A simplified hydrodynamic mesoscale model suitable for use over high plateau regions

Summary A simplified hydrodynamic primitive equation model in -coordinates is described. This model includes the main physical processes that influence development and motion of mesoscale vortices over plateau regions: elevated terrain effects, effects of large-scale and synoptic-scale systems on the mesoscale systems, sensible heating from the earth's surface, moisture cycle and condensation heating released by both large-scale stable precipitation and cumulus convective precipitation, evaporation and the feedback effect of precipitation on evaporation, friction in the planetary boundary layer, horizontal diffusion by subgrid scale eddies and vertical eddy flux of meteorological elements (momentum, temperature, moisture, etc.) due to turbulence, cumulus convection and other smaller-scale physical processes. The model incorporates observed data as much as possible and equations are simplified so that it may be run using either a high-speed computer or a desktop computer.Two developing vortices that originated over the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Platau and moved eastward producing heavy precipitation over the lower elevations are used to test the model. It is shown that the model is capable of simulating the major features of the vortices including the precipitation distribution and may be used for studies of mesoscale and synoptic scale weather systems over plateau regions.

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Ein vereinfachtes für hochländer geeignetes hydrodynamisches mesoscale-modell

Zusammenfassung Es wird ein vereinfachtes hydrodynamisches Grundgleichungsmodell in -Koordinaten be schrieben. Dieses Modell beinhaltet die wichtigsten physikalischen Prozesse, die die Entwicklung und Bewegung von mesoskaligen Wirbeln über Hochplateaus beeinflussen: Effekte der Hochfläche, Effekte von großräumigen und synoptischen Systemen, die fühlbare Wärme von der Erdoberfläche, den Feuchtigkeitskreislauf und die Kondensationswärme, sowohl von großräumigen als auch von Konvektionsniederschlägen, die Evaporation und die Beeinflussung der Evaporation durch den Niederschlag, die Reibung in der planetaren Grenzschicht, die horizontale Diffusion durch Turbulenzen, die kleiner als die Gitterkonstante sind und den vertikalen Fluß meteorologischer Elemente (Impuls, Temperatur, Feuchte etc.) durch Turbulenzen, Konvektion und andere kleinräumige Prozesse. In das Modell sind die Beobachtungswerte weitestgehend integriert und die Gleichungen soweit vereinfacht, daß es sowohl auf einem Hochleistungs- als auch auf einem Mikrocomputer laufen kann.Zum Testen des Modells wurden zwei sich entwickelnde Wirbel verwendet, die vom Qinghai-Xizang-Plateu (Hochland von Tibet) ausgingen, sich ostwärts bewegten und dabei zu schweren Niederschlägen in den Tiefländern führten. Es wird gezeigt, daß das Modell die wichtigsten Eigenschaften der Wirbel und die Niederschlagsverteilung simulieren und für Untersuchungen von mesoskaligen und synoptischen Wettersystemen über Hochländern herangezogen werden kann.

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With 18 figures     

The “South-Italian City” — a cultural-genetic type of city

The “South-Italian city” is characterized at four different levels as an independent cultural-genetic city-type:

1. The characteristics arrangement of the functional areas and the residential areas of different social groups is represented in a model.
2. From the model, developments and changes in the arrangement of the functional areas can be identified which clearly deviate from those which are derived from the universal city model.
3. Some of the structural individuality can be directly explained by the peculiar features of the respective social and economic history.
4. Some of the special features must, however, be traced back to a wider historico-cultural background. Through this run processes which flow through the universal city development in similar forms, to the deviating structure of the “South-Italian city”.

     

Enhancing mobile applications by combination of GNSS and W-CDMA

The location requirements for emergency callers outside urban areas can hardly be fulfilled without global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Consequently, interest in positioning techniques based on use of a GNSS such as GPS or on the cellular network infrastructure itself is growing rapidly in the mobile-telephone community. Moreover, the increasing demand for commercial location-based services (LBS) has driven cellular-phone and network manufacturers to focus on positioning solutions which are even more accurate than the regulatory mandates for positioning of emergency callers. One example of these upcoming LBS is our PARAMOUNT project, which aims at improving user-friendly info-mobility services for hikers and mountaineers by combining wireless communications (GMTS), satellite navigation (GNSS) and geographic information systems (GIS), based on a mobile client/server architecture. The availability of mobile phones or PDAs with combined GNSS and cellular network-based wireless communication on a high integration level is one primary demand of such LBS applications. Based on this, we will give some initial answers to the question of whether mobile handset architecture synergies exist for the combination of GNSS with wireless location in CDMA cellular wireless networks. In order to identify synergies, we will outline similarities and differences between wireless communication and satellite navigation. In this respect, we pay particular attention to the so-called RAKE receiver architecture employed in mobile CDMA cellular handsets. Our initial investigations will show that the RAKE receiver architecture, on which mobile CDMA cellular handsets are based, will most likely be the one most suitable for achieving synergies between the two positioning techniques within the same mobile handset architecture. Consequently, several receiver components could be used to handle both types of signals (navigation and communications), resulting in a reduction of manufacturing costs and in a decrease in energy consumption. Electronic Publication     

Jets: black holes and beyond

Thomas J Maccarone and Elmar Koerding discuss the phenomenon of astrophysical jets, from their discovery to the latest theories about their origins.     

Solar EUV line identifications from delayed beam-foil spectra

A number of electric dipole transitions from low-lying long-lived levels in Si-, P- and S-like ions of Fe and neighbouring elements have been identified by their longevity in delayed EUV spectra after foil excitation of fast ion beams. Some of these new identifications pertain to previously unidentified lines in solar flare spectra.