Atmospheric profiling with the UAS SUMO: a new perspective for the evaluation of fine-scale atmospheric models

For the first time, unmanned aerial system measurements collected by the small unmanned meteorological observer (SUMO) are used to evaluate atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) parameterization schemes embedded in the Advanced Weather Research and Forecasting model (AR-WRF). Observation sites were located in the vicinity of the almost idealized shaped mountain Hofsj?kull, Central Iceland. SUMO profiles provided temperature, relative humidity and wind data to maximum heights of 3?km above ground. Two cases are investigated, one with calm wind conditions and development of a convective ABL and one with moderate winds and gravity waves over Hofsj?kull. For the high-resolution simulation with AR-WRF, three two-way nested domains are chosen with a grid size of 9, 3 and 1?km. During its first meteorological test, SUMO has proved its great value for the investigation of the diurnal evolution of the ABL and the identification of mesoscale features residing above the ABL, such as subsidence.     

Effect of Surface Morphology on the Dissipation During Shear and Slip Along a Rock–Rock Interface that Contains a Visco-elastic Core

High resolution topography measurements of the Vuache–Sillingy fault (Alps, France) reveal a characteristic roughness of the fault zone. We investigate the effect of roughness on the rheology of a planar shear configuration by using a model system consisting of a visco-elastic layer embedded into a rigid solid. The model is discussed in the context of several geological cases: a damage fault zone, a fault smeared with a clay layer, and a shear zone with strain weakening. Using both analytical approaches and finite element simulations, we calculate to linear order the relation between wall roughness and the viscous dissipation in the fault zone as well as the average shear rate.     

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Recovery from Human Urine by Struvite Precipitation and Air Stripping in Vietnam

A “No Mix” sanitation system was installed in a dormitory at the University of CanTho in South Vietnam, with the objective of recycling nutrients from source separated wastewater streams. This paper presents the “Yellow Water” treatment plant and its efficiency in recovering phosphorus and nitrogen from human urine. The pilot plant achieved phosphorus removal efficiencies of 98% with both diluted and undiluted urine. Phosphorus was recovered in the form of struvite, a solid mineral fertilizer with heavy metal concentrations being below the German Fertilizer Regulation's threshold limits. About 110 g of struvite could be generated after one treatment cycle, during which 50 L of urine were processed. Nitrogen removal by air stripping showed best results when circulating the urine for 3 h through the stripping column at a high flow rate (80 L/h). With these settings, more than 90% of the nitrogen could be removed from the urine, and virtually 100% of this nitrogen could be recovered in the form of liquid ammonium sulfate. In the future, treatment costs could be further reduced by making use of the solar energy that is available during daytime in South Vietnam.     

Drought and famine in Ethiopia and Sudan: An ongoing tragedy

Published with permission from Drought Network News, Vol. 2(3), 1990.     

Phosphorus transport to the bottom of Lake Constance

Despite decreasing nutrient loading of Lake Constance over the past few years, annual sedimentation rates of dry matter remained nearly constant at a level of about 1000 gm^–2y^–1. The phosphorus content in settling material varied between 0.13 and 0.22% of dry weight. Phosphorus was transported to the lake bottom mainly by POM and by coprecipitation with authigenically formed calcite (estimated from results of laboratory studies). Adsorption to sinking particles of allochthonous origin was of minor importance. The effect of a self-cleaning mechanism is discussed with regard to continuously declining contents of dissolved phosphorus in Lake Constance since 1981, due to external sanitation measures in the drainage area.     

Diatom succession related to land use during the last 6000 years: a study of a small eutrophic lake in southern Sweden

Diatoms, pollen, physical and magnetic analyses of the sediments have been used to reconstruct the development over the last 6000 years of Lake Bussjösjön, a small lake in southern Sweden. Stratigraphic variations in a core of more than 15 m reveal changes in diatom assemblages, which correspond closely to changes in pollen, loss-on-ignition, and magnetic measurements that are related to land use and vegetation changes in the catchment. From ca 6000 BP to 2700 BP, a forest surrounded what was then a slightly eutrophic lake. The sudden appearance of Cyclostephanos dubius (Fricke) Round and several epiphytic/epipsammic diatoms at 2700 BP coincides with deforestation of the catchment (2700 BP to 2500 BP). A change in land use from predominantly pasture to arable land from 1300 BP to 1100 BP caused a high level of soil erosion with a decrease of C. dubius and the increase of Stephanodiscus species. An increase of epiphytic/epipsammic species coincides with increased arable farming and the change from a field-rotation to a crop-rotation system, and shows not only an increase in eutrophication but also changes in water depth. The influence of the catchment through time resulted in a smaller, shallower and eutrophic to hypertrophic lake.     

Age of intrusion and rapid cooling of the Frankenstein gabbro (Odenwald,SW-Germany) evidenced by40Ar/39Ar and single-zircon207Pb/206Pb measurements

The Frankenstein gabbro complex in the northern Odenwald/FR Germany is one of the Hercynian plutonic bodies of the Saxothuringian zone in the Variscan belt.⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotopic investigations on pyroxene,⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations on hornblendes, plagioclases, biotites and pyroxenes and²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb dating on single zircon crystals have been carried out. The⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr initial ratio of the gabbro (0.70380) indicates uncontaminated derivation of the magma from the mantle. The results on hornblendes, plagioclases and zircons establish the isotopic age of intrusion and the mode of cooling. Pyroxene and biotite data indicate disturbed K-Ar systems of these minerals. The average ages of the hornblendes (363±7 Ma), of the plagioclases (359±3 Ma) and of the zircons (362 ±9 Ma) agree within the 1-sigma levels and constrain the early history of the plutonic intrusion at the turn from Devonian to Carboniferous times. These minerals must have been cooled below their closure temperatures within a time-interval shorter than the error margins of 10 Ma. The ages therefore are, unlike those of the neighbouring Bergsträßer Odenwald, not long-time cooling ages due to largescale and slow geological uplift of the crustal segment. Instead, they will closely estimate the time of intrusion of the Frankenstein pluton into a shallow crustal level. The hiatus of about 20 Ma compared to the average ages of the crystalline rocks of the Bergsträßer Odenwald in the south characterizes the mafic Frankenstein pluton as a separated unit of the Odenwald crystalline, and underlines the importance of the Carboniferous tectonic fault zone in-between. The present data set clearly demonstrates the importance of the applied combination of methods and techniques to constrain the history of intrusion and cooling of mafic plutonic rocks.