On the relationship of thunderstorm ice hydrometeor characteristics and total lightning measurements

Satellite-borne and ground-based devices for the detection of lightning offer the opportunity to explore relationships–on all significant scales up to global–between lightning frequency, f, and other thundercloud parameters. Calculations predict that f is proportional to the product of the downflux p of solid precipitation and the upward mass flux, I, of ice crystals. This prediction has received support from limited computational studies. The physical reasons for such a relationship are explained in terms of the paramount role of ice in the electrification of thunderstorms. Herein, this prediction is subjected to further, preliminary examination through analysis of lightning and dual-polarimetric radar data collected during the STERAO experiment conducted in Northern Colorado during the summer of 1996. The analysis has yielded some highly provisional support for this flux hypothesis. Computed trends of radar derived hydrometeor fractions of solid precipitation and small ice show correlation to the total lightning frequency and raise the possibility of determining values of p and/or I from lightning measurements.It is shown that the extent to which the observed correlations between f and both solid precipitation and small ice trends are or are not strong can provide an indication as to whether the lightning activity is limited by the available concentrations of precipitating or non-precipitating ice in the upper regions of the charging zone of the thundercloud, where most of the charge transfer occurs. It is demonstrated that the most accurate determinations of precipitation rate p from measurements of lighting frequency f are likely to be for conditions where the field-growth is limited by the availability of graupel pellets. It is shown that the simultaneous time variations of f and solid precipitation trends of the type obtained in the STERAO experiment could enable us to determine the nature of the dominant glaciation process operative in the thunderclouds studied.     

Modeling and optimizing a gas—water reservoir: Enhanced recovery with waterflooding

Accepted practice dictates that waterflooding of gas reservoirs should commence, if ever, only when the reservoir pressure has declined to the minimum production pressure. Analytical proof of this hypothesis has yet to appear in the literature however. This paper considers a model for a gas-water reservoir with a variable production rate and enhanced recovery with waterflooding and, using an initial dynamic programming approach, confirms the above hypothesis.     

Osumilite-sapphirine-quartz granulites from Enderby Land Antarctica — Mineral assemblages and reactions

The pre-Cambrian granulites of Enderby Land Antarctica, contain coexisting spinel-quartz, sapphirine-quartz, hypersthene-sillimanite-quartz and osumilite on a regional extent. Osumilite is present in a variety of mineral assemblages, most of which are documented in granulites for the first time. The mineral assemblages, reactions and compositional zoning in minerals are discussed in terms of continuous and discontinuous reactions in response to changing conditions of metamorphism. The development of many of the mineral coronas can be explained by continuous rather than discontinuous reactions, due to the effects of Mg-Fe and (Mg,Fe)-2Al exchange equilibria with decreasing temperature. The highest P-T conditions of metamorphism (8–10 kb, 900 °–980 ° C, Ellis, in preparation) were beyond the stability limit of coexisting garnet-cordierite. Secondary cordierite has developed through a large number of mineral reactions in response to cooling of these granulites.A theoretical analysis of the phase relations involving osumilite in the chemical systems K₂O-MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ and K₂O-MgO-FeO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ is presented. In the pure Mg-system the lower temperature stability limit of Mg-osumilite is inferred to be defined with increasing pressure by the reactions OsCd+En+Kfeld+Qtz, OsSa+En+Kfeld+Qtz, OsSill+En+Kfeld+Qtz. In iron-bearing systems an important reaction involving osumilite is Os+GtCd+Hy+Kfeld+Qtz.At moderate temperatures and pressures, osumilite is limited to rocks which lie on the Mg-rich side of the Cd-Hy stable tie line on an AFM diagram. At higher pressures and temperatures osumilite occurs in a widerrange of rock compositions because of the stability of coexisting garnet and osumilite. Petrographic data, as well as chemographic relations indicate that for many common rock compositions, garnet, cordierite, hypersthene, sapphirine and sillimanite cannot coexist with both osumilite and K-feldspar.Published with the permission of the Director, Bureau of Mineral Resources     

Pixel-based correction for Charge Transfer Inefficiency in the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys

Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) due to radiation damage above the Earth's atmosphere creates spurious trailing in Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) images. Radiation damage also creates unrelated warm pixels – but these happen to be perfect for measuring CTI. We model CTI in the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)/Wide Field Channel and construct a physically motivated correction scheme. This operates on raw data, rather than secondary science products, by returning individual electrons to pixels from which they were unintentionally dragged during readout. We apply our correction to images from the HST Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), successfully reducing the CTI trails by a factor of ∼30 everywhere in the CCD and at all flux levels. We quantify changes in galaxy photometry, astrometry and shape. The remarkable 97 per cent level of correction is more than sufficient to enable a (forthcoming) reanalysis of downstream science products and the collection of larger surveys.