Grain Dust as an Energy and Food Resource

Grain dust is a by-product produced in large quantities from grain storage and milling facilities but as of yet is treated as waste locally and regionally. Based on the conviction that material properties determination is a necessary first step for the efficient handling, processing, and use of materials, this work was initiated with the purpose of characterizing grain dust in terms of its physicochemical and thermal properties. Grain dust as a special waste material is a complex, dry, grey powder, composed mainly of grain chips, soil, whole wheat and barley seeds, and straw. The material was found to have a bulk density of 362 kg/m³, specific heat, thermal conductivity, and gross calorific value were 1540 J/kg K, 0.27 W/m K, and 4120 kJ/kg, respectively. Nutritional composition showed low concentrations of protein, and ether extract, and high concentrations of carbohydrates, ash, and crude fiber. Mineral analysis showed that Ca, Fe, and K were available in significant amounts ranging from 30 to 135 ppm. The as-received material is dry enough to be stored very safely and burned for energy production in either its loose form or as pellets. Moreover, adjustments to the ash content and C:N ratio of the material deems it a promising candidate as an animal feed and as a substrate for composting and biogasification.     

Modulating synoptic scale convective activity and boundary layer dissipation in the IPESD models of the Madden–Julian oscillation

A self-contained derivation of the IPESD models [Majda, A.J., Klein, R., 2003. Systematic multi-scale models for the tropics. J. Atmos. Sci. 60, 393–408] governing synoptic and planetary scale tropical flows is provided. This derivation demonstrates the analytic tractability of the model and the effect of zonally and meridionally tilted synoptic scale heating on the forcing of planetary scale flows through upscale momentum and temperature fluxes. Exploiting the analytic tractability of the models, different aspects of the planetary scale forcing are traced to meridional and vertical tilts in the synoptic scale heating profile. Variants of the archetypal IPESD models for the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) presented in Majda and Biello [Majda, A.J., Biello, J.A., 2004. A multi-scale model for tropical intraseasonal oscillations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 101, 4736–4741; Biello, J.A., Majda, A.J., 2005. A new multi-scale model for the Madden–Julian oscillation. J. Atmos. Sci. 62, 1694–1721] are studied. In addition to vertically tilted synoptic scale heating, the models discussed herein incorporate upscale zonal momentum flux due to meridional flux convergence arising from meridionally tilted heating. The effect of a boundary layer momentum drag at the base of the free troposphere is also systematically incorporated into the IPESD models. Both meridional tilts and lower boundary layer drag are shown to meridionally confine the MJO westerly wind burst and drive a planetary scale barotropic flow. Meridionally tilted heating can also greatly strengthen the wind burst at the base of the troposphere and modify its vertical profile. The competing effects of meridionally tilted, and off-equatorial heating can also significantly weaken the MJO winds. Appendices are provided which discuss generalizations and a solution algorithm for the IPESD models.     

巴基斯坦山达克矿区ASTER遥感数据、蚀变信息提取及找矿预测

巴基斯坦查盖火山岩浆岩带属于特提斯成矿域的重要组成部分之一,是巴基斯坦境内最重要的斑岩型铜矿带,但目前其相关的遥感研究还较少,制约了对该成矿带的找矿潜力分析。笔者等以山达克矿床及其周边为研究区,对先进星载热辐射与反射辐射计(Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, ASTER)数据进行RBD (Relative absorption band depth)比值假彩色合成、主成分分析、光谱角制图等处理,获得蚀变遥感异常信息分布特征,通过对蚀变特征和主要控矿要素进行遥感研究,建立了山达克矿床遥感找矿模型并开展成矿预测,为该成矿带矿产勘查提供借鉴。根据建立的遥感找矿模型,圈定了找矿预测靶区10处。对矿区东矿体和矿区北部的2个靶区进行野外验证,证实了提取结果与实际地质事实吻合较好,对矿区岩石样品进行光谱实测,表明样品实测光谱曲线与标准矿物光谱曲线的吸收特征位置高度相似,证实了研究区绢云母化、青磐岩化等蚀变较强且分布较广。结果表明本次研究提取的矿化蚀变结果可信度较高,可为后续找矿勘查工作提供参考。     

Comparison of SEBAL,METRIC, and ALARM algorithms for estimating actual evapotranspiration of wheat crop

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Evapotranspiration is one of the main components of water balance and its accurate estimation is of great importance in planning and optimizing water...     

