Magnetohydrodynamics of stellar interiors

David Hughes, Robert Rosner and Nigel Weiss describe what was achieved during a programme on stellar magnetic fields at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. Over a four-month period more than 90 participants visited the Institute for a mixture of structured workshops and informal collaboration.     

Internal stratigraphic relationships in the Etendeka group in the Huab Basin, NW Namibia: understanding the onset of flood volcanism

The Etendeka Igneous Province in NW Namibia forms the eastern most extent of the Paraná–Etendeka Flood Basalt Province and, despite only covering about 5% of the Paraná–Etendeka, has been the focus of much interest, due to its extremely well exposed nature. The Huab Basin in NW Namibia forms the focus of this study, and formed a connected basin with the Paraná throughout Karoo times (late Palaeozoic) into the Lower Cretaceous. It contains a condensed section of the Karoo deposits, which indicate early periods of extension, and Lower Cretaceous aeolian and volcanic Etendeka deposits, which have their correlatives in the Paraná. In the Huab Basin, the volcanic rocks of the Etendeka Group consists of the Awahab and Tafelberg Formations, which are separated by a disconformity. Detailed examination of the Awahab Formation reveals an additional disconformity, which separates olivine-phyric basalts (Tafelkop-type) from basalt/basaltic andesites (Tafelberg-type) marking out a shield volcanic feature which is concentrated in an area to the SE of the Huab River near to the Doros igneous centre. Early volcanism consisted of pahoehoe style flows of limited lateral extent, which spilled out onto aeolian sands of an active aeolian sand sea 133 million years ago. This sand sea is equivalent to the sands making up the Botucatu Formation in the Paraná basin. The early expression of flood volcanism was that of laterally discontinuous, limited volume, pahoehoe flows of Tafelkop-type geochemistry, which interleaved with the aeolian sands forming the Tafelkop–Interdune Member basalts. These basalts are on-lapped by more voluminous, laterally extensive, basalt/basaltic andesite flows indicating a step-up in the volume and rate of flood volcanism, leading to the preservation of the shield volcanic feature. These geochemically distinct basalts/basaltic andesites form the Tsuhasis Member, which are interbeded with the Goboboseb and Sprinkbok quartz latite flows higher in the section. The Tsuhasis Member basalts, which form the upper parts of the Awahab Formation, are of Tafelberg-type geochemistry, but are stratigraphically distinct from the Tafelberg lavas, which are found in the Tafelberg Formation above. Thus, the internal stratigraphy of the flood basalt province contains palaeo-volcanic features, such as shield volcanoes, and other disconformities and is not that of a simple layer-cake model. This complex internal architecture indicates that flood volcanism started sporadically, with low volume pahoehoe flows of limited lateral extent, before establishing the more common large volume flows typical of the main lava pile.     

The microscale cooling effects of water sensitive urban design and irrigation in a suburban environment

There is still considerable uncertainty about precipitation at high elevation in mountain terrain due to the relatively few in situ measurements available and to the particular variability of the parameter. In this study, several spatialization techniques were tested, some for climatological time scale and others for daily fields, for precipitation over the western Alps for the period of 1990–2012. The study domain and period were chosen for the quality of available in situ observations and density of the network. First, a weather-type classification was established with a technique based on canonical correlation analysis combining large- and regional-scale data. The spatialization techniques applied for the climatological time scale were adapted from the Aurelhy method which uses elevation and principal components of the topography as predictors. The spatialization techniques applied to daily fields were based on kriging of daily rain gauges and used the climatological fields as predictors. This study aims to validate the advantage of using the climatology of the weather type of the day as predictor for daily fields over a monthly climatology. The climatology of the weather type of the day seems to demonstrate some small improvement.Finally, annual means over the period of 1990–2012 were produced using several methods, including some from accumulation of daily fields and others from the spatialization of in situ station means. Precipitation at high elevations and vertical climatological gradients were particularly scrutinized. Annual means based on sums of daily fields seem to have better performances.This paper only presents results for precipitation but temperature was also analysed.     

Assessment and Assimilation of FY-3 Humidity Sounders and Imager in the UK Met Office Global Model

China's Feng Yun 3(FY-3) polar orbiting satellites are set to become an important source of observational data for numerical weather prediction(NWP),atmospheric reanalyses,and climate monitoring studies over the next two decades.As part of the Climate Science for Service Partnership China(CSSP China) program,FY-3 B Microwave Humidity Sounder 1(MWHS-1) and FY-3 C MWHS-2 observations have been thoroughly assessed and prepared for operational assimilation.This represents the first time observations from China's polar orbiting satellites have been used in the UK's global NWP model.Since 2016,continuous data quality monitoring has shown occasional bias changes found to be correlated to changes in the energy supply scheme regulating the platform heating system and other transient anomalies.Nonetheless,MWHS-1 and MWHS-2 significantly contribute to the 24-h forecast error reduction by 0.3% and 0.6%,respectively,and the combination of both instruments is shown to improve the fit to the model background of independent sounders by up to 1%.The observations from the Microwave Radiation Imager(MWRI) also are a potentially significant source of benefits for NWP models,but a solar-dependent bias observed in the instrument half-orbits has prevented their assimilation.This paper presents the bases of a correction scheme developed at the Met Office for the purpose of a future assimilation of MWRI data.     

