SARAL/AltiKa Global Statistical Assessment and Cross-Calibration with Jason-2

The CNES/ISRO mission SARAL/AltiKa was successfully launched on 25 February 2013. It reached its nominal orbit on 13 March 2013. AltiKa is the first altimeter using the Ka-band frequency. This article presents the results of the calibration and validation activities perfromed on the first year of the SARAL/AltiKa mission. The main objective of the article is to assess the SARAL/AltiKa data quality and to estimate the altimeter system performance using GDR products. To achieve this goal, we present mono-mission metrics and compare them with Jason-2 over the same period. Even if these missions do not have the same ground track, precise comparisons are still possible. They allow assessing parameter discrepancies and SSH consistency between both missions in order to detect geographically correlated biases, jumps or drifts. These results show that SARAL/AltiKa data quality is excellent: ocean data coverage is greater than 99.5%, standard deviation at cross-overs is 5.4 cm. The mission therefore fulfills the requirements of high precision altimetry and can be used (in conjunction with Jason-2) to monitor the global mean sea level, ensuring the continuity of the record over ERS/Envisat historical ground track. Possible improvements and open issues are also identified, foreseeing an even better mission performance.     

Optimal mitigation strategies with negative emission technologies and carbon sinks under uncertainty

In recent years a body of literature has arisen on the topic of how to compose the optimal portfolio of mitigation options. The focus has been mainly on options involving shifts from high- to low- or even negative-carbon technologies. Natural sinks play an important role in any attempt to stabilize atmospheric CO₂ and usually enter as a constant term in the overall carbon budget. In this paper, we introduce natural sinks to the carbon management problem and analyze the implications for negative emission technology deployment and the overall mitigation strategy. Amongst other sensitivity analyses, we also investigate the impact of uncertainty in the carbon sink, which we find to raise the importance of negative emissions in the mitigation portfolio significantly lowering the cost of the policy mix.     

Earthquake imprints on a lacustrine deltaic system: The Kürk Delta along the East Anatolian Fault (Turkey)

Deltas contain sedimentary records that are not only indicative of water‐level changes, but also particularly sensitive to earthquake shaking typically resulting in soft‐sediment‐deformation structures. The Kürk lacustrine delta lies at the south‐western extremity of Lake Hazar in eastern Turkey and is adjacent to the seismogenic East Anatolian Fault, which has generated earthquakes of magnitude 7. This study re‐evaluates water‐level changes and earthquake shaking that have affected the Kürk Delta, combining geophysical data (seismic‐reflection profiles and side‐scan sonar), remote sensing images, historical data, onland outcrops and offshore coring. The history of water‐level changes provides a temporal framework for the depositional record. In addition to the common soft‐sediment deformation documented previously, onland outcrops reveal a record of deformation (fracturing, tilt and clastic dykes) linked to large earthquake‐induced liquefactions and lateral spreading. The recurrent liquefaction structures can be used to obtain a palaeoseismological record. Five event horizons were identified that could be linked to historical earthquakes occurring in the last 1000 years along the East Anatolian Fault. Sedimentary cores sampling the most recent subaqueous sedimentation revealed the occurrence of another type of earthquake indicator. Based on radionuclide dating (¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb), two major sedimentary events were attributed to the ad 1874 to 1875 East Anatolian Fault earthquake sequence. Their sedimentological characteristics were determined by X‐ray imagery, X‐ray diffraction, loss‐on‐ignition, grain‐size distribution and geophysical measurements. The events are interpreted to be hyperpycnal deposits linked to post‐seismic sediment reworking of earthquake‐triggered landslides.     

Volatiles,vesicles, and vugs: Unraveling the magmatic and eruptive histories of Steno crater basalts

In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts returned 170.4 kg of lunar material. Within 1 month of their return, a subset of those samples was specially curated with the forethought that future analytical techniques would offer new insight into the formation and evolution of the Moon. Of interest in this work is sample 71036, a basalt collected from the rim of Steno crater in the Taurus–Littrow Valley, which was stored frozen and was processed and released for study 50 years later. We report, for the first time, the detailed mineralogy and petrology of 71036 and its companion samples 71035, 71037, and 71055 using a novel combination of 2-D and 3-D methods. We investigate lunar volatiles through in situ measurements of apatite and 3-D measurements of vesicles to understand the degassing histories of the Steno crater basalts. Our coupled 2-D petrography and 3-D tomography data sets support a model of the Steno crater basalts crystallizing in the upper crust of a mare lava flow. Apatite F and OH chemistry and the late-stage deformation of voids and formation of smaller vesicles provide evidence supporting coeval degassing of volatiles and crystallization of mesostasis apatite in Apollo 17 basalts. This work helps to close knowledge gaps surrounding the origin, magmatic evolution, emplacement, and crystallization history of high-titanium basalts.     

The recent capture of the periodic comet P/Scotti (2000 Y3)

Numerical integrations of 99 orbits centered on that of comet P/Scotti (P/2000 Y3), and of the nominal orbit, were made 4000 days backwards in time, and 73000 days into the future. The integrations show that this comet has been transferred into its present orbit as recently as 1998. The future orbital evolution indicates a stable period for almost 150 years, when another close encounter with Jupiter may lead to further drastic changes of the present orbit.