Diagnosing snow accumulation errors in a rain‐snow transitional environment with snow board observations

Diagnosing the source of errors in snow models requires intensive observations, a flexible model framework to test competing hypotheses, and a methodology to systematically test the dominant snow processes. We present a novel process‐based approach to diagnose model errors through an example that focuses on snow accumulation processes (precipitation partitioning, new snow density, and snow compaction). Twelve years of meteorological and snow board measurements were used to identify the main source of model error on each snow accumulation day. Results show that modeled values of new snow density were outside observational uncertainties in 52% of days available for evaluation, while precipitation partitioning and compaction were in error 45% and 16% of the time, respectively. Precipitation partitioning errors mattered more for total winter accumulation during the anomalously warm winter of 2014–2015, when a higher fraction of precipitation fell within the temperature range where partition methods had the largest error. These results demonstrate how isolating individual model processes can identify the primary source(s) of model error, which helps prioritize future research.     

The schmidt hammer,weathering and rock surface roughness

Measures of the differential relief of adjacent feldspar and pyroxene grains provide the first clear negative correlation of Schmidt hammer rebound (R-) values and degree of weathering. However, weathering and roughness are intimately related, so the latter cannot be seen simply as a source of error limiting the utility of the Schmidt hammer. Only where surfaces had similar textures prior to weathering can R-values be compared directly. Even where surface texture is well controlled, differences in R-values should be viewed critically rather than assigned indiscriminately to differences in degree of weathering.     

Design,simulation, and large‐scale testing of an innovative vibration mitigation device employing essentially nonlinear elastomeric springs

This study proposes an innovative passive vibration mitigation device employing essentially nonlinear elastomeric springs as its most critical component. Essential nonlinearity denotes the absence (or near absence) of a linear component in the stiffness characteristics of these elastomeric springs. These devices were implemented and tested on a large‐scale nine‐story model building structure. The main focus of these devices is to mitigate structural response under impulse‐like and seismic loading when the structure remains elastic. During the design process of the device, numerical simulations, optimizations, and parametric studies of the structure‐device system were performed to obtain stiffness parameters for the devices so that they can maximize the apparent damping of the fundamental mode of the structure. Pyramidal elastomeric springs were employed to physically realize the optimized essentially nonlinear spring components. Component‐level finite element analyses and experiments were conducted to design the nonlinear springs. Finally, shake table tests using impulse‐like and seismic excitation with different loading levels were performed to experimentally evaluate the performance of the device. Experimental results demonstrate that the properly designed devices can mitigate structural vibration responses, including floor acceleration, displacement, and column strain in an effective, rapid, and robust fashion. Comparison between numerical and experimental results verified the computational model of the nonlinear system and provided a comprehensive verification for the proposed device. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactions of growing folds and coeval depositional systems

Responses of both modern and ancient fluvial depositional systems to growing folds can be interpreted in terms of interactions among competing controlling variables which can be incorporated into simple conceptual models. The ratio of the rate of sediment accumulation to the rate of structural uplift determines whether a fold develops a topographic expression above local base level. The balance between (a) stream power and rates of upstream deposition vs. (b) bedrock resistance and rates of crestal uplift and of fold widening determines whether an antecedent stream maintains its course or is defeated by a growing structure. Modern drainage configurations in actively folding landscapes can often be interpreted in terms of these competing variables, and through analysis of digital topography, detailed topographic characteristics of these folds can be quantified. Modern examples of growing folds display both defeated and persistent antecedent rivers, deflected drainages and laterally propagating structures. The topography associated with a defeated antecedent river at Wheeler Ridge, California, is consistent with a model in which defeat results from forced aggradation in the piggyback basin, without the need to vary discharge or uplift rate. Reconstruction of the long-term interplay between a depositional system and evolving folds requires a stratigraphic perspective, such as that provided by syntectonic strata which are directly juxtaposed with ancient folds and faults. Analysis of Palaeogene growth strata bounding the Catalan Coastal Ranges of NE Spain demonstrates the synchronous growth and the kinematic history of multiple folds and faults in the proximal foreland basin. Although dominated by transverse rivers which crossed fold crests, palaeovalleys, interfan lows, structural re-entrants and saddles, and rising anticlines diverted flow and influenced local deposition. In the ancient record, drainage-network events, such as avulsion or defeat of a transverse stream, usually cannot be unambiguously attributed to a single cause. Examination of ancient syntectonic strata from a geomorphological perspective, however, permits successive reconstructions of synorogenic topography, landscapes and depositional systems.     

Internal variability in a regional climate model over West Africa

Sensitivity studies with regional climate models are often performed on the basis of a few simulations for which the difference is analysed and the statistical significance is often taken for granted. In this study we present some simple measures of the confidence limits for these types of experiments by analysing the internal variability of a regional climate model run over West Africa. Two 1-year long simulations, differing only in their initial conditions, are compared. The difference between the two runs gives a measure of the internal variability of the model and an indication of which timescales are reliable for analysis. The results are analysed for a range of timescales and spatial scales, and quantitative measures of the confidence limits for regional model simulations are diagnosed for a selection of study areas for rainfall, low level temperature and wind. As the averaging period or spatial scale is increased, the signal due to internal variability gets smaller and confidence in the simulations increases. This occurs more rapidly for variations in precipitation, which appear essentially random, than for dynamical variables, which show some organisation on larger scales.     

