Use of geospatial technology for delineating groundwater potential zones with an emphasis on water-table analysis in Dwarka River basin,Birbhum, India

Dwarka River basin in Birbhum, West Bengal (India), is an agriculture-dominated area where groundwater plays a crucial role. The basin experiences seasonal water stress conditions with a scarcity of surface water. In the presented study, delineation of groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) is carried out using a geospatial multi-influencing factor technique. Geology, geomorphology, soil type, land use/land cover, rainfall, lineament and fault density, drainage density, slope, and elevation of the study area were considered for the delineation of GWPZs in the study area. About 9.3, 71.9 and 18.8% of the study area falls within good, moderate and poor groundwater potential zones, respectively. The potential groundwater yield data corroborate the outcome of the model, with maximum yield in the older floodplain and minimum yield in the hard-rock terrains in the western and south-western regions. Validation of the GWPZs using the yield of 148 wells shows very high accuracy of the model prediction, i.e., 89.1% on superimposition and 85.1 and 81.3% on success and prediction rates, respectively. Measurement of the seasonal water-table fluctuation with a multiplicative model of time series for predicting the short-term trend of the water table, followed by chi-square analysis between the predicted and observed water-table depth, indicates a trend of falling groundwater levels, with a 5% level of significance and a p-value of 0.233. The rainfall pattern for the last 3 years of the study shows a moderately positive correlation (R ² = 0.308) with the average water-table depth in the study area.     

A review of cyclone track shifts over the Great Lakes of North America: implications for storm surges

Natural Hazards - Cyclone tracks over the Great Lakes of North America shift, both East–West as well as North–South. The reasons for the shifts are various small-scale as well as...     

Thermal evolution of trans‐Neptunian objects,icy satellites,and minor icy planets in the early solar system

Numerical simulations are performed to understand the early thermal evolution and planetary scale differentiation of icy bodies with the radii in the range of 100–2500 km. These icy bodies include trans‐Neptunian objects, minor icy planets (e.g., Ceres, Pluto); the icy satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; and probably the icy‐rocky cores of these planets. The decay energy of the radionuclides, ²⁶Al, ⁶⁰Fe, ⁴⁰K, ²³⁵U, ²³⁸U, and ²³²Th, along with the impact‐induced heating during the accretion of icy bodies were taken into account to thermally evolve these planetary bodies. The simulations were performed for a wide range of initial ice and rock (dust) mass fractions of the icy bodies. Three distinct accretion scenarios were used. The sinking of the rock mass fraction in primitive water oceans produced by the substantial melting of ice could lead to planetary scale differentiation with the formation of a rocky core that is surrounded by a water ocean and an icy crust within the initial tens of millions of years of the solar system in case the planetary bodies accreted prior to the substantial decay of ²⁶Al. However, over the course of billions of years, the heat produced due to ⁴⁰K, ²³⁵U, ²³⁸U, and ²³²Th could have raised the temperature of the interiors of the icy bodies to the melting point of iron and silicates, thereby leading to the formation of an iron core. Our simulations indicate the presence of an iron core even at the center of icy bodies with radii ≥500 km for different ice mass fractions.     

Effect of contrasting climates on antioxidant and bioactive constituents in five medicinal herbs in Western Himalayas

To understand the effect of climate change on constitutive antioxidant and biochemical metabolites in Western Himalayas, five medicinal herbs were selected and grown at two altitudes in Jammu (305 m) and Srinagar (1730 m) with subtropical and temperate climates, respectively. Significant variations were observed in phenols and flavonoids in Hypericum perforatum L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Thymus vulgaris L., Cynara cardunculus L. and Echinacea purpurea L. growing at two locations. High altitude temperate site show variable (up to 13 fold) increase in their content. Proteins (1.3 – 1.8 times), sugars (2.8 – 4.1 times) and free amino acid (1.04 – 1.22 times) were also higher at Srinagar (1730 m). Within these plants, H. perforatum and M. chamomilla have shown higher accumulation of phenols, xanthophylls and proline even at subtropical environment in Jammu (305 m) suggesting potential for increasing their geographical area. The results demonstrate that changing environmental conditions significantly affect the bioactive constituents, which accumulate as a defence strategy by these temperate plants. Their medicinal significance during climate change scenario has also been discussed.     

