Appraisal of the prevalence of severe tropical storms over Indian Ocean by screening the features of tropical depressions

Natural Hazards - Tropical cyclones are one of the nature’s most violent manifestations and potentially the deadliest of all meteorological phenomena. It is a unique combination of violent...     

Analyses of fold profiles by changing weight parameters of NURB curves

Analyses of Non-Uniform Rational B-spline (NURB) curve by varying weights at its nodal points and projection ratio produce several kinetically plausible symmetric and asymmetric fold morphologies in 2D promptly and efficiently with varied overall geometries, curvature of limbs, sharpness/bluntness of hinges, extent of hinge zone, tightness/interlimb angles, etc. Some of these folds are new geometries what other approaches, such as those with Bézier curve, did not produce so far. Natural fold profiles can be matched with NURB curves from photographs.     

Windows to early solar system processes: Refractory inclusions in the CV and CM chondrites

The refractory element-enriched inclusions found in the carbonaceous meteorites give cosmochemists a fascinating glimpse at processes which occurred near the birth of the solar system. Although many complications must still be unravelled, the weight of the available evidence indicates that many of these objects condensed directly from the solar nebula, and have remained relatively unaltered up to the present. Their mineralogical and chemical compositions therefore reflect conditions at the time of their formation. The most thoroughly studied of the inclusions are those from the Allende CV meteorite. These, in general, have mineral assemblages similar to those which would be predicted for nebular condensation. The mineralogical agreement is not strict, however, and also the bulk chemical compositions sometimes deviate markedly from expected trends. More work is required to understand these differences. A range of isotopic anomalies in many elements has been found, in these inclusions. Some of these suggest an extra-solar system origin for a part of the material in the inclusions. Although much less work has been done on the inclusions in the CM meteorites, current data indicate that they will prove to be at least as valuable as those from Allende. Chemical data show that some inclusions in the Murchison meteorite are more refractory than the most refractory Allende inclusions. Isotopic anomalies, including²⁵Mg excesses and oxygen-16 enriched oxygen, indicate that, in spite of chemical and mineralogical differences, the Murchison and Allende inclusions contain common isotopic components, and are probably contemporaneous.     

Role of ocean–atmosphere interaction on northward propagation of Indian summer monsoon intra-seasonal oscillations (MISO)

Atmospheric dynamical mechanisms have been prevalently used to explain the characteristics of the summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO), which dictates the wet and dry spells of the monsoon rainfall. Recent studies show that ocean–atmosphere coupling has a vital role in simulating the observed amplitude and relationship between precipitation and sea surface temperature (SST) at the intraseasonal scale. However it is not clear whether this role is simply ‘passive’ response to the atmospheric forcing alone, or ‘active’ in modulating the northward propagation of MISO, and also whether the extent to which it modulates is considerably noteworthy. Using coupled NCEP–Climate Forecast System (CFSv2) model and its atmospheric component the Global Forecast System (GFS), we investigate the relative role of the atmospheric dynamics and the ocean–atmosphere coupling in the initiation, maintenance, and northward propagation of MISO. Three numerical simulations are performed including (1) CFSv2 coupled with high frequency interactive SST, the GFS forced with both (2) observed monthly SST (interpolated to daily) and (3) daily SST obtained from the CFSv2 simulations. Both CFSv2 and GFS simulate MISO of slightly higher period (~60 days) than observations (~45 days) and have reasonable seasonal rainfall over India. While MISO simulated by CFSv2 has realistic northward propagation, both the GFS model experiments show standing mode of MISO over India with no northward propagation of convection from the equator. The improvement in northward propagation in CFSv2, therefore, may not be due to improvement of the model physics in the atmospheric component alone. Our analysis indicates that even with the presence of conducive vertical wind shear, the absence of meridional humidity gradient and moistening of the atmosphere column north of convection hinders the northward movement of convection in GFS. This moistening mechanism works only in the presence of an ‘active’ ocean. In CFSv2, the lead-lag relationship between the atmospheric fluxes, SST and convection are maintained, while such lead-lag is unrealistic in the uncoupled simulations. This leads to the conclusion that high frequent and interactive ocean–atmosphere coupling is a necessary and crucial condition for reproducing the realistic northward propagation of MISO in this particular model.     

The synthesis of26Al during combined hydrogen and helium-burning reactions

We have studied the synthesis of²⁶Al during combined hydrogen and helium-burning processes in high temperature and density conditions. The possible sites for these processes are believed to be the neutron star surfaces where the density ranges from =10⁴–10⁷ g cm^–3 and temperature range from 10⁸–8×10⁸ K. The screening effect which leads to an enhancement of nuclear reaction rates is taken into account whenever necessary. A detailed calculation of the abundances of²⁶Al and²⁷Al isotopes is presented here. Finite amounts of²⁶Al is found to be produced atT=2×10⁸ K and =10⁸ g cm^–3 due to these combined reactions. This situation is likely to be realized during the -ray burst events on neutron star surface. The amount of material processed in the burst sources is very little compared to the amount of material processed in Novae or Supernovae. Thus it is suggested that rather than contributing to the overall amount of²⁶Al, -ray bursts are likely to contribute more significantly to the inhomogeneity of²⁶Al distribution in interstellar medium.     

Validation of a satellite-based cyclogenesis technique over the North Indian Ocean

Indian region is severely affected by the tropical cyclones (TCs) due to the long coast line of about 7500 km. Hence, whenever any low level circulation (LLC) forms over the Indian Seas, the prediction of its intensification into a TC is very essential for the management of TC disaster. Satellite Application Centre (SAC) of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Ahmedabad, has developed a technique to predict TCs based on scatterometer-derived winds from the polar orbiting satellite, QuikSCAT and Oceansat-II. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has acquired the technique and verified it for the years 2010–2013 for operational use. The model is based on the concept of analogs of the sea surface wind distribution at the stage of LLC or vortex (T1.0) as per Dvorak’s classifications, which eventually leads to cyclogenesis (T2.5). The results indicate that the developed model could predict cyclogenesis with a probability of detection of 61% and critical success index of 0.29. However, it shows high over-prediction of the model is better over the Bay of Bengal than over Arabian Sea and during post-monsoon season (September–December) than in pre-monsoon season (March–June).     

Utilization of high-resolution EGM2008 gravity data for geological exploration over the Singhbhum-Orissa Craton,India

High-resolution EIGEN6C4 and EGM2008 Bouguer gravity data of 2190 degree spherical harmonic over the Singhbhum-Orissa Craton, India, have been generated from the International Centre for Global Earth Models. The Bouguer gravity anomaly difference maps of (i) in situ and EIGEN6C4, (ii) in situ and EGM2008 and iii) EIGEN6C4 and EGM2008 of the study area are compared. It reveals that EIGEN6C4 has lesser systematic error than EGM2008. However, from different profile plots of Bouguer gravity, east–west horizontal derivative and north–south horizontal derivative anomalies of the in situ, EIGEN6C4 and EGM2008, it is observed that most of the signatures of lithounits and geological structural elements are delineated very well by EGM2008 and match 94–98% with those of EIGEN6C4. Further, the Bouguer gravity, east–west horizontal derivative and north–south horizontal derivative anomalies of EGM2008 data over the study area have been used effectively for identifying various lithounits and geological structural elements.