Variations in statistical parameters of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">NmF</Emphasis>2 winter anomaly with latitude and solar activity

The maximal R ratios of the winter-to-summer NmF2 values of each ionosonde are calculated for a specified UT under daytime quiet geomagnetic conditions and at approximately equal levels of solar activity, based on foF2 measurement data of 98 ionosondes at mid- and low geomagnetic latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres for 1957–2009. The P(R > 1) conditional probability of NmF2 winter anomaly observations, as well as the most probable RMP and average <R> of R values are calculated for low, moderate, and high solar activity on the base of foF2 measurements during the periods December 22 ± 30 days and June 21 ± 30 days. Variations in P(R > 1), RMP, and 〈R〉 with latitude and solar activity are analyzed.     

Storm surge mitigation through vegetation canopies

The paper of Reid and Whitaker (1976) on the effects of a vegetation canopy on flow of water is re-examined. Their assumptions on the equality of various drag coefficients are replaced by more realistic calculations. A new method for calculating wind stress on water is presented for the case when the vegetation extends above the water surface.For the case of vanishingly small water depth, it is shown that the horizontal stress is approximately constant in the vertical. This results in a diagnostic relationship for the water current as a function of the wind stress and bottom roughness.A new expression for the vertically averaged frictional force per unit mass is derived on the assumption that the friction velocity varies linearly with height. The vertical rate of change of friction velocity depends on the mean water current, the wind stress, the bottom roughness, and the water depth. This work has a possible application in the mitigation of storm surges.     

The impact of physical processes on pollutant transport in Hangzhou Bay

A Lagrangian tracer model is set up for Hangzhou Bay based on Coupled Hydrodynamical Ecological model for Regional Shelf Sea (COHERENS). The study area is divided into eight subdomains to identify the dominant physical processes, and the studied periods are March (the dry season) and July (the wet season). The model performance has been first verified by sea-surface elevation and tidal current observations at several stations. Eight tracer experiments are designed and Lagrangian particle tracking is simulated to examine the impact of physical processes (tide, wind and river runoff) on the transport of passive tracer released within the surface layer. Numerical simulations and analysis indicate that: (1) wind does not change the tracer distribution after 30 days except for those released from the south area of the bay during the wet season; (2) the tide and the Qiantang River runoff are important for particle transport in the head area of the bay; (3) the Changjiang River runoff affects the tracer transport at the mouth of the bay, and its impact is smaller in the dry season than in the wet season. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No.40576080); National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, No. 2007AA12Z182)     

Oil pollution of the anabranches of the Ob river on the territory of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra

An analysis is made of the oil pollution of the Ob river waters using a long-term (1993–2013) hydrochemical monitoring of oil fields in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Contents of oil hydrocarbons (OHC) were determined in 4277 samples from the main Ob channel, and in 7076 samples from its anabranches by using infrared spectrometry. An increase in MAC (0.05 mg/dm³) was observed in 28% of the samples from the main channel, and in 32% from the anabranches. The total percentage of samples with an extremely high (> 50 MAC) and high (30–50 MAC) pollution level made up 0.3% of the samples for the anabranches, and 0.1% for the main channel. Maximum pollution was revealed in the eastern part of Okrug, from its eastern boundary to the mouth of the Trom’egan river which is associated with a considerable number of accidents on the pipelines within the Nizhnevartovskii district. The upper and lower quantiles in the most polluted anabranches, Pasl and Bagras, are 0.03–01.7 and 0.032–0.16 mg/dm³, respectively, whereas in the main Ob channel they vary from 0.022 to 0.065 mg/dm³ (0.4–1.2 MAC). The methods of geoinformatics and mathematical statistics were used to assess a dependence of OHC on the number of pollution sources (well clusters, and the area of oil spills) in zones at different distances from the river channels. By calculating the Spearman correlation coefficients, it was shown that OHC contents are dependent mainly on the number of wells, and on the area of oil spills located at less than 2 km from the channels.     