A new scenario framework for climate change research: background,process, and future directions

The scientific community is developing new global, regional, and sectoral scenarios to facilitate interdisciplinary research and assessment to explore the range of possible future climates and related physical changes that could pose risks to human and natural systems; how these changes could interact with social, economic, and environmental development pathways; the degree to which mitigation and adaptation policies can avoid and reduce risks; the costs and benefits of various policy mixes; and the relationship of future climate change adaptation and mitigation policy responses with sustainable development. This paper provides the background to and process of developing the conceptual framework for these scenarios, as described in the three subsequent papers in this Special Issue (Van Vuuren et al., 2013; O’Neill et al., 2013; Kriegler et al., Submitted for publication in this special issue). The paper also discusses research needs to further develop, apply, and revise this framework in an iterative and open-ended process. A key goal of the framework design and its future development is to facilitate the collaboration of climate change researchers from a broad range of perspectives and disciplines to develop policy- and decision-relevant scenarios and explore the challenges and opportunities human and natural systems could face with additional climate change.     

The effect of environmental change on human migration

The influence of the environment and environmental change is largely unrepresented in standard theories of migration, whilst recent debates on climate change and migration focus almost entirely on displacement and perceive migration to be a problem. Drawing on an increasing evidence base that has assessed elements of the influence of the environment on migration, this paper presents a new framework for understanding the effect of environmental change on migration. The framework identifies five families of drivers which affect migration decisions: economic, political, social, demographic and environmental drivers. The environment drives migration through mechanisms characterised as the availability and reliability of ecosystem services and exposure to hazard. Individual migration decisions and flows are affected by these drivers operating in combination, and the effect of the environment is therefore highly dependent on economic, political, social and demographic context. Environmental change has the potential to affect directly the hazardousness of place. Environmental change also affects migration indirectly, in particular through economic drivers, by changing livelihoods for example, and political drivers, through affecting conflicts over resources, for example. The proposed framework, applicable to both international and internal migration, emphasises the role of human agency in migration decisions, in particular the linked role of family and household characteristics on the one hand, and barriers and facilitators to movement on the other in translating drivers into actions. The framework can be used to guide new research, assist with the evaluation of policy options, and provide a context for the development of scenarios representing a range of plausible migration futures.     

Anatomy and facies distribution of terminal lobes in ephemeral fluvial successions: Jurassic Tordillo Formation,Neuquén Basin,Argentina

In terminal fluvial-fan systems, characteristic proximal to distal variations in sedimentary architectures are recognized to arise from progressive downstream loss of water discharge related to both infiltration and evaporation. This work aims to elucidate downstream trends in facies and architecture across the medial and distal zones of terminal-fan systems, which record transitions from deposits of channel elements to lobe-like and sheet-like elements. This is achieved via a detailed characterization of ancient ephemeral fluvial deposits of the well-exposed Kimmeridgian Tordillo Formation (Neuquén Basin, Argentina). The fine sand-prone and silt-prone succession associated with the medial to distal sectors of the system has been studied to understand relationships between depositional processes and resulting architectures. Facies and architectural-element analyses, and quantification of resulting sedimentological data at multiple scales, have been undertaken to characterize sedimentary facies, facies transitions, bed types, architectural elements and larger-scale architectural styles. Eight bed types with distinct internal facies transitions are defined and interpreted in terms of different types of flood events. Channelized and non-channelized architectural elements are defined based on their constituent bed types and their external geometry. The most common elements are terminal lobes, which are composite bodies within which largely unconfined sandy deposits are stacked in a compensational manner; a hierarchical arrangement of internal components is recognized. Proximal feeder-channel avulsion events likely controlled the evolution of terminal-lobe elements and their spatiotemporal shifts. Stratigraphic relations between architectural elements record system-wide trends, whereby a proximal sector dominated by channel elements passes downstream via a gradational transition to a medial sector dominated by sandy terminal-lobe elements, which in turn passes further downstream to a distal sector dominated by silty terminal lobe-margin and fringing deposits. This work enhances current understanding of the stratigraphic record of terminal fluvial systems at multiple scales, and provides insight that can be applied to predict the facies and architectural complexity of terminal fluvial successions.     

GENEBANKS: A GLOBAL PAYOFF*

The number of crop genebanks, designed to conserve crop genetic resources and make them available to breeders, has risen dramatically in recent years. While few dispute the need to conserve crop germplasm to help boost and sustain agricultural productivity, the role of genebanks and their global distribution has become embroiled in controversy. Some suggest that genebanks are servicing mainly multinational seed companies and that industrial countries harbor the lion's share of crop germplasm collections. This article describes the importance of genebanks, analyzes their distribution and beneficiaries, and outlines how geographers can become more involved in the conservation and use of crop genetic resources.     

The implications of climate policy for the impacts of climate change on global water resources

This paper assesses the implications of climate policy for exposure to water resources stresses. It compares a Reference scenario which leads to an increase in global mean temperature of 4 °C by the end of the 21st century with a Mitigation scenario which stabilises greenhouse gas concentrations at around 450 ppm CO₂e and leads to a 2 °C increase in 2100. Associated changes in river runoff are simulated using a global hydrological model, for four spatial patterns of change in temperature and rainfall. There is a considerable difference in hydrological change between these four patterns, but the percentages of change avoided at the global scale are relatively robust. By the 2050s, the Mitigation scenario typically avoids between 16 and 30% of the change in runoff under the Reference scenario, and by 2100 it avoids between 43 and 65%. Two different measures of exposure to water resources stress are calculated, based on resources per capita and the ratio of withdrawals to resources. Using the first measure, the Mitigation scenario avoids 8-17% of the impact in 2050 and 20-31% in 2100; with the second measure, the avoided impacts are 5-21% and 15-47% respectively. However, at the same time, the Mitigation scenario also reduces the positive impacts of climate change on water scarcity in other areas. The absolute numbers and locations of people affected by climate change and climate policy vary considerably between the four climate model patterns.