Intranight optical variability in Seyfert 2 galaxies

Preliminary results from a pilot program to monitor the intranightoptical variability in Seyfert 2 galaxies are reported. This program is designed to test some of the prominent theoretical mechanismsproposed for the origin of optical microvariability in active galacticnuclei (AGN). Two out of 3 Seyfert 2 galaxies observed show evidence formicrovariations. This detection can provide important constraints forthe models utilizing discrete events on accretion disks.     

Summer pattern of phytoplankton distribution at a station in jangmok bay

Daily changes in phytoplankton abundance and species composition were monitored from July to September 2003 (n=47) to understand which factors control the abundance at a station in Jangmok Bay. During the study, the phytoplankton community was mainly composed of small cell diatoms and dinoflagellates, and the dominant genera wereChaetoceros,Nitzschia, Skeletonema andThalassionema. Phytoplankton abundance varied significantly from 6.40x10⁴ to 1.22x10⁷ cells/l. The initially high level of phytoplankton abundance was dominated by diatoms, but replacement by dinoflagellates started when the N/P ratio decreased to < 5.0. On the basis of the N/P and Si/N ratios, the sampling period could be divided into two: an inorganic silicate limitation period (ISLP, 14^th July-12^th of August) and an inorganic nitrogen limitation period (INLP, 13^th of August - the end of the study). Phosphate might not limit the growth of phytoplankton assemblages in the bay during the study period. This study suggests that phytoplankton abundance and species composition might be affected by the concentrations of inorganic nutrients (N and Si), and provides baseline information for further studies on plankton dynamics in Jangmok Bay.     

On an improvement of a nonlinear iterative scheme for nonlinear wave profile prediction

The authors of the present paper present an iterative scheme to calculate the nonlinear wave profiles [Jang, T.S., Kwon, S.H., 2005. Application of nonlinear iteration scheme to the nonlinear water wave problem: Stokian wave. Ocean Engineering, in press]. The nonlinear operator was constructed from the dynamic boundary condition of the free surface. The initial input of the iterative process was linear potential. The linear dispersion relation was utilized. The authors of the present paper suggest an improved scheme in terms of accuracy and speed of convergence by utilizing the nonlinear dispersion relation. The existence and uniqueness of the improved scheme are illustrated in this paper. The calculation results together with Fast Fourier transform revealed that the improved scheme made it possible to predict higher-order nonlinear characteristics of the Stokes’ wave.     

Temporal variations in productivity and planktonic ecological structure in the East Sea (Japan Sea) since the last glaciation

We investigated the biogenic components (biogenic opal, calcium carbonate, and organic carbon) of the marine sediments in core TY99PC18 recovered from the southeastern part of the Ulleung Basin, East Sea (Japan Sea). Our results indicate that primary productivity by diatoms increased after the last glaciation (15,000 ¹⁴C years b.p.) probably because of the onset of vertical mixing of seawater and nutrient supply from the deep water. Between 5,000 and 10,000 ¹⁴C years b.p. a shift in the dominant primary producer, i.e. from diatoms to coccolithophores, coincides with decreased productivity, which could be related to the influx of warm, low-nutrient waters at that time. During the late Holocene (after 5,000 ¹⁴C years b.p.) the productivity of diatoms increased once more probably due to renewed ventilation and vertical mixing.     

Hydrologic impact of regional climate change for the snow‐fed and glacier‐fed river basins in the Republic of Tajikistan: statistical downscaling of global climate model projections

Climate change due to global warming is a public concern in Central Asia. Because of specific orography and climate conditions, the republic of Tajikistan is considered as the main glacial center of Central Asia. In this study, regional climate change impacts in the two large basins of Tajikistan, Pyanj and Vaksh River basins located in the upstream sector of the Amu Darya River basin are analysed. A statistical regression method with model output statistics corrections using the ground observation data, Willmott archived dataset and GSMaP satellite driven dataset, was developed and applied to the basins to downscale the Global Climate Model Projections at a 0.1‐degree grid and to assess the regional climate change impacts at subbasin scale. It was found that snow and glacier melting are of fundamental importance for the state of the future water resources and flooding at the target basins since the air temperature had a clearly increasing trend toward the future. It was also found that the snowfall will decrease, but the rainfall will increase because of the gradual increase in the air temperature. Such changes may result in an increase in flash floods during the winter and the early spring, and in significant changes in the hydrological regime during a year in the future. Furthermore, the risks of floods in the target basins may be slightly increasing because of the increase in the frequencies and magnitudes of high daily precipitation and the increase in the rapid snowmelt with high air temperatures toward the future. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A probabilistic model for real‐time flood warning based on deterministic flood inundation mapping

