GPU accelerated radio astronomy signal convolution

The increasing array size of radio astronomy interferometers is causing the associated computation to scale quadratically with the number of array signals. Consequently, efficient usage of alternate processing architectures should be explored in order to meet this computational challenge. Affordable parallel processors have been made available to the general scientific community in the form of the commodity graphics card. This work investigates the use of the Graphics Processing Unit in the parallelisation of the combined conjugate multiply and accumulation stage of a correlator for a radio astronomy array. Using NVIDIA’s Compute Unified Device Architecture, our testing shows processing speeds from one to two orders of magnitude faster than a Central Processing Unit approach.     

Geographically weighted methods and their use in network re-designs for environmental monitoring

Given an initial spatial sampling campaign, it is often of importance to conduct a second, more targeted campaign based on the properties of the first. Here a network re-design modifies the first one by adding and/or removing sites so that maximum information is preserved. Commonly, this optimisation is constrained by limited sampling funds and a reduced sample network is sought. To this extent, we demonstrate the use of geographically weighted methods combined with a location-allocation algorithm, as a means to design a second-phase sampling campaign in univariate, bivariate and multivariate contexts. As a case study, we use a freshwater chemistry data set covering much of Great Britain. Applying the two-stage procedure enables the optimal identification of a pre-specified number of sites, providing maximum spatial and univariate/bivariate/multivariate water chemistry information for the second campaign. Network re-designs that account for the buffering capacity of a freshwater site to acidification are also conducted. To complement the use of basic methods, robust alternatives are used to reduce the effect of anomalous observations on the re-designs. Our non-stationary re-design framework is general and provides a relatively simple and a viable alternative to geostatistical re-design procedures that are commonly adopted. Particularly in the multivariate case, it represents an important methodological advance.     

Semiautomatic and Automatic Cooperative Inversion of Seismic and Magnetotelluric Data

Natural source electromagnetic methods have the potential to recover rock property distributions from the surface to great depths. Unfortunately, results in complex 3D geo-electrical settings can be disappointing, especially where significant near-surface conductivity variations exist. In such settings, unconstrained inversion of magnetotelluric data is inexorably non-unique. We believe that: (1) correctly introduced information from seismic reflection can substantially improve MT inversion, (2) a cooperative inversion approach can be automated, and (3) massively parallel computing can make such a process viable. Nine inversion strategies including baseline unconstrained inversion and new automated/semiautomated cooperative inversion approaches are applied to industry-scale co-located 3D seismic and magnetotelluric data sets. These data sets were acquired in one of the Carlin gold deposit districts in north-central Nevada, USA. In our approach, seismic information feeds directly into the creation of sets of prior conductivity model and covariance coefficient distributions. We demonstrate how statistical analysis of the distribution of selected seismic attributes can be used to automatically extract subvolumes that form the framework for prior model 3D conductivity distribution. Our cooperative inversion strategies result in detailed subsurface conductivity distributions that are consistent with seismic, electrical logs and geochemical analysis of cores. Such 3D conductivity distributions would be expected to provide clues to 3D velocity structures that could feed back into full seismic inversion for an iterative practical and truly cooperative inversion process. We anticipate that, with the aid of parallel computing, cooperative inversion of seismic and magnetotelluric data can be fully automated, and we hold confidence that significant and practical advances in this direction have been accomplished.     

Probable effects of heat advection on the adjacent environment during oil production at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

The latest available data for mean annual air temperature at sites away from the Arctic coast in both Alaska and the Yukon Territory show no significant warming in the last 30~50 years. However, around the Arctic coast of northwest North America centered on Prudhoe Bay, the weather stations show significant warming of both the air and the ocean water, resulting in substantial losses in sea ice west of Prudhoe Bay. These changes appeared shortly after the commencement of shipment of oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1977, but have now reached a quasi-stable thermal state. Since more than 17 trillion barrels of oil have passed through the pipeline after being cooled by the adjacent air, which in turn, can then result in the melting of the adjacent sea ice, there appears to be a very strong relationship between these events, and a marked lack of correlation with the changes of the content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This contrasts with the IPCC interpretation of the available climatic data, which assumes that the maximum climatic warming at Prudhoe Bay is typical of the entire region and is the result of increasing greenhouse gases. Engineers need to consider heat advection by oil or gas from underground when designing pipeline facilities, and to take account of the potential environmental consequences that they may cause.     

