Two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional computational models in hydrodynamic and morphodynamic reconstructions of a river bend: sensitivity and functionality

This study assesses hydrodynamic and morphodynamic model sensitivity and functionality in a curved channel. The sensitivity of a depth‐averaged model to user‐defined parameters (grain size, roughness, transverse bed slope effect, transport relations and secondary flow) is tested. According to the sensitivity analysis, grain size, transverse bed slope effect and sediment transport relations are critical to simulated meander bend morphodynamics. The parametrization of grain size has the most remarkable effect: field‐based grain size parametrization is necessary in a successful morphodynamic reconstruction of a meander bend. The roughness parametrization method affects the distribution of flow velocities and therefore also morphodynamics. The combined effect of various parameters needs further research. Two‐dimensional (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) reconstructions of a natural meander bend during a flood event are assessed against field measurements of acoustic Doppler current profiler and multi‐temporal mobile laser scanning data. The depth‐averaged velocities are simulated satisfactorily (differences from acoustic Doppler current profiler velocities 5–14%) in both 2D and 3D simulations, but the advantage of the 3D hydrodynamic model is unquestionable because of its ability to model vertical and near‐bed flows. The measured and modelled near‐bed flow, however, differed notably from each other's, the reason of which was left open for future research. It was challenging to model flow direction beyond the apex. The 3D flow features, which also affected the distribution of the bed shear stress, seem not to have much effect on the predicted morphodynamics: the 2D and 3D morphodynamic reconstructions over the point bar resembled each other closely. Although common features between the modelled and measured morphological changes were also found, some specific changes that occurred were not evident in the simulation results. Our results show that short‐term, sub‐bend scale morphodynamic processes of a natural meander bend are challenging to model, which implies that they are affected by factors that have been neglected in the simulations. The modelling of short‐term morphodynamics in natural curved channel is a challenge that requires further study. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Arctic Mackenzie Delta channel planform evolution during 1983–2013 utilising Landsat data and hydrological time series

Arctic deltas, such as the Mackenzie Delta, are expected to face major climate change and increased human influence in the near future. Deltas are characterised by highly dynamic fluvial processes, and changing climate will cause considerable evolution of the riverine environment. The changes are difficult to predict with existing knowledge and data. This study quantified channel planform change of the Mackenzie Delta (1983–2013), analysing its temporal and spatial patterns. We addressed the main obstacle of research on large remote areas, the lack of data, by developing a unique work flow that utilised Landsat satellite imagery, hydrological time series, remote sensing‐based change analysis, and automatic vectorisation of channels. Our results indicate that the Mackenzie Delta experienced constant evolution but at a highly varying rate over the 30 years. The study demonstrates that the magnitude and duration of flood peaks and the presence of spring ice breakup floods determine the rate of Arctic delta planform change. Changing winter conditions and spring flood magnitudes may therefore affect the stability of Arctic deltas. However, no clear trends towards decreased recurrence or magnitude of spring floods or increased instability of the delta plain have yet been observed in the Mackenzie Delta. The delta plain was most dynamic at the beginning and at the end of the examined period, corresponding to intense flooding, whereas the rates of change were subtle during the low‐flood period 1994–2007. The largest changes have occurred along the wide Middle Channel and in the outermost delta. Relative to their size, however, smaller meandering channels have been highly dynamic. Hotspots of change in the delta plain are located in anastomosing and braiding channel segments and, at the local scale, in point bars and cut‐banks along meandering channels. Our study describes how Landsat satellite data can be utilised for advancing fluvial geomorphological research in remote areas. However, cloudiness in the delta restricts production of dense time series with simultaneous coverage of the whole area and requires manual preprocessing.     

