Hydrological signals in height and gravity in northeastern Italy inferred from principal components analysis

This work describes a study of GPS heights, gravity and hydrological time series collected by stations located in northeastern Italy. During the last 12 years, changes in the long-term behaviors of the GPS heights and gravity time series are observed. In particular, starting in 2004–2005, a height increase is observed over the whole area. The temporal and spatial variability of these parameters has been studied as well as those of key hydrological variables, namely precipitation, hydrological balance and water table by using the Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) analysis. The coupled variability between the GPS heights and the hydrological balance and precipitation data has been investigated by means of the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) approach. Significant common patterns in the spatial and temporal variability of these parameters have been recognized. In particular, hydrology-induced variations are clearly observable starting in 2002–2003 in the southern part of the Po Plain for the longest time series, and from 2004–2005 over the whole area. These findings, obtained by means of purely mathematical approaches, are supported by sound physical interpretation suggesting that the climate-related fluctuations in the regional/local hydrological regime are one of the main contributors to the observed variations. A regional scale signal has been identified in the GPS station heights; it is characterized by the opposite behavior of the southern and northern stations in response to the hydrological forcing. At Medicina, in the southern Po Plain, the EOF analysis has shown a marked common signal between the GPS heights and the Superconducting Gravimeter (SG) data both over the long and the short period.     

On the origin of equatorial Atlantic biases in coupled general circulation models

Many coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models (GCMs) suffer serious biases in the tropical Atlantic including a southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the annual mean, a westerly bias in equatorial surface winds, and a failure to reproduce the eastern equatorial cold tongue in boreal summer. The present study examines an ensemble of coupled GCMs and their uncoupled atmospheric component to identify common sources of error. It is found that the westerly wind bias also exists in the atmospheric GCMs forced with observed sea surface temperature, but only in boreal spring. During this time sea-level pressure is anomalously high (low) in the western (eastern) equatorial Atlantic, which appears to be related to deficient (excessive) precipitation over tropical South America (Africa). In coupled simulations, this westerly bias leads to a deepening of the thermocline in the east, which prevents the equatorial cold tongue from developing in boreal summer. Thus reducing atmospheric model errors during boreal spring may lead to improved coupled simulations of tropical Atlantic climate.     

Isotopic fractionation of the major elements of molten basalt by chemical and thermal diffusion

Samples produced in piston cylinder experiments were used to document the thermal isotopic fractionation of all the major elements of basalt except for aluminum and the fractionation of iron isotopes by chemical diffusion between a natural basalt and rhyolite. The thermal isotopic fractionations are summarized in terms of a parameter Ω_i defined as the fractionation in per mil per 100 °C per atomic mass units difference between the isotopes. For molten basalt we report Ω_Ca = 1.6, Ω_Fe = 1.1, Ω_Si = 0.6, Ω_O = 1.5. In an earlier paper we reported Ω_Mg = 3.6. These fractionations represent a steady state balance between thermal diffusion and chemical diffusion with the mass dependence of the thermal diffusion coefficient being significantly larger than the mass dependence of the chemical diffusion coefficients for isotopes of the same element. The iron isotopic measurements of the basalt-rhyolite diffusion couple showed significant fractionation that are parameterized in terms of a parameter β_Fe = 0.03 when the ratio of the diffusion coefficients D₅₄ and D₅₆ of ⁵⁴Fe and ⁵⁶Fe is expressed in terms of the atomic mass as D₅₄/D₅₆ = (56/54)^β_Fe. This value of β_Fe is smaller than what we had measured earlier for lithium, magnesium and calcium (i.e., β_Li = 0.215, β_Ca = 0.05, β_Mg = 0.05) but still significant when one takes into account the high precision with which iron isotopic compositions can be measured (i.e., ±0.03‰) and that iron isotope fractionations at magmatic temperatures from other causes are extremely small. In a closing section we discuss technological and geological applications of isotopic fractionations driven by either or both chemical and thermal gradients.     

