Diagnosis of satellite-derived outgoing long wave radiation in relation to rainfall in India

Summary The implications of the hydrostatic assumption for an anelastic two-dimensional numerical model of a gravity current intruding into a neutrally stratified environment are studied. Particular interest is focused on situations where the gravity current encounters an orographic barrier. Considerable discrepancies between hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic calculations are found in the head region for high Froude numbers, when the resolution is high enough to resolve the head of the current. However, the propagation speed and the depth of the feeder flow are well represented in the hydrostatic model.With 15 Figures     

MEM Analysis of Geomagnetic Field Variations Over Narssarssuaq

—Maximum entropy spectral analysis (MESA) has been applied to 24 series of hourly daily data and only one daily mean series for the horizontal (H) and vertical (Z) components of the geomagnetic field for the year 1983 as observed at Narssarssuaq, Greenland (71.2°N, 36.7°E) (gm coordinate). The method has isolated some prominent medium frequency signal components. The maximum peaks for H are at 06 hr (0.174 cycles per day (cpd), 3.2 × 10⁴ db) and 08 hr (0.09 cpd, 3.5 × 10⁴ db). Similarly, the maximum peak in Z is observed at 04 hr (0.114 cpd, 5.7 × 10⁴ db). The spectral results for the daily-mean data indicate periods are greater than two days, with 178.5 days (nearly semiannual) being common to both H and Z. Other harmonics have been found for all the series of H and Z components which are mainly caused by the "Effective Period", i.e., the period produced by the combined effect of the sunspot numbers and the sun’s rotation period. Such frequencies correspond very well with those found in the geomagnetic indices A _p ?, C _p and AE. This suggests that the disturbance transient variations are caused by viscous interaction of the solar energies emanating from sunspot regions with the outermost magnetospheric boundary which, in turn, influences the magnetosphere-iono sphere coupling and produces the medium intensity long-duration continuous auroral activities (MILD CAAs) over high latitude regions. Thus, the higher latitude geomagnetic activities are nothing but the "effective period driven MILDCAAs" having a recurrence tendency of 27/n, where n is an integer.     

Comparative physical properties of weathered impregnated and unimpregnated marble

Chemical weathering of marbles has greatly increased during the past decades. The gaseous pollutants generated mainly by combustion of automobile, domestic, and industrial fuels have contributed significantly towards this increase. The weathering affects marble gradationally from outside inwards, producing three distinct zones. The success of a technique developed to provide cohesion to reduced and dislodged calcite crystals in the zone of weathering, by impregnation with resins which even permeate the inter-crystalline boundaries in the non-weathered region, is tested. As these weathered layers are quite thin and easily destructible, direct measurement of compressive strength is impossible. This property is, therefore, determined indirectly via Shore scleroscope hardness and specific gravity.

The impregnation increased the strength of the weathered zone up to 59% and of the unweathered region up to 24%. Corresponding values for permeability and capillarity, relative to untreated specimens, change inversely to strength changes as the pores receive relatively larger amounts of resin in the outer weathered region than in the unweathered region in depth. This phenomenon is substantiated by scanning electron microscopy (S.E.M.).     

Equilibrium structure of differentially rotating polytropic models of the stars

In this paper we propose a method for computing the equilibrium structure of differentially rotating polytropic models of the stars. A general law of differential rotation of the type ²=b ₀+b ₁ s ²+b ₂ s ⁴, which can account for a reasonably large variety of possible differential rotations in the stars has been used. The distortional effects have been incorporated in the structure equations up to second order of smallness in distortion parametersb ₀,b ₁, andb ₂ using Kippenhahn and Thomas' averaging approach in conjunction with Kopal's results on Roche equipotentials in manner similar to the one earlier used by Mohan and Saxena for computing the equilibrium structure of polytropes having solid body rotation. Numerical results have been obtained for various types of differentially rotating polytropic models of stars of polytropic indices 1.5, 3, and 4. Certain differentially rotating models of the Sun which are possible with such a type of law of differential rotation, have also been computed.     

Impact of dust storm on the atmospheric boundary layer: a case study from western India

Natural Hazards - The present study focuses on investigating the impacts of a sudden dust storm on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over Ahmedabad (23.02°N, 72.57°E), an urban site...     

Paleo-ocean chemistry records in marine opal: Implications for fluxes of trace elements, cosmogenic nuclides (Be and Al), and biological productivity

Here, we provide evidence suggesting that marine (diatom) opal contains not only a high fidelity record of dissolved oceanic concentrations of cosmic ray-produced radionuclides, ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al, but also a record of temporal variations in a large number of trace elements such as Ti, Fe, Zn and Mn. This finding is derived from measurements in purified biogenic opal that can be separated from detrital materials using a newly developed technique based on surface charge characteristics. Initial results from a sediment core taken near the present-day position of the Antarctic Polar Front (ODP Site 1093) show dramatic changes in the intrinsic concentrations of, Be, Al, Ti, Fe, Mn and Zn in the opal assemblages during the past ∼140 kyr BP. The results imply appreciable climatically controlled fluctuations in the level of bioreactive trace elements. The time series of total Be, Al, Ti, Fe and ¹⁰Be in the sediment core are all well correlated with each other and with dust records in the polar ice cores. The observations suggest that a significant flux of these trace metals to oceans is contributed by the aeolian dust, in this case, presumably from the Patagonia. This observation also allows determination of fluxes of dust-contributed ¹⁰Be to the Antarctica ice sheets. However, our data show that the relationships among the various metals are not perfectly linear. During periods of higher dissolved concentrations of trace elements (indicated by Fe and Ti) the relative concentrations of bioreactive elements, Be, Al, Mn and Zn are decreased. By contrast, the Fe/Zn and Fe/Mn ratios decrease significantly during each transition from cold to warm periods. The relative behavior could be consistent with any of the following processes: (i) enhanced biological productivity due to greater supply of the bioreactive elements (e.g. Zn) during cold periods (ii) increased biological and inorganic scavenging of particle active elements (e.g. Be and Al) during early interglacial periods (iii) differential uptake/removal of the metals by the various diatom taxa whose relative productivity or growth rate changes with large scale climate. In any case, with one sedimentary phase and in single sedimentary sections, we now have the potential to compare directly a proxy for aeolian input of micronutrients (e.g. Fe or Ti), with a proxy for production (e.g. ²⁶Al/Al ratios). We expect that studies of the temporal records of trace elements and cosmogenic nuclides in contrasting regions of upwelling and productivity, which exhibit different sensitivities to global climate fluctuations and micronutrient inputs, would lead to a direct and comprehensive test of ideas such as the hypothesis of iron control of atmospheric carbon dioxide [Martin, J.H., 1990. Glacial-interglacial CO₂ change: the iron hypothesis. Paleoceanography5, 1-13]. Our present data from a single site do not show that increases in dissolved Fe concentrations, per se, were responsible for increased biological productivity. However, a much clearer picture of the effect of increased dust fluxes should emerge when we have data for trace elements and the cosmogenic nuclides, ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al from various oceanic provinces.     

Computable extensions of generalized fractional kinetic equations in astrophysics

Fractional calculus and special functions have contributed a lot to mathematical physics and its various branches.The great use of mathematical physics in distinguished astrophysical problems has attracted astronomers and physicists to pay more attention to available mathematical tools that can be widely used in solving several problems of astrophysics/physics.In view of the great importance and usefulness of kinetic equations in certain astrophysical problems,the authors derive a generalized fractional kin...