Holocene records of carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios of organic matter in annually laminated sediments of Lake Korttajärvi, central Finland

An 11.6 m long continuous succession of annually laminated sediments from Lake Korttajärvi in central Finland was investigated for the isotopic composition of carbon and hydrogen in organic matter. The sequence covers a time period of 9590 years, and the varve chronology has been thoroughly described in earlier studies. From 7100 to 4400 BC the lake was part of the Ancient Lake Päijänne, but in 4400 BC it became separated and formed the present independent lake system. Two organic fractions were investigated. One fraction obtained by HCl-treatment was analyzed for δ¹³C and another HCl-HF-digested organic fraction was analyzed for both δ¹³C and δD. The isotopic data were compared to atomic C/N ratios, carbon contents, diatom-inferred pH values and other environmental parameters. The diatom-inferred pH values and organic carbon contents provide evidence for a long-term change towards more acidic conditions and lower productivity in Lake Korttajärvi. The inferred pH values decrease from 7.0 to 6.1, followed by a slight increase during the last millennia. Variations in pH are accompanied by an increase in the δ¹³C_HCl-HF values of organic matter from ?31.6 to $-29.2\permilleAn 11.6 m long continuous succession of annually laminated sediments from Lake Korttaj?rvi in central Finland was investigated for the isotopic composition of carbon and hydrogen in organic matter. The sequence covers a time period of 9590 years, and the varve chronology has been thoroughly described in earlier studies. From 7100 to 4400 BC the lake was part of the Ancient Lake P?ij?nne, but in 4400 BC it became separated and formed the present independent lake system. Two organic fractions were investigated. One fraction obtained by HCl-treatment was analyzed for δ¹³C and another HCl-HF-digested organic fraction was analyzed for both δ¹³C and δD. The isotopic data were compared to atomic C/N ratios, carbon contents, diatom-inferred pH values and other environmental parameters. The diatom-inferred pH values and organic carbon contents provide evidence for a long-term change towards more acidic conditions and lower productivity in Lake Korttaj?rvi. The inferred pH values decrease from 7.0 to 6.1, followed by a slight increase during the last millennia. Variations in pH are accompanied by an increase in the δ¹³C_HCl-HF values of organic matter from −31.6 to , followed by a subtle decrease to . The changes in pH and δ¹³C_HCl-HF are closely related (r = − 0.91, P < 0.01), and apparently reflect changing environmental conditions in the lake and in its catchment area. δD values show a marked shift to higher values during the early Holocene, which may be partly related to a climatic amelioration leading to the Holocene Climatic Optimum in 6000–2500 BC. The Medieval Warm Period in AD 980–1250 is associated with a local maximum in δD, lending support for a significant warming during that time.     

Supersonic plasma jet interaction with gases and plasmas

The interaction of supersonic plasma jets with dense gases and plasmas has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Collimated plasma jets were generated from the laser pulse interaction with solid targets. The jet propagates with the velocity exceeding 400 km/s and transports the energy of a few kJ/cm². The interaction of such a jet with an Ar and He gases at various pressures has been studied by using optical and X-ray diagnostics. Qualitative estimates and numerical simulations with a radiative hydrodynamic code explain a sequence of physical processes during the interaction. Experimental and numerical results show that, by changing ambient material, the working surface structure changes from an adiabatic outflow to a radiative cooling jet. The applications of this phenomenon to astrophysical conditions and the inertial confinement fusion are discussed.     

A multiproxy reconstruction of spring temperatures in south-west Finland since 1750

Spring temperatures were reconstructed by multiproxy database for south-west Finland since 1750. Proxy records used here were ice break-up in the Aurajoki River, the Baltic Sea ice extent, the plant phenological index and the annual varve thickness in the Pyhäjärvi Lake. Records were integrated into one palaeoclimate model using time-scale dependent calibration techniques. Reconstruction was verified with statistics showing a high degree of validation between the reconstructed and observed temperatures in Turku, south-west Finland. Reconstruction demonstrates that the springs have become warmer and reveals a warming trend since 1850s. Except for the period from 1750 to around 1850, the springs have been characterized as having a larger low-frequency variability, as well as by having a smaller range of annual temperature variations. Analyses of decadal variations revealed that the coldest springtimes occurred in the 1840s and 1850s and the first decade of the 19th century. Reconstruction was compared with the available meteorological series of central England, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Uppsala and the spring-temperature reconstruction from western Norway. The effect of global solar, volcanic, greenhouse gases and aerosol forcings were examined together with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) indices at local scale over the reconstructed period. Reconstructed spring-temperature changes have been related to changes in the atmospheric circulation, as indicated by the NAO (February–June).     

