Circumglobal wave train and the summer monsoon over northwestern India and Pakistan: the explicit role of the surface heat low

This study examines the influence of the mid-latitude circulation on the surface heat low (HL) and associated monsoon rainfall over northwestern India and Pakistan using the ERA40 data and high resolution (T106L31) climate model ECHAM5 simulation. Special emphasis is given to the surface HL which forms over Pakistan and adjoining areas of India, Iran and Afghanistan during the summer season. A heat low index (HLI) is defined to depict the surface HL. The HLI displays significant correlations with the upper level mid-latitude circulation over western central Asia and low level monsoon circulation over Arabian Sea and acts as a bridge connecting the mid-latitude wave train to the Indian summer monsoon. A time-lagged singular value decomposition analysis reveals that the eastward propagation of the mid-latitude circumglobal wave train (CGT) influences the surface pressure anomalies over the Indian domain. The largest low (negative) pressure anomalies over the western parts of the HL region (i.e., Iran and Afghanistan) occur in conjunction with the upper level anomalous high that develops over western-central Asia during the positive phase of the CGT. The composite analysis also reveals a significant increase in the low pressure anomalies over Iran and Afghanistan during the positive phase of CGT. The westward increasing low pressure anomalies with its north?Csouth orientation provokes enormous north?Csouth pressure gradient (lower pressure over land than over sea). This in turn enables the moist southerly flow from the Arabian Sea to penetrate farther northward over northwestern India and Pakistan. A monsoon trough like conditions develops over northwestern India and Pakistan where the moist southwesterly flow from the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf converge. The convergence in association with the orographic uplifting expedites convection and associated precipitation over northwestern India and Pakistan. The high resolution climate model ECHAM5 simulation also underlines the proposed findings and mechanism.     

Spatial assessment of the potential of groundwater quality using fuzzy AHP in GIS

In this study, fuzzy AHP method is used for extracting the water quality indicators based on the Schuler standard and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines during a 20-year period. For this purpose, the best fit of the zoning model was performed. Furthermore, by comparing the standard errors, the continuous Raster layer was extracted from the important parameters used in generating the qualitative potential assessment index. The classified layer was generated by integrating continuous layers in the GIS environment and with the use of Python programming. The similarity of the outputs of both methods indicates the presence of large sections of aquifers in the middle and southwestern regions of Iran in the “temporarily drinkable” and “bad” classes. The calculations showed that the majority of aquifers that were located in the “inappropriate” class during the first 10 years fell to less valuable class types. Based on the results of the model, there is a direct correlation between the drop in water resources and the decline in the quality indices. In addition, in the Urmia and Bushehr coastal aquifers, due to excessive water withdrawal and salty water penetration, the quality of the table water is in critical condition. Based on the results of the research, the aquifers in the range of Zagros and Alborz mountains show the least change in water quality. The reason for this is the depth of the aquifer and the ability to recharge it.     

Estimation of soil hydraulic properties and their uncertainty through the Beerkan infiltration experiment

The Beerkan method based on in situ single‐ring water infiltration experiments along with the relevant specific Beerkan estimation of soil transfer parameters (BEST) algorithm is attractive for simple soil hydraulic characterization. However, the BEST algorithm may lead to erroneous or null values for the saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity especially when there are only few infiltration data points under the transient flow state, either for sandy soil or soils in wet conditions. This study developed an alternative algorithm for analysis of the Beerkan infiltration experiment referred to as BEST‐generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE). The proposed method estimates the scale parameters of van Genuchten water retention and Brooks–Corey hydraulic conductivity functions through the GLUE methodology. The GLUE method is a Bayesian Monte Carlo parameter estimation technique that makes use of a likelihood function to measure the goodness‐of‐fit between modelled and observed data. The results showed that using a combination of three different likelihood measurements based on observed transient flow, steady‐state flow and experimental steady‐state infiltration rate made the BEST‐GLUE procedure capable of performing an efficient inverse analysis of Beerkan infiltration experiments. Therefore, it is more applicable for a wider range of soils with contrasting texture, structure, and initial and saturated water content. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metamorphosis of marine organic matter in the jurassic deposits from Sharab area,Taiz Governorate of southwestern Yemen: Thermal effect of tertiary volcanic rocks