Non-traditional fractionation of non-traditional isotopes: Evaporation,chemical diffusion and Soret diffusion

Recent developments documenting high temperature isotope fractionations of a variety of elements (Li, Mg, Si, Ca, Fe, Ni) by a variety of processes (evaporation, chemical diffusion and thermal diffusion) are reviewed along with some recent applications of these fractionations to Earth and meteoritic problems.     

A potential new method for determining the temperature of cool stars

We present high-resolution  ( R = 90 000)  mid-infrared spectra of M dwarfs. The mid-infrared region of the spectra of cool low-mass stars contains pure rotational water vapour transitions that may provide us with a new methodology in the determination of the effective temperatures for low-mass stars. We identify and assign water transitions in these spectra and determine how sensitive each pure rotational water transition is to small (25 K) changes in effective temperature. We find that, of the 36 confirmed and assigned pure rotational water transitions, at least 10 should be sensitive enough to be used as temperature indicators.     

Spectroradiometric requirements for the reflective module of the airborne spectrometer ARES

The Airborne Reflective/Emissive Spectrometer is specified as a whisk-broom imaging spectrometer for remote sensing of land surfaces covering the wavelength regions 0.47-2.45 /spl mu/m and 8-12 /spl mu/m with 160 spectral bands. The instrument is being built by Integrated Spectronics, financed by the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) and the GeoResearch Centre Potsdam (GFZ) and will be available to the scientific community from end 2005 on. The spectroradiometric design is based on scientific requirements derived from three main application scenarios comprising vegetation, soil, and mineral sciences. Two of these are described in this letter. Measured or modeled reflectance spectra are input to a simulation model that calculates at-sensor radiance spectra, resamples them with the channel-specific response functions, adds different amounts of noise in the radiance domain, and performs a retrieval to get the corresponding noisy surface reflectance spectra. The retrieval results as a function of the sensor noise level are compared with the accuracy requirements imposed by the different application fields taking into account the technical boundary conditions. The final specifications account for the most demanding requirements of the three application fields: a spectral sampling distance of 13-14 nm in the 470-1800 nm region, and 12 nm in the 2000-2450-nm region. The required noise-equivalent radiances are 5, 3, and 2 nW/spl middot/cm/sup -2//spl middot/sr/sup -1//spl middot/nm/sup -1/ for the spectral regions 470-1000, 1000-1800, and 2000-2450 nm, respectively.     

Tomographic radiotracer studies of the spatial distribution of heterogeneous geochemical transport processes

Within the scope of the further development of geochemical transport models the consideration of the influence of the heterogeneous structures of the geological layers plays an important role. For the verification and parameter estimation of such models it is necessary to measure the heterogeneous transport and sorption processes inside the samples. Tomographic radiotracer methods (positron emission tomography (PET)) enable nondestructive spatially resolved observations of the transport processes in these layers. A special quantitative evaluation system for geoscientific PET studies was developed. Investigations of the water flow distribution in a drill core of a lignite mining dump and of the migration of Cu ions in a horizontal soil column illustrate the potential of this method. Spatial distribution functions of the flow velocity, the specific mass flow and the longitudinal dispersivity were determined on the basis of PET investigations.     

Orbit determination and analysis for Cosmos 58 at 15th-order resonance, to evaluate geopotential harmonics of order 15 and 30

The orbital parameters of Cosmos 58 have been determined at 65 epochs from some 4500 observations, between March 1982 and September 1983, using the RAE orbit refinement program, PROP. During this time, the satellite passed slowly through 15th-order resonance, and the orbital inclination and eccentricity have been analysed. Six lumped 15th-order geopotential harmonic coefficients have been evaluated, with an accuracy equivalent to between 0.8 and 2.0cm in geoid height. Six 30th-order coefficients have also been determined, with accuracies between 2 and 7 cm in geoid height. The coefficients have been compared with those from the GEM 10B and 10C models. There is good agreement for nine of the twelve coefficients.     

Dynamic response of elastic plates on the surface of the half-space

A ‘mixed method’ for the dynamic calculation of foundations on soil is presented. The half-space is computed analytically, the foundation with finite elements. The method is very well suited for the solution of three-dimensional problems including interaction. Numerical results for a simple case involving a dynamically loaded elastic plate are presented and the influence of plate stiffness is studied.