Comparison of SEBAL,METRIC, and ALARM algorithms for estimating actual evapotranspiration of wheat crop

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Evapotranspiration is one of the main components of water balance and its accurate estimation is of great importance in planning and optimizing water...     

Independent Base Vector Representation to Address Endmember Variability in Hyperspectral Unmixing

The normal compositional model (NCM) is a well-known and powerful model in hyperspectral unmixing which represents endmembers as independent Gaussian vectors to capture endmember variability. However, the assumption of independent endmembers diminishes the model accuracy because the high degree of correlation between endmembers of a scene and identical sources of variability demonstrate that the endmembers are dependent. This paper proposes a new hyperspectral unmixing algorithm which represents endmembers using dependent Gaussian vectors to estimate abundance fractions. To overcome the higher complexity caused by dependence assumption, this algorithm introduces new independent Gaussian vectors named Base Vectors to represent different endmembers by a weighted linear combination. Also, the proposed unmixing algorithm uses maximum likelihood method to estimate weight coefficients of Base Vectors which are used to represent mixed pixel. Finally, abundance estimation can be done using the new representation for endmembers and mixed pixel. The proposed algorithm is evaluated and compared with other state-of-the-art unmixing algorithms using simulated and real hyperspectral images. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed unmixing algorithm can unmix pixels composed of correlated endmembers in hyperspectral images in the presence of spectral variability more accurately than previous methods.     

Combining Group Method of Data Handling with Signal Processing Approaches to Improve Accuracy of Groundwater Level Modeling

Natural Resources Research - Groundwater level forecasting is a paramount necessity for integrated management of a basin. Development of suitable models is an essential step in determining...     

Health risk assessment of nitrate exposure in groundwater of rural areas of Gonabad and Bajestan,Iran

Prolonged exposure to excessive levels of nitrate through drinking water is a potential risk for human health. The current research reports the analytical results and associated health risk for water quality in term of nitrate in 39 groundwater samples during January 2018 in rural areas of Gonabad and Bajestan, Iran. Nitrate concentrations ranged from 1.8 to 82.2 and from 5.5 to 84.3 mg/L for Gonabad and Bajestan, respectively. In this work, the potential risk to human health was determined using the hazard quotient (HQ) for three age groups including adults, children and infants. Comparison of HQs among the 39 sampling sites showed that the rural areas in Bajestan had higher HQs than Gonabad. Among the studied groups, infants exposed to a higher risk than children and adults. The results also indicated that the health of individuals from nitrate exposure in most of the groundwater studied was not acceptable and most of the consumers were in danger from current nitrate concentrations. Therefore, there is an urgent need for enforcing effective plans to improve groundwater quality and to better manage and control probable nitrate contaminated sources.     

Tectonic controls on groundwater geochemistry in Hormozgan Province,Southern Iran

Hormozgan Province with arid climate is an important source of energy resources for Iran. This study investigates the results of hydrogeochemical investigation and its tectonic control in Hormozgan Province, Southern Iran. The chemical analysis of 158 groundwater samples was evaluated to determine the hydrogeochemical processes and ion concentration background in the region. Several NW-SE trending and NE-dipping basement reverse faults have intersected the area and have divided it into four tectonic terranes. Huge extension of Hormuz Formation in Zagros Foredeep tectonic terrane has increased the cations, Cl and SO₄ concentration in groundwaters. HCO₃ concentration in Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone and High Zagros is the result of silicate weathering or carbonates. Eighty-three percent of samples have negative CAI values in High Zagros, Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone, and eastern Zagros Fold Thrust Belt. The dominant hydrochemical facies of groundwater are Na-Mg-Ca-Cl (25.3% of samples) and Na-Mg-Cl (20.9% of samples). They are confined to the west of Main Zagros Reverse Fault and east of High Zagros Fault, respectively. The salt content of the groundwater indicates samples with very high salinity—as a result of Hormuz Formation—are mainly limited to the west of High Zagros Fault while samples with high to medium salinity are mainly limited to the east of this fault. Eastward increment of rock weathering is controlled with thrust faults activity of the area and southwestward migration of deformation front. Westward increment of evaporites is compatible with Hormuz Formation/salt dome density through the area.     