The Eastern Congo—a beauty spot,rediscovered from a geological point of view

In East Africa, the feedback between tectonic uplift, erosional denudation and associated possible climate changes is being studied by a multidisciplinary research group, ‘Riftlink’. The group's focus is the Albertine Rift, the northern part of the western branch of the East African Rift System, and in particular the rising Rwenzori Mountains that stretch along the border of the D.R. Congo and Uganda. Major questions relate to the timing of the formation of the Rwenzori Mountains, and whether the height of these mountains (> 5000 m) relates to rift movements in Neogene times, or represents an old basement block that formed a topographic high long before. Though, at first, research concentrated on the eastern (Ugandan) part of the Albertine Rift and Rwenzori Mountains, it has now moved further to the west to the D.R. Congo. A first field‐campaign, covering the area from northern Lake Edward along the rift shoulder up to the Blue Mountains at Lake Albert, was conducted in summer 2009, in cooperation with the Ruwenzori State University of Butembo. Here, we present a brief overview of the field‐campaign, with impressions gathered on the morphology and geology of the study area.     

Digital topography models for Martian surfaces

We propose to use an unsupervised automated classification of topographic features on Mars in order to speed up geomorphic and geologic mapping of the planet. We construct a digital topography model (DTM), a multilayer grid that stores various kinds of topographical information for every pixel in a site. The method uses a probabilistic clustering algorithm to assign topographically meaningful labels to all pixels in the DTM. The results are displayed as a thematic map of topography. Resultant topographical features are characterized and compared using statistics of their constituent pixels. We demonstrate the usage of our method by classifying and characterizing the topography of a landscape in the Tisia Valles region on Mars. We discuss extensions and further applications of our method.     

Characterization of deep saline aquifers in the Bécancour area,St. Lawrence Lowlands,Québec,Canada: implications for CO2 geological storage

The present paper provides a case study of the assessment of the potential for CO₂ storage in the deep saline aquifers of the Bécancour region in southern Québec. This assessment was based on a hydrogeological and petrophysical characterization using existing and newly acquired core and well log data from hydrocarbon exploration wells. Analyses of data obtained from different sources provide a good understanding of the reservoir hydrogeology and petrophysics. Profiles of formation pressure, temperature, density, viscosity, porosity, permeability, and net pay were established for Lower Paleozoic sedimentary aquifers. Lateral hydraulic continuity is dominant at the regional scale, whereas vertical discontinuities are apparent for most physical and chemical properties. The Covey Hill sandstone appears as the most suitable saline aquifer for CO₂ injection/storage. This unit is found at a depth of more than 1 km and has the following properties: fluid pressures exceed 14 MPa, temperature is above 35 °C, salinity is about 108,500 mg/l, matrix permeability is in the order of 3 × 10^?16 m² (0.3 mDarcy) with expected higher values of formation-scale permeability due to the presence of natural fractures, mean porosity is 6 %, net pay reaches 282 m, available pore volume per surface area is 17 m³/m², rock compressibility is 2 × 10^?9 Pa^?1 and capillary displacement pressure of brine by CO₂ is about 0.4 MPa. While the containment for CO₂ storage in the Bécancour saline aquifers can be ensured by appropriate reservoir characteristics, the injectivity of CO₂ and the storage capacity could be limiting factors due to the overall low permeability of aquifers. This characterization offers a solid basis for the subsequent development of a numerical hydrogeological model, which will be used for CO₂ injection capacity estimation, CO₂ injection scenarios and risk assessment.     

Neoproterozoic Volhynia-Brest magmatic province in the western East European craton: Within-plate magmatism in an ancient suture zone