Landscape Controls on Structural Variation in Eucalypt Vegetation Communities: Woronora Plateau,Australia

Quantification of landscape-based vegetation structural variation and pattern is a significant goal for a variety of ecological, monitoring and biodiversity studies. Vegetation structural metrics, derived from airborne laser scanning (ALS or aerial light detection and ranging—LiDAR) and QuickBird satellite imagery, were used to establish the degree of plot-based vegetation variation at a hillslope scale. Topographic position is an indicator of energy and water availability, and was quantified using DEM-based insolation and topographic wetness, respectively, stratifying areas into hot-warm-cold and wet-moist-dry topographic classes. A range of vegetation metrics—maximum and modal canopy height, crown cover, foliage cover, NDVI and semivariance—were compared among randomly selected plots from each topographic class. NDVI increases with increasing landscape wetness, whereas ALS-derived foliage cover decreases with increasing insolation. Foliage cover is well correlated with crown cover (R ² =0.65), and since foliage cover is readily calculable for whole-of-landscape application, it will provide valuable and complementary information to NDVI. Between-plot heterogeneity increases with increasing wetness and decreasing insolation, indicating that more sampling is required in these locations to capture the full range of landscape-based variability. Pattern analysis in landscape ecology is one of the fundamental requirements of landscape ecology, and the methods described here offer statistically significant, quantifiable and repeatable means to realise that goal at a fine spatial grain.     

Development of unusual rock weathering features in the Cordillera Blanca,Peru

Mylonite textures in granodiorite boulders are responsible for higher rates of surface denudation of host rocks and the progressive development of unusual rock weathering features, termed weathering posts. These textures are characterized by smaller grain sizes, higher biotite content, and a higher biotite axial ratio in host rocks relative to weathering posts. Elemental concentrations do not show a significant difference between weathering posts and the host rocks in which they are found, and this reflects the absence of a weathering residue on the rock surfaces. Chemical weathering loosens the bonds between mineral grains through the expansion of biotite, and the loosened grains fall off or are blown off the boulder surface and continue their chemical alteration in the surrounding soil. The height of weathering posts on late Quaternary moraines increases at a linear rate of ~ 1.45 ± 0.45 cm (1000 yr)^? 1 until post heights reach the diameter of host rocks. Such a rate of boulder denudation, if unrecognized, would generate significant errors (> 20%) in cosmogenic exposure ages for Pleistocene moraines. Given the paucity of boulders with diameters that significantly exceed 1.5 m, the maximum age of utility of weathering posts as a numeric age indicator is ~ 100 ka.     

Distorted Froude‐scaled flume analysis of large woody debris

This paper presents the results of a movable‐boundary, distorted, Froude‐scaled hydraulic model based on Abiaca Creek, a sand‐bedded channel in northern Mississippi. The model was used to examine the geomorphic and hydraulic impact of simplified large woody debris (LWD) elements. The theory of physical scale models is discussed and the method used to construct the LWD test channel is developed. The channel model had bed and banks moulded from 0·8 mm sand, and flow conditions were just below the threshold of motion so that any sediment transport and channel adjustment were the result of the debris element. Dimensions and positions of LWD elements were determined using a debris jam classification model. Elements were attached to a dynamometer to measure element drag forces, and channel adjustment was determined through detailed topographic surveys. The fluid drag force on the elements decreased asymptotically over time as the channel boundary eroded around the elements due to locally increased boundary shear stress. Total time for geomorphic adjustment computed for the prototype channel at the Q₂ discharge (discharge occurring once every two years on average) was as short as 45 hours. The size, depth and position of scour holes, bank erosion and bars created by flow acceleration past the elements were found to be related to element length and position within the channel cross‐section. Morphologies created by each debris element in the model channel were comparable with similar jams observed in the prototype channel. Published in 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>W</Subscript>9 Tohoku earthquake in 2011 in Japan: precursors uncovered by natural time analysis

This paper reviews the precursory phenomena of the 2011 M _W9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan that emerge solely when we analyze the seismicity data in a new time domain termed natural time. If we do not consider this analysis, important precursory changes cannot be identified and hence are missed. Natural time analysis has the privilege that enables the introduction of an order parameter of seismicity. In this frame, we find that the fluctuations of this parameter exhibit an unprecedented characteristic change, i.e., an evident minimum, approximately two months before Tohoku earthquake, which strikingly is almost simultaneous with unique anomalous geomagnetic field variations recorded mainly on the z component. This is consistent with our finding that such a characteristic change in seismicity appears when a seismic electric signal (SES) activity of the VAN method (from the initials of Varotsos, Alexopoulos, Nomicos) initiates, and provides a direct confirmation of the physical interconnection between SES and seismicity.