Near-source strong motion database catalog for Iran

This paper discusses a newly developed high-quality integrated dataset of shallow earthquake ground motions that occurred in Iran, from 1976 to 2013. A total of 860 three-component strong motion records are processed from 183 earthquake events, moment magnitudes 5.0?≤?M _w ?≤?7.4, and rupture distances of R _RUP  ≤ 120 km. Strong motion data from Iran having special tectonic features and shallow earthquakes with depths less than 35 km are included. This paper presents a thorough procedure used to collect and to generate a database following the Next-Generation Attenuation-West research projects. This database can be used in the development and ranking of ground motion models and for seismological and engineering hazard and risk analyses. Unprocessed strong motion records are obtained from the Iranian Strong Motion Network (ISMN). The time series collected were thoroughly examined through several rounds of quality reviews. The newly generated database includes the peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and pseudo-spectral acceleration for the 5% damped with periods ranging from 0.01 to 10 s. The database also includes ground motion information and source characterization and parameters. This study is the near-source compiled ground motion database that can be used for Iran, and it is consistent with standard worldwide databases.     

Groundwater Flow Analysis for Inclined Aquifers

Sedimentary deposits that have water in subsurface groundwater system are not often completely horizontal because of the geological features such as: bedding and folding. These deposits typically overlay on sloped impervious layers, and therefore; additional research is necessary for these situations. In this research an analytical model is presented for groundwater flow on inclined impermeable layer. The presented model is preferable to the Paolowsky method regarding its applicability and accuracy. The Dupuit's assumption is used for the formulation. The presented model can be generalized for the situation, having surficial infiltration into and exfiltration from the groundwater system. Several problems of different slope situations and boundary conditions are addressed by the presented model and the results are shown here. The model is compared with numerical model Seep/w and good agreements are obtained when possible.     

On the integral inversion of satellite-to-satellite velocity differences for local gravity field recovery: a theoretical study

The gravity field can be recovered locally from the satellite-to-satellite velocity differences (VDs) between twin-satellites moving in the same orbit. To do so, three different integral formulae are derived in this paper to recover geoid height, radial component of gravity anomaly and gravity disturbance at sea level. Their kernel functions contain the product of two Legendre polynomials with different arguments. Such kernels are relatively complicated and it may be impossible to find their closed-forms. However, we could find the one related to recovering the geoid height from the VD data. The use of spectral forms of the kernels is possible and one does not have to generate them to very high degrees. The kernel functions are well-behaving meaning that they reduce the contribution of far-zone data and for example a cap margin of \(7^{\circ }\) is enough for recovering gravity anomalies. This means that the inversion area should be larger by \(7^{\circ }\) from all directions than the desired area to reduce the effect of spatial truncation error of the integral formula. Numerical studies using simulated data over Fennoscandia showed that when the distance between the twin-satellites is small, higher frequencies of the anomalies can be recovered from the VD data. In the ideal case of having short distance between the satellites flying at 250 km level, recovering radial component of gravity anomaly with an accuracy of 7 mGal is possible over Fennoscandia, if the VD data is contaminated only with the spatial truncation error, which is an ideal assumption. However, the problem is that the power of VD signal is very low when the satellites are close and it is very difficult to recognise the signal amongst the noise of the VD data. We also show that for a successful determination of gravity anomalies at sea level from an altitude of 250 km mean VDs with better accuracy than 0.01 mm/s are required. When coloured noise at this level is used for the VDs at 250 km with separation of 300 km, the accuracy of recovery will be about 11 mGal over Fennoscandia. In the case of using the real velocities of the satellites, the main problems are downward/upward continuation of the VDs on the mean orbital sphere and taking the azimuthal integration of them.     

Geochemistry of Rhenium and Other Trace Elements in Molybdenite,Sar Cheshmeh Porphyry Cu-Mo Deposit,Iran

LA-ICP-MS analysis of molybdenite from the Sar Cheshmeh porphyry Cu-Mo deposit(PCD), Iran, shows moderate concentration of Re(average ～207 ppm) and low concentration of chalcogenides(average of Pb + Te + Bi, ～31 ppm) as well as metalloids(average of As + Sb + Ge, ～4.5 ppm). The early-formed quartz–molybdenites associated with potassic alteration are characterized by moderately low concentration of Re(21–215 ppm with an average of 83 ppm), whereas the transitional quartz–molybdenite veins related to the sericitic stage of mineralization contain more Re(62–465 ppm, with an average of 207 ppm). In contrast, the late-formed quartz–molybdenite veins associated with phyllic alteration show the highest concentration of Re(up to 1273 ppm with an average of 395 ppm). Gradual increase in Re content of molybdenites deposited throughout the evolution of the porphyry system is probably related to elevated ?O2 and acidic conditions of the ore fluids governing the transitional and late stage of mineralization, when compared to the moderately low ?O2 and basic conditions of the ore fluids precipitating the low-Re molybdenites associated with potassic alteration. The mixed mantle/crustal source of the ore-related magma and its fractionated composition in Sar Cheshmeh are consistent with magmatic conditions for the formation of Mo-rich and Re-poor PCDs in the world.