Conflation of OpenStreetMap and Mobile Sports Tracking Data for Automatic Bicycle Routing

This article investigates how workout trajectories from a mobile sports tracking application can be used to provide automatic route suggestions for bicyclists. We apply a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)‐based method for matching cycling tracks to a “bicycle network” extracted from crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, and evaluate its effective differences in terms of optimal routing compared with a simple geometric point‐to‐curve method. OSM has quickly established itself as a popular resource for bicycle routing; however, its high‐level of detail presents challenges for its applicability to popularity‐based routing. We propose a solution where bikeways are prioritized in map‐matching, achieving good performance; the HMM‐based method matched correctly on average 94% of the route length. In addition, we show that the extremely biased nature of the trajectory dataset, which is typical of volunteered user‐generated data, can be of high importance in terms of popularity‐based routing. Most computed routes diverged depending on whether the number of users or number of tracks was used as an indicator of popularity, which may imply varying preferences among different types of cyclists. Revising the number of tracks by diversity of users to surmount local biases in the data had a more limited effect on routing.     

Sustainable environmental and resource management futures for Sub-Saharan Africa

Reports

MEDACTA '93 Modern Educational Technologies     

Temporal and spatial variations of global ionospheric total electron content under various solar conditions

By utilizing the numerical technique of principal component analysis (PCA), this work analyses temporal and spatial variations of the ionosphere under various solar conditions during the period 1999–2013. Applying the PCA technique to the time series of the global ionospheric total electron content (TEC) maps provides an efficient method for analyzing the main ionospheric variability on a global scale that is able to decompose periodic variations (e.g., annual and semiannual oscillations) while retaining the asymmetry in the temporal and spatial domains (e.g., seasonal and equator anomalies). The TEC series of different local times are processed separately at two time scales: (1) the whole 15 years of the period of study and (2) the individual years. In contrast with previous studies, the analysis of the dataset of the 15 years shows that dawn (e.g., LT4–6) and late morning (LT10–12) are the more remarkable characteristic times for ionospheric variability. This study also reveals a cyclic trend of the variability with respect to local times. The first two modes, which contain 80–90% of the total variance, represent spatial distributions and temporal variations with respect to the different stages of the solar cycle and local times. Annual and semiannual variations are demodulated from the first two modes, and the results show that these variations evidently have distinct trends for daytime and nighttime. An exception is that, under active solar conditions, extremely strong solar irradiance during the daytime has a residual effect on the variability of the nighttime.     

基于NoSREx实验的积雪演化及微波辐射分析研究

在被动微波雪水当量反演中,积雪物理参数随时间的变化特征影响着反演精度,为理解积雪随时间演化的特征及其对微波辐射亮温的影响,本研究选用2009—2013年北欧积雪实验（Nordic Snow Radar Experiment, NoSREx）积雪地面观测和微波辐射测量数据,通过雪深和温度把雪期分为积累期（10月—次年2月）、稳定期（2—4月）和消融期（4—5月）,发现各个雪期的积雪演化特征为：雪颗粒形状在积累期前期以融态颗粒（Melt Forms, MF）为主,积累期后期和稳定期以圆形颗粒、片状颗粒、深霜为主,消融期以MF为主;整个雪季底层雪粒径从小变大再变小的过程,粒径最大值出现在稳定期的2至3月,约为2.5~4.0 mm,均出现在近地表雪层,而表层粒径较小且较为稳定。通过雪深和微波亮度差（18~37 GHz）的关系分析,表明亮温差在不同雪期对于雪深的依赖关系不同,在积累期和稳定期,雪深变化与亮温差变化具有明显的正相关;在消融期由于积雪融化的影响,其相关性较差;基于多层积雪微波辐射模型（MEMLS）构建了一维微波辐射模拟环境,模拟表明MEMLS模型在3个雪期的垂直极化10.65 GHz和18.7 GHz模拟结果较37 GHz和90 GHz更好;10.65 GHz V极化在入射角为50°且稳定期时,微波亮温模拟均方根误差（RMSE）结果最小,为2.49 K。3个雪期90 GHz模拟结果水平极化优于垂直极化,由于受表层积雪变化影响,90 GHz模拟结果较不稳定,尤其是消融期时,RMSE最小也达到了42.7 K。本研究有助于理解积雪随时间演化的特征及其对微波辐射模拟的影响,表明在被动微波雪水当量反演算法中,针对不同积雪期需要考虑积雪演化动态过程。