Groundwater supply and demand from southern Africa’s crystalline basement aquifer: evidence from Malawi

Failure of borehole sources in weathered and fractured crystalline basement aquifers in Malawi in southern Africa has been linked with poor borehole design, mechanical failure and badly sited boreholes. However, recent work in Malawi indicates that demand may now exceed long-term resource potential in some places and that this is also a cause of water point failure. An 11-year climate cycle (including a wet and dry period) necessitates overdraft from groundwater storage during the dry-cycle years before episodic rainfall events in the wetter part of the cycle again recharge the aquifers. Data, particularly groundwater hydrograph data, are sparse, but sufficient to evaluate the long-term renewable groundwater potential for both fractured and weathered basement-aquifer types in each of the 15 management areas in Malawi. The groundwater potential or long-term renewable resource (recharge) is given by the sum of Darcian throughflow and dry-season depletion of storage. Estimated rural demand exceeds the renewable resource in the fractured-rock aquifer in two management units and in the weathered-rock aquifer in two other units. Although there is inherent uncertainty in the water-balance estimates, the likelihood that rural demand is exceeding long-term average recharge in some areas is cause for concern.     

A system for line profile studies at the 150-foot tower on Mount Wilson

We describe enhancements to the hardware and software for the 150-foot tower system on Mt. Wilson which make possible the acquisition of high precision line profile measurements. This system utilizes the 75-foot pit spectrograph with a photomultiplier detector system to scan line profiles repeatedly in order to study variations induced by the passage of waves vertically through the solar atmosphere. Oscillations of line profile parameters with an amplitude as low as 1.7 m s^–1 have been detected with this system using integrated sunlight. Phase relations between oscillations of different parts of the line profile are appropriate to upward energy transport. Consistent with the previous conclusion by Mein and Schmieder (1981), we find that the magnitude of the energy transport is compatible with the 5-min oscillations making an important contribution to the heating of the low chromosphere.The Mount Wilson Observatory is operated by the Mount Wilson Institute under agreement with the Carnegie Institution of Washington.     

Modelling the advance–retreat cycle of a tidewater glacier with simple sediment dynamics

We present a simple coupled glacier-sediment model to simulate the evolution of a tidewater glacier. The model is based on a consideration of the total mass budget of a glacier, whereas ice mechanics are fully parameterized. The calving rate at the glacier terminus is assumed to be proportional to the water depth. We show that the formation of a morainic shoal has a profound influence on the response of a tidewater glacier to climatic forcing. For a slow periodic forcing of the equilibrium-line altitude, the model glacier advances steadily into the estuary, builds up a submarine terminal moraine, and then retreats rapidly when a critical point is hit. For a slowly increasing equilibrium-line altitude, at a rate as low as 1 m per 5 years, we find terminus retreat rates of up to 10 km in 50 years. Our model suggests that, although the response of tidewater glaciers to external forcing is strongly nonlinear, the onset of retreat is controlled by climate change.     

Characteristics of rain events at an inland locality in northeastern Borneo,Malaysia

Understanding the intensity and duration of tropical rain events is critical to modelling the rate and timing of wet‐canopy evaporation, the suppression of transpiration, the generation of infiltration‐excess overland flow and hence to erosion, and to river responsiveness. Despite this central role, few studies have addressed the characteristics of equatorial rainstorms. This study analyses rainfall data for a 5 km² region largely comprising of the 4 km² Sapat Kalisun Experimental Catchment in the interior of northeastern Borneo at sampling frequencies from 1 min^?1 to 1 day^?1. The work clearly shows that most rainfall within this inland, forested area is received during regular short‐duration events (<15 min) that have a relatively low intensity (i.e. less than two 0·2 mm rain‐gauge tips in almost all 5 min periods). The rainfall appears localized, with significant losses in intergauge correlations being observable in minutes in the case of the typical mid‐afternoon, convective events. This suggests that a dense rain‐gauge network, sampled at a high temporal frequency, is required for accurate distributed rainfall‐runoff modelling of such small catchments. Observed rain‐event intensity is much less than the measured infiltration capacities, and thus supports the tenet of the dominance of quick subsurface responses in controlling river behaviour in this small equatorial catchment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In situ calcite U−Pb geochronology by high-sensitivity single-collector LA-SF-ICP-MS

Science China Earth Sciences - U?Pb geochronology of calcite using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is an emerging method, with potential applications...     

The Oxford Principles

Scientific momentum is increasing behind efforts to develop geoengineering options, but it is widely acknowledged that the challenges of geoengineering are as much political and social as they are technical. Legislators are looking for guidance on the governance of geoengineering research and possible deployment. The Oxford Principles are five high-level principles for geoengineering governance. This article explains their intended function and the core societal values which they attempt to capture. Finally, it proposes a framework for their implementation in a flexible governance architecture through the formulation of technology-specific research protocols.     

The High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

The High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was flown on a NASA sounding rocket on 11 July 2012. The goal of the Hi-C mission was to obtain high-resolution (≈?0.3?–?0.4′′), high-cadence (≈?5 seconds) images of a solar active region to investigate the dynamics of solar coronal structures at small spatial scales. The instrument consists of a normal-incidence telescope with the optics coated with multilayers to reflect a narrow wavelength range around 19.3 nm (including the Fe xii 19.5-nm spectral line) and a 4096×4096 camera with a plate scale of 0.1′′?pixel^?1. The target of the Hi-C rocket flight was Active Region 11520. Hi-C obtained 37 full-frame images and 86 partial-frame images during the rocket flight. Analysis of the Hi-C data indicates the corona is structured on scales smaller than currently resolved by existing satellite missions.     

Predicting June Mean Rainfall in the Middle/Lower Yangtze River Basin

We demonstrate that there is significant skill in the GloSea5 operational seasonal forecasting system for predicting June mean rainfall in the middle/lower Yangtze River basin up to four months in advance. Much of the rainfall in this region during June is contributed by the mei-yu rain band. We find that similar skill exists for predicting the East Asian summer monsoon index(EASMI) on monthly time scales, and that the latter could be used as a proxy to predict the regional rainfall. However, th...