The reasons for the isotopic and geochemical heterogeneity of magmatism of the Neoproterozoic large Volhynia-Brest igneous province (VBP) are considered. The province was formed at 550 Ma in response to the break up of the Rodinia supercontinent and extends along the western margin of the East European craton, being discordant to the Paleoproterozoic mobile zone that separates Sarmatia and Fennoscandia and the Mesoproterozoic Volhynia-Orsha aulacogen. The basalts of VBP show prominent spatiotemporal geochemical zoning. Based on petrographic, mineralogical, geochemical, and isotopic data, the following types of basalts can be distinguished: olivine-normative subalkaline basalts consisting of low-Ti (sLT, < 1.10–2.0 wt % TiO₂; ε_Nd(550) from ?6.6 to ?2.7) and medium-Ti (sMT, 2.0–3.0 wt % TiO₂, occasionally up to 3.6 wt % TiO₂; ε_Nd(550) from ?3.55 to + 0.6) varieties; normal quartz-normative basalts (tholeiites) including low-Ti (tLT, < 1.75–2.0 wt % TiO₂) and medium-to-high-Ti (tHT1, 2.0–3.6 wt % TiO₂, ε_Nd(550) from ?1.3 to + 1.0) varieties. The hypabyssal bodies are made up of subalkaline low-Ti olivine dolerites (LT, 1.2–1.5 wt % TiO₂; ε_Nd(550) = ?5.8) and subalkaline high-Ti olivine gabbrodolerites (HT2, 3.0–4.5 wt % TiO₂; ε_Nd(550) = ?2.5). Felsic rocks of VBP are classed as volcanic rocks of normal (andesidacites, dacites, and rhyodacites) and subalkaline (trachyrhyodacites) series with TiO₂ 0.72–0.77 wt% and ε_Nd(550) of ?12. The central part of VBP is underlain by a Paleoproterozoic domain formed by continent-arc accretion and contains widespread sills of HT2 dolerites and lavas of LT basalts; the northern part of the province is underlain by the juvenile Paleoproterozoic crust dominated by MT and HT1 basalts. MT and LT basalts underwent significant AFC-style upper crustal contamination. During their long residence in the upper crustal magmatic chambers, the basaltic melts fractionated and caused notable heating of the wall rocks and, correspondingly, nonmodal melting of the upper crustal protolith containing high-Rb phase (biotite), thus producing the most felsic rocks of the province. The basalts of VBP were derived from geochemically different sources: probably, the lithosphere and a deep-seated plume (PREMA type). The HT2 dolerites were generated mainly from a lithospheric source: by 3–4% melting of the geochemically enriched garnet lherzolite mantle. LT dolerites were obtained by partial melting of the modally metasomatized mantle containing volatile-bearing phases. The concepts of VBP formation were summarized in the model of three-stage plume-lithosphere interaction.     

How Well Does Chlorophyll Explain the Seasonal Variation in Phytoplankton Activity?

The seasonal variation in phytoplankton activity is determined by analysing 1385 primary production (PP) profiles, chlorophyll a (Chl) concentration profiles and phytoplankton carbon biomass concentrations (C) from the period 1998–2012. The data was collected at six different stations in the Baltic Sea transition zone (BSTZ) which is a location with strong seasonal production patterns with light as the key parameter controlling this productivity. We show that the use of Chl as a proxy for phytoplankton activity strongly overestimates the contribution from the spring production to annual pelagic carbon flow. Spring (February and March) Chl comprised 16–30% of the total annual Chl produced, whereas spring C was much lower (8–23%) compared to the annual C. Spring PP accounted for 10–18% of the total annual PP, while the July–August production contributed 26–33%, i.e. within the time frame when zooplankton biomass and grazing pressure are highest. That is, Chl failed in this study to reflect the importance of the high summer PP. A better proxy for biomass may be C, which correlated well with the seasonal pattern of PP (Pearson correlation, p < 0.05). Thus, this study suggests to account for the strong seasonal pattern in C/Chl ratios when considering carbon flow in coastal systems. Seasonal data for PP were fitted to a simple sinusoidal wave model describing the seasonal distribution of PP in the BSTZ and were proposed to present a better parameterizaton of PP in shallow stratified temperate regions than more commonly applied proxies.     

Response of A Gravel - Bed River To Dam Closure: Insights From Sediment Transport Processes And Channel Morphodynamics

This work deals with the impacts of dams on large gravel -bed rivers in terms of altering coarse transport regimes and the relationship with river morphodynamics. Using data collected by a tracer -based monitoring programme carried out in a 4 -km -long study sector of the Parma River (Italy), located downstream from a relatively recently established dam, we applied a virtual velocity approach to estimate the coarse bed material load at four river cross -sections. Monitoring and calculation results provided new insights into the impacts of the dam on streambed material mobility and the sediment regime over the 17 -month calculation period. A longitudinal gradient of effects was observed along the study sector. Sections located closer to the dam are characterized by more evident impacts due to deficits in coarse sediment input from upstream. Sediment mobility here is strongly altered, especially in the highly armoured main channel, and the overall bed material load is extremely low. A partial recovery of sediment dynamics was observed at the sections located further from the dam, where estimates indicate higher sediment yield. The observed longitudinal trend in the coarse sediment transport regime matches the morphology, as the river shifts downstream from a sinuous configuration with alternate bars to a wandering one. The novel insights into alteration of coarse sediment dynamics and the relationship with river morphodynamics are potentially applicable to many other fluvial contexts affected by similar impoundments. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.