On the growth and decay of irregularities in the ionosphere

It has been demonstrated that VHF/UHF scintillation data can be used to evaluate important physical parameters such as scale sizes, strength, growth and decay of irregularities in the equatorial ionosphere. These parameters are important in constructing electroject models. It is shown that large scale irregularities are generated first which later break into smaller scale sizes. During the decay phase, the small scale irregularities disappear first after followed by large scale irregularities. The generation and destruction time of these irregularities has been estimated to be around 20 min. In addition these irregularities affect propagation of radio waves from HF to UHF range which suggests the existence of a wide spectrum of irregularities in the ionosphere. It has been found that the scale sizes of daytimeE-region irregularities are smaller than those in theF-region during night-time. The growth rate of the irregularities seems to be larger in theE-region than in theF-region of the ionosphere.     

Diffraction of ATS-6 signals by isolated ionospheric irregularities—Some new aspects

A new model of a Gaussian ionospheric irregularity with perturbation is studied. Analysis of two events of diffraction of ATS-6 radio signals on 40, 140 and 360 MHz by isolated ionospheric irregularities indicates that while one class of events is well described in terms of diffraction by a Gaussian irregularity, the other class of events necessitates the assumption of a more complex irregularity structure. General characteristics of diffraction patterns due to a minor Gaussian perturbation within a larger irregularity are discussed, and an attempt has been made to deduce the structure of the second observed irregularity on the basis of these characteristics. The result suggests the possibility of a distorted double-humped electron density distribution in the irregularity.     

Operational mesoscale atmospheric dispersion prediction using a parallel computing cluster

An operational atmospheric dispersion prediction system is implemented on a cluster supercomputer for Online Emergency Response at the Kalpakkam nuclear site. This numerical system constitutes a parallel version of a nested grid meso-scale meteorological model MM5 coupled to a random walk particle dispersion model FLEXPART. The system provides 48-hour forecast of the local weather and radioactive plume dispersion due to hypothetical airborne releases in a range of 100 km around the site. The parallel code was implemented on different cluster configurations like distributed and shared memory systems. A 16-node dual Xeon distributed memory gigabit ethernet cluster has been found sufficient for operational applications. The runtime of a triple nested domain MM5 is about 4 h for a 24 h forecast. The system had been operated continuously for a few months and results were ported on the IMSc home page. Initial and periodic boundary condition data for MM5 are provided by NCMRWF, New Delhi. An alternative source is found to be NCEP, USA. These two sources provide the input data to the operational models at different spatial and temporal resolutions using different assimilation methods. A comparative study on the results of forecast is presented using these two data sources for present operational use. Improvement is noticed in rainfall forecasts that used NCEP data, probably because of its high spatial and temporal resolution     

Rotational Modulation of Microwave Solar Flux

Time series data of 10.7 cm solar flux for one solar cycle (1985–1995 years) was processed through autocorrelation. Rotation modulation with varying persistence and period was quite evident. The persistence of modulation seems to have no relation with sunspot numbers. The persistence of modulation is more noticeable during 1985–1986, 1989–1990, and 1990–1991. In other years the modulation is seen, but its persistence is less. The sidereal rotation period varies from 24.07 days to 26.44 days with no systematic relation with sunspot numbers. The results indicate that the solar corona rotates slightly faster than photospheric features. The solar flux was split into two parts, i.e., background emission which remains unaffected by solar rotation and the localized emission which produces the observed rotational modulation. Both these parts show a direct relation with the sunspot numbers. The magnitude of localized emission almost diminishes during the period of low sunspot number, whereas background emission remains at a 33% level even when almost no sunspots may be present. The localized regions appear to shift on the solar surface in heliolongitudes.     

人为干扰对尼泊尔中部丘陵森林物种多样性、更新和碳密度的影响

全球近四分之三的森林正在遭受人为干扰,尼泊尔三分之二以上的森林受到不同类型的干扰。在社区森林中,当地社区在生计的各个方面都依赖于森林提供的生态系统服务,这些服务以各种方式干扰森林的自然条件和生态系统的功能。本研究在尼泊尔中部丘陵区的两个社区管理森林中,研究了对植物物种多样性、更新(幼苗和树苗)、生物量、土壤有机碳(SOC)和总碳密度的主要干扰因子。以树桩数、断苗、砍伐和放牧践踏作为主要人为干扰的衡量指标,从89个随机选取的250 m2的样地中收集了必要的数据,利用广义线性模型(GLM)对人为干扰的响应进行了分析。结果表明,森林砍伐对生物量和总碳密度平衡的影响最大。森林砍伐程度越高,森林碳储量越低。SOC对上述类型的人为干扰均无显著反应。木本物种丰富度和幼树数量随着树桩数量的增加而增加,说明中间干扰是有益的。然而,较高的砍伐强度降低了幼树密度。放牧/践踏是抑制幼苗生长的最显著干扰,在践踏强度较高的森林地区,幼苗和树苗数量较少。这些结果将为尼泊尔多目标森林管理以及如何降低其他地区类似社会经济环境中的人为干扰的影响提供指南。     

Sea-breeze-initiated rainfall over the east coast of India during the Indian southwest monsoon

Sea-breeze-initiated convection and precipitation have been investigated along the east coast of India during the Indian southwest monsoon season. Sea-breeze circulation was observed on approximately 70–80% of days during the summer months (June–August) along the Chennai coast. Average sea-breeze wind speeds are greater at rural locations than in the urban region of Chennai. Sea-breeze circulation was shown to be the dominant mechanism initiating rainfall during the Indian southwest monsoon season. Approximately 80% of the total rainfall observed during the southwest monsoon over Chennai is directly related to convection initiated by sea-breeze circulation.     

