 to 45,100 ngg(-1) dry weight (dw) and the highest concentrations were found in the sediments of Donggang Harbor. The ratio of perylene to sum of penta-aromatic PAH isomers (47-55%) was higher in off-shore stations, suggesting a diagenetic PAH source. Various isomeric ratios also indicated that combustion was a significant source of PAH to the sediment at stations located along the Kaoping river and the north-western shelf of the Kaoping estuary. However, in the south-eastern shelf and some canyon sites, petroleum-derived PAHs were a more significant source of these compounds. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis suggest PAHs in the sediments from the north-western shelf, and river and canyon sediments might be a pyrogenic product of coal and diesel-burning vehicles, while those of the south-eastern shelf may be petrogenic. PAH concentrations and compositional patterns are effective tracers of particulate transport in KPSC system. The seaward transport of riverine particulates was found to be mostly directed to NW-shelf and/or canyon.     

An investigation of tropical Atlantic bias in a high-resolution coupled regional climate model

Coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) commonly fail to simulate the eastern equatorial Atlantic boreal summer cold tongue and produce a westerly equatorial trade wind bias. This tropical Atlantic bias problem is investigated with a high-resolution (27-km atmosphere represented by the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, 9-km ocean represented by the Regional Ocean Modeling System) coupled regional climate model. Uncoupled atmospheric simulations test climate sensitivity to cumulus, land-surface, planetary boundary layer, microphysics, and radiation parameterizations and reveal that the radiation scheme has a pronounced impact in the tropical Atlantic. The CAM radiation simulates a dry precipitation (up to ?90%) and cold land-surface temperature (up to ?8?K) bias over the Amazon related to an over-representation of low-level clouds and almost basin-wide westerly trade wind bias. The Rapid Radiative Transfer Model and Goddard radiation simulates doubled Amazon and Congo Basin precipitation rates and a weak eastern Atlantic trade wind bias. Season-long high-resolution coupled regional model experiments indicate that the initiation of the warm eastern equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) bias is more sensitive to the local rather than basin-wide trade wind bias and to a wet Congo Basin instead of dry Amazon—which differs from AOGCM simulations. Comparisons between coupled and uncoupled simulations suggest a regional Bjerknes feedback confined to the eastern equatorial Atlantic amplifies the initial SST, wind, and deepened thermocline bias, while barrier layer feedbacks are relatively unimportant. The SST bias in some CRCM simulations resembles the typical AOGCM bias indicating that increasing resolution is unlikely a simple solution to this problem.     

Dynamic response of a soft soil layer to flow and periodical disturbance

The dynamic response of a soft soil layer of finite thickness under the mutual effects of flow and periodical disturbance at the free surface is discussed in this work. The homogeneous water is governed by potential theory and the soil layer obeys Biot's theory of poroelasticity. The boundary‐value problem is solved by an analytical algorithm, in which the wave number is found first. Secondly, the closed form solutions are found by a two‐parameter perturbation method with the boundary‐layer correction. The results are also compared with those of the poroelastic soil layer of infinite thickness to show the impermeable rigid boundary effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DEVELOPMENT OF SOIL EROSION INDEX MODEL IN TAIWAN WATERSHEDS

1 INTRODUCTIONSoil erosion of land surface caused by over development has become more and more serious.Environmental damage resulted from accelerated soil erosion has attracted much attention especi ally overthe past 20 years. Soil erosion stUdies have focused primarily on soil characteristics and climaticvariations. Great achievements have been made in understanding the mechanism of soil erosion, whichallows the develoPment of evaluation models for all types of soil erosion problems. Th…