Longwave incoming radiation in the Tropics: results from field work in three African cities

Summary This study investigates differences in longwave incoming radiation (L↓) within and between three African cities, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and Gaborone (Botswana), during the dry season, and evaluates the performance of a model to simulate these fluxes. In each city, direct observations of L↓, shortwave incoming radiation (K↓), air temperature, air humidity, and total suspended particle (TSP) concentration for three land uses (CBD, green residential, and traditional residential) were taken. The observed L↓ flux decreases with increasing latitude, and temperature becomes an increasingly important factor in governing L↓ variations further from the Equator. Humidity, as well as particle loading, differs significantly between the three cities. Differences between observed and modelled ɛ_sky for rural stations near all cities showed a clear diurnal variation, with maximum differences of 0.08 between day and night. This diurnal difference was incorporated in the model and, for urban areas the model overestimates L↓ by around 25 Wm⁻². However, this model performs equally well regardless of the land use considered in any of the cities. The residual (difference between observed and modelled urban L↓) did not show any correlation with particulate pollution. However, the difference between observed and calculated ɛ_sky is around 0.05 higher in Ouagadougou compared to the other cities, likely due to the heavy dust load observed here. It is concluded that tropical urban longwave radiation is not dramatically different from the mid latitudes.     

Phosphorus release from coastal Baltic Sea sediments as estimated from sediment profiles

We used the decline in total phosphorus (P) concentration with depth in sediment profiles from the North-western Baltic Proper coastal zone to calculate the site-specific amount of sediment P eventually to be released to the water column: The potentially mobile P. P fractionation revealed that iron bound P dominated the potentially mobile P at sites with oxic surface sediment layers. Organic P forms were also a major constituent of the potentially mobile P pool. We determined that 1–7 g P/m² were potentially mobile at our sites, and the turnover time of this P pool was considered short, i.e., less than a decade. To determine long-term average P fluxes to and from the surface sediment layer, we first multiplied the constant and relatively low P concentration in deeper sediment layers with the sediment accumulation rate to gain the P burial rate. Then the average total P concentration in settling matter was multiplied with the sediment accumulation rate to estimate the depositional P flux at each site. The difference between the depositional and burial rates represents the long-term average release rate of sediment P and varied between 1.0 and 2.7 g P/m² yr among our sites. These rates are at the same order of magnitude as values reported from other areas of the Baltic Sea, and constitute a major source of P to the water column.     

Microphysics and Optical Attenuation in Fog: Observations from Two Coastal Sites

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - A total of 15 fog events from two field campaigns are investigated: the High Energy Laser in Fog (HELFOG) project (central California) and the Toward Improving Coastal...     

Predicting the properties of the remnants of dissipative galaxy mergers

We construct a physically motivated model for predicting the properties of the remnants of gaseous galaxy mergers, given the properties of the progenitors and the orbit. The model is calibrated using a large suite of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) merger simulations. It implements generalized energy conservation while accounting for dissipative energy losses and star formation. The dissipative effects are evaluated from the initial gas fractions and from the orbital parameters via an 'impulse' parameter, which characterizes the strength of the encounter. Given the progenitor properties, the model predicts the remnant stellar mass, half-mass radius and velocity dispersion to an accuracy of 25 per cent. The model is valid for both major and minor mergers. We provide an explicit recipe for semi-analytic models of galaxy formation.     

Correction to: Microphysics and Optical Attenuation in Fog: Observations from Two Coastal Sites

Boundary-Layer Meteorology -     

Wave forces on a large, horizontal submerged cylinder

A numerical boundary integral equation method combined with a non-linear time stepping procedure is used for the calculation of wave forces on a large, submerged, horizontal circular cylinder. As the method is based on potential theory, all computations are performed in the inertia dominated domain, that is, for small Keulegan-Carpenter numbers. Computations are carried out for the Eulerian mean current under wave trough level equal to zero. When the cylinder is moved towards the sea bed the computations show that the inertia coefficients increase significantly, which is associated with a blockage effect. Furthermore, the effect of the wave steepness is reduced when the submergence of the cylinder is increased. In the vicinity of the free water surface the vertical inertia coefficient is highly dependent upon the wave steepness, which tends to reduce it, whereas the horizontal inertia coefficient is only slightly dependent on the wave steepness. Computations are also carried out for cylinder diameters comparable with the wave length. Finally, inertia coefficients computed by the present method are compared with some analytical results by Ogilvie [(1963), First and second order forces on a cylinder submerged under a free surface. J. Fluid Mech. 16, 451–472]. As long as the assumptions leading to Ogilvie's theory are fulfilled (cylinder radius small compared to the wave length), the results are quite similar.