The in-plane motion of a Geosynchronous satellite under the gravitational attraction of the sun,the moon and the oblate earth

The in-plane motion of a Geosynchronous satellite under the gravitational effects of the sun, the moon and the oblate earth has been studied. The radial deviation (Δr) and the tangential deviation (r _cΔθ) have been determined. Herer _c represents the synchronous altitude. It has been seen that the sum of the oscillatory terms in Δr for different inclinations is a small finite quantity whereas the sum of the oscillatory terms inr _cΔθ for different inclinations is quite large due to the presence of the low-frequency terms in the denominator     

Effect of hot injections on electromagnetic ion-cyclotron waves in inner magnetosphere of Saturn

Encounter of Voyager with Saturn’s environment revealed the presence of electromagnetic ion-cyclotron waves (EMIC) in Saturnian magnetosphere. Cassini provided the evidence of dynamic particle injections in inner magnetosphere of Saturn. Also inner magnetosphere of Saturn has highest rotational flow shear as compared to any other planet in our solar system. Hence during these injections, electrons and ions are transported to regions of stronger magnetic field, thus gaining energy. The dynamics of the inner magnetosphere of Saturn are governed by wave-particle interaction. In present paper we have investigated those EMIC waves pertaining in background plasma which propagates obliquely with respect to the magnetic field of Saturn. Applying kinetic approach, the expression for dispersion relation and growth rate has been derived. Magnetic field model has been used to incorporate magnetic field strength at different latitudes for radial distance of \(6.18~R_{{s}}\) (\(1~R_{{s}}= 60{,}268~\mbox{km}\)). Various parameters affecting the growth of EMIC waves in cold bi-Maxwellian background and after the hot injections has been studied. Parametric analysis inferred that after hot injections, growth rate of EMIC waves increases till \(10^{\circ}\) and decreases eventually with increase in latitude due to ion density distribution in near-equatorial region. Also, growth rate of EMIC waves increases with increasing value of temperature anisotropy and AC frequency, but the growth rate decreases as the angle of propagation with respect to \(B_{0}\) (Magnetic field at equator) increases. The injection events which assume the Loss-cone distribution of particles, affect the lower wave numbers of the spectra.     

Changes in the industrial structure of India's male working force, 1961-81

The post-Independence period in India has witnessed a gradual decline of some occupations and services and the emergence of others. In the present paper an attempt has been made to analyze the change in the industrial structure of India's male working force by calculating an index of change. The index so calculated for 2 decades separately (1961-1971 and 1971-1981) is portrayed cartographically. The overall low degree of change recorded by the country's male working force establishes the weakness of India's industrial infrastructure. Consequently, the secondary sector seems to have failed in generating employment opportunities on a large scale. Regionally, the peripheral areas have recorded a higher incidence of change than the interior heartland of the country. The areas that were overwhelmingly agricultural and had experienced developments in the field of agriculture alone exhibited a low degree of change in comparison to those that had experienced developments both in the field of agriculture and industry. During the last inter-censal period (1971-1981) the country recorded an accelerated rate of change in the industrial structure of its male working force. Spatially too, the increasing rate of change has spread to new regions.     

Robe’s restricted problem of 2+2 bodies with one of the primaries an oblate body

In this problem, one of the primaries of mass \(m^{*}_{1}\) is a rigid spherical shell filled with a homogeneous incompressible fluid of density ρ ₁. The smaller primary of mass m ₂ is an oblate body outside the shell. The third and the fourth bodies (of mass m ₃ and m ₄ respectively) are small solid spheres of density ρ ₃ and ρ ₄ respectively inside the shell, with the assumption that the mass and the radius of the third and the fourth body are infinitesimal. We assume that m ₂ is describing a circle around \(m^{*}_{1}\) . The masses m ₃ and m ₄ mutually attract each other, do not influence the motions of \(m^{*}_{1}\) and m ₂ but are influenced by them. We also assume that masses m ₃ and m ₄ are moving in the plane of motion of mass m ₂. In the paper, equilibrium solutions of m ₃ and m ₄ and their linear stability are analyzed. There are two collinear equilibrium solutions for the system. The non collinear equilibrium solutions exist only when ρ ₃=ρ ₄. There exist an infinite number of non collinear equilibrium solutions of the system, provided they lie inside the spherical shell. In a system where the primaries are considered as earth-moon and m ₃,m ₄ as submarines, the collinear equilibrium solutions thus obtained are unstable for the mass parameters μ,μ ₃,μ ₄ and oblateness factor A. In this particular case there are no non-collinear equilibrium solutions of the system.     

Multiwavelength study of the transient X-ray binary IGR J01583+6713

We have investigated multiband optical photometric variability and stability of the Hα line profile of the transient X-ray binary IGR J01583+6713. We set an upper limit of 0.05 mag on photometric variations in the V band over a time-scale of three months. The Hα line is found to consist of non-Gaussian profile and quite stable for a duration of two months. We have identified the spectral type of the companion star to be B2 IVe while the distance to the source is estimated to be ∼4.0 kpc. Along with the optical observations, we have also carried out analysis of X-ray data from three short observations of the source, two with the Swift –XRT and one with the RXTE –PCA. We have detected a variation in the absorption column density, from a value of  22.0 × 10²² cm⁻²  immediately after the outburst down to  2.6 × 10²² cm⁻²  four months afterwards. In the quiescent state, the X-ray absorption is consistent with the optical reddening measurement of   E ( B − V ) = 1.46  mag. From one of the Swift observations, during which the X-ray intensity was higher, we have a possible pulse detection with a period of 469.2 s. For a Be X-ray binary, this indicates an orbital period in the range of 216–561 d for this binary system.