Sensitivity of tropical cyclone intensification to boundary layer and convective processes

This study examines the role of the parameterization of convection, planetary boundary layer (PBL) and explicit moisture processes on tropical cyclone intensification. A high-resolution mesoscale model, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) model MM5, with two interactive nested domains at resolutions 90 km and 30 km was used to simulate the Orissa Super cyclone, the most intense Indian cyclone of the past century. The initial fields and time-varying boundary variables and sea surface temperatures were taken from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) (FNL) one-degree data set. Three categories of sensitivity experiments were conducted to examine the various schemes of PBL, convection and explicit moisture processes. The results show that the PBL processes play crucial roles in determining the intensity of the cyclone and that the scheme of Mellor-Yamada (MY) produces the strongest cyclone. The combination of the parameterization schemes of MY for planetary boundary layer, Kain-Fritsch2 for convection and Mixed-Phase for explicit moisture produced the best simulation in terms of intensity and track. The simulated cyclone produced a minimum sea level pressure of 930 hPa and a maximum wind of 65 m s⁻¹ as well as all of the characteristics of a mature tropical cyclone with an eye and eye-wall along with a warm core structure. The model-simulated precipitation intensity and distribution were in good agreement with the observations. The ensemble mean of all 12 experiments produced reasonable intensity and the best track.     

A physical mechanism for the production of solar flares

The weakly ionized photospheric layer in the sunspot environment satisfies certain dynamo inequalities (Equations (11) and (13)) resulting in photospheric Hall current systems. The corresponding Joule dissipation is associated with the surrounding plage area. For critical values of the driving or convective winds (speeds 1 km/s), two stream instability results. The computed energy is of the order of that found in solar flares.     

p Modes in and Away from a Sunspot

A time series of GONG Dopplergrams for the period 10–14 May 1997 from Udaipur and Big Bear sites has been used to measure the velocity fluctuations in a sunspot (NOAA active region 8038) and quiet photosphere simultaneously. We observe that the power of pre-dominant p mode is reduced in the sunspot as compared to quiet photosphere by 39–52% depending on the location of the sunspot region on the solar disk. We also observe a relative peak frequency deviation of p modes in the sunspot, of the order of 80–310 Hz, which shows a linear dependence on the magnetic field gradient in the active region. The maximum frequency deviation of 310 Hz on 12 May appears to be an influence of a long-duration solar flare that occurred in this active region. We interpret this relative peak frequency deviation as either due to power re-distribution of p modes in the sunspot or a consequence of frequency modulation of these modes along the magnetic flux tubes due to rapidly varying magnetic field structure.     

Isotope mixing models require individual isotopic tracer content for correct quantification of sediment source contributions

The use of isotopic tracers for sediment source apportionment is gaining interest with recent introduction of compound‐specific stable isotope tracers. The method relies on linear mixing of source isotopic tracers, and deconvolution of a sediment mixture initially quantifies the contribution of sources to the mixture's tracer signature. Therefore, a correction to obtain real sediment source proportions is subsequently required. As far as we are aware, all published studies to date have used total isotopic tracer content or a proxy (e.g., soil carbon content) for this post‐unmixing correction. However, as the relationship between the isotopic tracer mixture and the source mixture is different for each isotopic tracer, post‐unmixing corrections cannot be carried out with one single factor. This contribution presents an isotopic tracer model structure—the concentration‐dependent isotope mixing model (CD‐IMM)—to overcome this limitation. Herein, we aim to clarify why the “conventional” approach to converting isotopic tracer proportions to source proportions using a single factor is wrong. In an initial mathematical assessment, error incurred by not using CD‐IMM (NCD‐IMM) in unmixing two sources with two isotopic tracers showed a complex relation as a function of relative tracer contents. Next, three artificial mixtures with different proportions of three soil sources were prepared and deconvoluted using ¹³C of fatty acids using CD‐IMM and NCD‐IMM. Using NCD‐IMM affected both accuracy (mean average error increased up to a threefold compared with the CD‐IMM output) and precision (interquartile range was up to 2.5 times larger). Finally, as an illustrative example, the proportional source contribution reported in a published study was recalculated using CD‐IMM. This resulted in changes in estimated source proportions and associated uncertainties. Content of isotopic tracers is seldom reported in published work concerning use of isotopic tracers for sediment source partitioning. The magnitude of errors made by miscalculation in former studies is therefore difficult to assess. With this contribution, we hope the community will acknowledge the limitations of prior approaches and use a CD‐IMM in future studies.