Identification, characteristics and classification of cryogenic block streams

Cryogenic block streams consist of a stream of rocks superficially resembling a stream deposit but lacking a matrix, usually occurring on a valley or gully floor or on slopes that are less steep than the maximum angle of repose of coarse sediments. They are usually formed on perennially frozen ground, but can also occur as relict landforms. There are three main active kinds forming today, viz., Siberian and Tibetan dynamic rock streams and lag block streams. During their formation, the blocks in the active Siberian and Tibetan dynamic block streams move downslope at up to 1 m/a. They are forming today on the Tibetan Plateau and in the more arid parts of south-central Siberia, although the processes involved in the movement are different. In the case of the Tibetan type, individual blocks slide downslope over the substrate in winter on an icy coating in areas of minimal winter precipitation. The Siberian type develops in areas of 15–80 cm of winter snow cover and an MAAT(mean annual air temperature) of-4 °C to-17 °C. The movement is due to creep of snow and ice and collapse of the blocks downslope during thawing. Lag block streams are formed by meltwater flowing over the surface of sediment consisting primarily of larger blocks with a limited amount of interstitial sediment. The erosion of the matrix is primarily in the spring in areas of higher winter precipitation on 10°–30° slopes. The blocks remain stationary, but the interstitial sediment is washed out by strong seasonal flows of meltwater or rain to form an alluvial fan. The boulders undergo weathering and become more rounded in the process. Lag block streams can also develop without the presence of permafrost in areas with cold climates or glaciers. Block streams also occur as relict deposits in older deposits under various climatic regimes that are unsuitable for their formation today. An example of relict lag block streams with subangular to subrounded blocks occurs in gullies on the forested mountainsides at Felsen in Germany, and is the original "felsenmeer". Similar examples occur near Vitosha Mountain in Bulgaria. The "stone runs" in the Falkland Islands are examples of the more angular relict lag block streams. In both Tasmania and the Falkland Islands, they mask a more complex history, the underlying soils indicating periods of tropical and temperate soil formation resulting from weathering during and since the Tertiary Period. Block streams have also been reported from beneath cold-based glaciers in Sweden, and below till in Canada, and when exhumed, can continue to develop.     

The distal segment of Etna’s 2001 basaltic lava flow

Etna’s 2001 basaltic lava flow provided a good example of the distal flow segment between the flow front and stable channel, across which the flow evolves from channel-contained to dispersed. This zone was mapped with meter precision using LIDAR data collected during 2004 and 2005. These data, supported by field mapping, show that the flow front comprised eight lobes each 10 to 20 m high. The flow front appears to have advanced not as a single unit, but as a series of lobes moving forward one lobe at a time. Primary lobes were centered on the channel axis and marginal lobes were off-axis. The lobes advanced as breakouts of low-yield-strength lava from the flow core of the stalled flow front. Marginal lobes were abandoned and contributed to marginal levees flanking the transitional channel. For Etna’s 2001 flow, the transitional channel is 140 m wide, 700 m long and fed a 240-m-long zone of dispersed flow; the change from stable to transitional channel occurred at a major reduction in slope. Above this, the stable channel is 5.2 km long, 55 to 105 m wide and bounded by 15- to 25-m-high levees, and the stable channel is located over a previous channel. In a final stage of activity, lava ponding at the break-in-slope that marks the terminus of the stable channel put pressure on the eastern levee, causing it to fail. Liberated lava then fed a final break-out to the east. Similar flow front-features occur at other volcanoes, indicating that similar processes are characteristic of dispersed flow zones.     

The spatial structure of local surficial sediment characteristics on Georges Bank,USA

Georges Bank is one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems, but the lack of accurate broad-scale sediment maps presently limits habitat assessments and spatial fisheries management. From 1999 to 2009 we surveyed 36,669 km² of Georges Bank using 2.8 and 0.6 m² quadrats viewed with live underwater video (video quadrats). The sediment types observed in 61,604 quadrats were used to map and evaluate spatial structure of local surficial sediment coarseness, dominance, heterogeneity, and maximum size characteristics at a 1 km² spatial resolution. Sand dominated sediment covered 62% of the study area, and there was a logarithmic decline in coverage by larger, coarser and more heterogeneous sediments. Gravel dominated sediments covered 38% of the study area and were more than twice as abundant as previously estimated. A 12,890 km² swath of gravel dominated seabed stretched from Cape Cod to northeastern Georges Bank consistent with estimates of prehistoric glacial extent. Within the swath there were 14 large gravel outcrops (15–2743 km²) . This work increases the spatial resolution of sediment information available for habitat assessments and spatial fisheries management on Georges Bank by two orders of magnitude. The four sediment characteristics we evaluated support further detailed investigations of the Bank’s benthos, including the influences of surficial sediment characteristics on species and community distributions, and more spatially accurate estimates of seabed roughness. Finally, this work demonstrates the use of video quadrats as an alternative to traditional grab sampling and modern acoustic sampling for continental shelf-scale mapping.