Deterministic flood inundation mapping is valuable for the investigation of detailed flood depth and extent. However, when these data are used for real‐time flood warning, uncertainty arises while encountering the difficulties of timely response, message interpretation and performance evaluation that makes statistical analysis necessary. By incorporating deterministic flood inundation map outputs statistically by means of logistic regression, this paper presents a probabilistic real‐time flood warning model determining region‐based flood probability directly from rainfall, being efficient in computation, clear in message, and valid in physical meaning. The calibration and validation of the probabilistic model show a satisfactory overall correctness rate, with the hit rate far surpassing the false alarm rate in issuing flood warning for historical events. Further analyses show that the probabilistic model is effective in evaluating the level of uncertainty lying within flood warning which can be reduced by several techniques proposed in order to improve warning performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Very large subaqueous sand dunes on the upper continental slope in the South China Sea generated by episodic,shoaling deep-water internal solitary waves

Very large subaqueous sand dunes were discovered on the upper continental slope of the northern South China Sea. The dunes were observed along a single 40 km long transect southeast of 21.93°N, 117.53°E on the upper continental slope in water depths of 160 m to 600 m. The sand dunes are composed of fine to medium sand, with amplitudes exceeding 16 m and crest-to-crest wavelengths exceeding 350 m. The dunes' apparent formation mechanism is the world's largest observed internal solitary waves which generate from tidal forcing on the Luzon Ridge on the east side of the South China Sea, propagate west across the deep basin with amplitudes regularly exceeding 100 m, and dissipate extremely large amounts of energy via turbulent interaction with the continental slope, suspending and redistributing the bottom sediment. While subaqueous dunes are found in many locations throughout the world's oceans and coastal zones, these particular dunes appear to be unique for two principal reasons: their location on the upper continental slope (away from the influence of shallow-water tidal forcing, deep basin bottom currents and topographically-amplified canyon flows), and their distinctive formation mechanism (approximately 60 episodic, extremely energetic, large amplitude events each lunar cycle).     

Synthetic high-resolution near-IR spectra of the Sun for planetary data reductions made from ATMOS/Spacelab-3 and Atlas-3 data

We have constructed synthetic solar spectra for the 2302-4800 cm⁻¹ (2.08-4.34 μm) range, a spectral range where planetary objects mainly emit reflected sunlight, using ATMOS (Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy)/Spacelab-3 and Atlas-3 spectra, of which resolution is 0.01 cm⁻¹. We adopted Voigt line profiles for the modeling of line shapes based on an atlas of line identifications compiled by Geller [Geller, M., 1992. Key to Identification of Solar Features. A High-Resolution Atlas of the Infrared Spectrum of the Sun and the Earth Atmosphere from Space. NASA Reference Publ. 1224, vol. III. NASA, Washington, DC, pp. 1-22], who derived solar line positions and intensities from contaminated high-resolution solar spectra obtained by ATMOS/Spacelab-3. Because the ATMOS spectra in these wavelength ranges are compromised by absorption lines of molecules existing in Earth's high-altitude atmosphere and in the compartment of the spacecraft, the direct use of these high-resolution solar spectra has been inconvenient for the data reductions of planetary spectra. We compared the synthetic solar spectra with the ATMOS spectra, and obtained satisfactory fits for the majority of the solar lines with the exception of abnormal lines, which do not fit with Voigt line profiles. From the model fits, we were able to determine Voigt line parameters for the majority of solar lines; and we made a list of the abnormal lines. We also constructed telluric-line-free solar spectra by manually eliminating telluric lines from the ATMOS spectra and filling the gaps with adjacent continua. These synthetic solar spectra will be useful to eliminate solar continua from spectra of planetary objects to extract their own intrinsic spectral features.     

Interpolating Spatial Interaction Data1

Spatial interpolation has been widely used to improve the spatial granularity of data, or to mediate between inconsistent zoning schemes of spatial data. Traditional areal interpolation methods translate values of source zones to those of target zones. These methods have difficulty in dealing with flow data, as each instance is associated with a pair of zones. This study develops a new concept, flow line interpolation, to fill the abovementioned gap. We also develop a first flow line interpolation method to estimate commuting flow data between spatial units in a target zoning scheme based on such data in a source zoning scheme. Three models (i.e., areal‐weighted, intelligent, and gravity‐type flow line interpolation) are presented. To test the estimation accuracy and the application potential of these models, a case study of Fulton County in Georgia is conducted. The results reveal that both the areal‐weighted and intelligent models are very promising flow line interpolation methods.