Stochastic and deterministic multicloud parameterizations for tropical convection

Despite recent advances in supercomputing, current general circulation models poorly represent the variability associated with organized tropical convection. In a recent study, the authors have shown, in the context of a paradigm two baroclinic mode system, that a stochastic multicloud convective parameterization based on three cloud types (congestus, deep and stratiform) can be used to improve the variability and the dynamical structure of tropical convection. Here, the stochastic multicloud model is modified with a lag type stratiform closure and augmented with an explicit mechanism for congestus detrainment moistening. These modifications improve the representation of intermittent coherent structures such as synoptic and mesoscale convective systems. Moreover, the new stratiform-lag closure allows for increased robustness of the coherent features of the model with respect to the amount of stochastic noise and leading to a multi-scale organization of slowly moving waves envelopes in which short-lived and chaotic convective events persist. Congestus cloud decks dominate the suppressed-dry phase of the wave envelopes. The simulations with the new closure have a higher amount of stochastic noise and result in a Walker type circulation with realistic mean and coherent variability which surpasses results of previous deterministic and stochastic multicloud models in the same parameter regime. Further, deterministic mean field limit equations (DMFLE) for the stochastic multicloud model are considered. Aside from providing a link to the deterministic multicloud parameterization, the DMFLE allow a judicious way of determining the amount of deterministic and stochastic “chaos” in the system. It is shown that with the old stratiform heating closure, the stochastic process accounts for most of the chaotic behavior. The simulations with the new stratiform heating closure exhibit a mixture of stochastic and deterministic chaos. The highly chaotic dynamics in the simulations with congestus detrainment mechanism is due to the strongly nonlinear and numerically stiff deterministic dynamics. In the latter two cases, the DMFLE can be viewed as a “standalone” parameterization, which is capable of capturing some dynamical features of the stochastic parameterization. Furthermore, it is shown that, in spatially extended simulations, the stochastic multicloud model can capture qualitatively two local statistical features of the observations: long and short auto-correlation times of moisture and precipitation, respectively and the approximate power-law in the probability density of precipitation event size for large precipitation events. The latter feature is not reproduced in the column simulations. This fact underscores the importance of gravity waves and large scale moisture convergence.     

Differences in the concentrations of atmospheric trace gases in and above the tropical boundary layer

Weekly air samples were collected at Cape Kumakahi (0 km) and at nearby Mauna Loa Observatory (3.4 km) which is above the boundary layer. EC/GC and GC/FID techniques were used to measure CH₃I, CHCl₃, CO and CH₄, which are largely natural in origin, and C₂Cl₄, CCl₄, CH₃, CCl₃, CCl₃F (F-11), CCl₂F₂ (F-12), CHClF₂ (F-22) and C₂F₃Cl₃ (F-113), which are due to anthropogenic activities. It was found that all these gases are significantly (0.05) more abundant in the boundary layer than above it.     

Electromagnetic effects on the orbital motion of a charged spacecraft

This paper deals with the effects of electromagnetic forces on the orbital motion of a spacecraft.The electrostatic charge which a spacecraft generates on its surface in the Earth’s magnetic field will be subject to a perturbative Lorentz force.A model incorporating all Lorentz forces as a function of orbital elements has been developed on the basis of magnetic and electric fields.This Lorentz force can be used to modify or perturb the spacecraft’s orbits.Lagrange’s planetary equations in the Gauss variational form are derived using the Lorentz force as a perturbation to a Keplerian orbit.Our approach incorporates orbital inclination and the true anomaly.The numerical results of Lagrange’s planetary equations for some operational satellites show that the perturbation in the orbital elements of the spacecraft is a second order perturbation for a certain value of charge.The effect of the Lorentz force due to its magnetic component is three times that of the Lorentz force due to its electric component.In addition,the numerical results confirm that the strong effects are due to the Lorentz force in a polar orbit,which is consistent with realistic physical phenomena that occur in polar orbits.The results confirm that the magnitude of the Lorentz force depends on the amount of charge.This means that we can use artificial charging to create a force to control the attitude and orbital motion of a spacecraft.     

Application of VES and TDEM techniques to investigate sea water intrusion in Sidi Abdel Rahman area, northwestern coast of Egypt

The present study is an approach to detect the sea/freshwater interface in Sidi Abdel Rahman area, northwestern coast of Egypt using both vertical electrical sounding and time domain electromagnetic. The measured vertical electrical soundings are interpreted in 1D and 2D manner. The 1D inversion is carried out using the commercial software (RESIST), whereas 2D resistivity nonlinear iterative inversion scheme based on the finite element technique and regularization method was used. The time domain electromagnetic stations are interpreted using Temixxl-4 software by Interpex Ltd. To have the advantages of the vertical electrical sounding in shallow depths and time domain electromagnetic in deep depths, a joint inversion algorithm is applied for the electric profile and the nearby electromagnetic profile. Very low resistivity values have been observed near the coast as well as a considerable salt/fresh water interface. The tip-top portion of the interface lies approximately 1,000 m from the shore line.     

Feed forward neural network and interpolation function models to predict the soil and subsurface sediments distribution in Bam,Iran

An application of the artificial neural network (ANN) approach for predicting mean grain size using electric resistivity data from Bam city is presented. A feed forward back propagation network was developed employing 45 sets of input data. The input variables in the ANN model are the electrical resistivity, water table as a Boolean value and depth; the output is the mean grain size. To demonstrate the authenticity of this approach, the network predictions are compared with those from interpolation methods and the same data. This comparison shows that the ANN approach performs better results. The predicted and observed mean grain size values were compared and show high correlation coefficients. The ANN approach maps show a high degree of correlation with well data based grain size maps and can therefore be used conservatively to better understand the influence of input parameters on sedimentological predictions.