The Tertiary volcanic rocks are widely exposed in the Sharab area of Taiz Governorate, southwestern Yemen. The Jurassic calcareous shale and black limestone deposits collected closely to theTertiary volcanic rocks were investigated to provide information regarding the thermal effects of Tertiary volcanic rocks on organic materials. The bulk geochemical results indicate that the analysed Jurassic deposits are organically lean with present-day TOC values less than 0.95% and very low HI values (< 50 mg HC/g TOC), with a predominantly Type IV kerogen (inert carbon). This is attributed to thermal effect on the original organic matter as indicated by high thermal maturity data, consistent with post-mature to metagenesis stage. The present study also suggests that the high thermal maturity of the Jurassic marine deposits is due to the presence of the alkali basalts which have invaded the Jurassic rocks during late Oligocene to early Miocene (~10 Ma). Thus, the heat flow caused by Tertiary basaltic rocks further increased the temperature level and led to metamorphosis of organic matter and converted it to graphitic materials (inert carbon).     

Sedimentology,mineralogy, and geochemistry of the Late Quaternary Meyghan Playa sediments,NE Arak,Iran: palaeoclimate implications

Playas are shallow ephemeral lakes that form in arid and semi-arid regions. Iran has a large number of playas such as Meyghan Playa, which is located in the northeast of Arak city that borders the central Iran and Sanandaj-Sirjan zones. This study aims to investigate the mineralogical, sedimentological, and geochemical characteristics of the playa sediments. In order to determine the palaeoenvironment, we carried out X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies. Meyghan Playa sediments consist of very fine-grained sediments and contain both evaporite and clastic minerals. The evaporite minerals include calcite, gypsum, halite, glauberite, and thenardite, whereas clastic minerals are quartz and clay. The calcite abundance decreases from the margin to the central portion of the playa but gypsum and halite abundances show an increasing trend from the margin to the center. This observation is consistent with the general zonation of other playas. Variations of calcite and gypsum concentration profiles present increasing and decreasing trends with depth, which could be ascribed to the changes in climatic factors. These factors include brine chemical modifications owing to changes in evaporation and precipitation rates and variations in relative abundance of anions-cations or in the rate of clastic and evaporite minerals due to variations in the freshwater influx (climatic changes) with time. A decrease in calcite and increase in sulfate minerals (especially gypsum) with depth is probably due to the higher water level and rainfall, a more humid climate, and salinity variations.     

Role of land surface parameter change in dust emission and impacts of dust on climate in Southwest Asia

Natural Hazards - Spatial–temporal changes of land surface parameters (land cover change, net primary production, and vegetation phenology) affect the characteristics of atmospheric dust....     

Classification of rocks radionuclide data using machine learning techniques

The aim of this study is to assess the performance of linear discriminate analysis, support vector machines (SVMs) with linear and radial basis, classification and regression trees and random forest (RF) in the classification of radionuclide data obtained from three different types of rocks. Radionuclide data were obtained for metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks using gamma spectroscopic method. A P-type high-purity germanium detector was used for the radiometric study. For analysis purpose, we have determined activity concentrations of ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K radionuclides, published elsewhere (Rafique et al. in Russ Geol Geophys 55:1073–1082, 2014), in different rock samples and built the classification model after pre-processing the data using three times tenfold cross-validation. Using this model, we have classified the new samples into known categories of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. The statistics depicts that RF and SVM with radial kernel outperform as compared to other classification methods in terms of error rate, area under the curve and with respect to other performance measures.     

Review Paper: Methods of measurement for 4D seismic post-stack time shifts

The estimation of time-lapse time shifts between two, or several, repeated seismic surveys has become increasingly popular over the past eighteen years. These time shifts are a reliable and informative seismic attribute that can relate to reservoir production. Correction for these time shifts or the underlying velocity perturbations and/or subsurface displacement in an imaging sense also permits accurate evaluation of time-lapse amplitudes by attempting to decouple the kinematic component. To date, there are approximately thirty methods for time-shift estimation described in the literature. We can group these methods into three main families of mathematical development, together with several miscellaneous techniques. Here we detail the underlying bases for these methods, and the acknowledged benefits and weaknesses of each class of method highlighted. We illustrate this review with a number of time-lapse seismic examples from producing fields. No method is necessarily superior to the others, as its selection depends on ease of implementation, noise characteristics of the field data, and whether the inherent assumptions suit the case in question. However, cross-correlation stands out as the algorithm of choice based on the Pareto principle and waveform inversion the algorithm delivering best resolution. This is a companion study to the previous review of time-shift magnitudes and a discussion of their rock physics basis.