Effect of higher-order bottom variation terms on the refraction of water waves in the extended mild-slope equations

This study investigates how the refraction of water waves is affected by the higher-order bottom effect terms proportional to the square of bottom slope and to the bottom curvature in the extended mild-slope equations. Numerical analyses are performed on two cases of waves propagating over a circular shoal and over a circular hollow. Numerical results are analyzed using the eikonal equation derived from the wave equations and the wave ray tracing technique. It is found that the higher-order bottom effect terms change the wavelength and, in turn, change the refraction of waves over a variable depth. In the case of waves over a circular shoal, the higher-order bottom effects increase the wavelength along the rim of shoal more than near the center of shoal, and intensify the degree of wave refraction. However, the discontinuity of higher-order bottom effects along the rim of shoal disperses the foci of wave rays. As a result, the amplification of wave energy behind the shoal is reduced. Conversely, in the case of waves over a circular hollow, the higher-order bottom effects decrease the wavelength near the center of the hollow in comparison with the case of neglecting higher-order bottom effects. Consequently, the degree of wave refraction is decreased, and the spreading of wave energy behind the hollow is reduced.     

Numerical experiment on the circulation in the Japan Sea

By using a rectangular basin of uniform depth with inflow and outflow openings, the circulation in the Japan Sea is investigated numerically. Heat flux through the sea surface is determined from the annual mean atmospheric conditions for the Japan Sea, but no wind stress is considered.In the transient state, the warm water supplied through an inflow opening travels cyclonically along the coast as a density-driven boundary current in a rotating system. In the quasi-steady state, the warm water flows northward as a western boundary current which corresponds to the East Korean Warm Current and gradually separates from the coast as it flows northward. No strong boundary current corresponding to the nearshore branch of the Tsushima Current exists.Under annual mean atmospheric conditions, formation of the deep water characteristic of the Japan Sea and of the thermal front corresponding to the Polar Front do not take place.     

Loess cave-dwellings in Shaanxi province,China

China's loessland is the home of ancient China's civilisation. For thousands of years, a distinct form of dwelling in Shaanxi, a part of China's loessland has been caves burrowed out of the soil. People still prefer living in cave dwellings to free standing Chinese houses. The persistence of cave dwellings may be an indication that the traditional cave dwellings has been a successful ecological adaptation to the local loess environment with long severe winters and intense summer heat.     

The CLIVAR C20C project: selected twentieth century climate events

We use a simple methodology to test whether a set of atmospheric climate models with prescribed radiative forcings and ocean surface conditions can reproduce twentieth century climate variability. Globally, rapid land surface warming since the 1970s is reproduced by some models but others warm too slowly. In the tropics, air-sea coupling allows models to reproduce the Southern Oscillation but its strength varies between models. We find a strong relationship between the Southern Oscillation in global temperature and the rate of global warming, which could in principle be used to identify models with realistic climate sensitivity. This relationship and a weak response to ENSO suggests weak sensitivity to changes in sea surface temperature in some of the models used here. In the tropics, most models reproduce part of the observed Sahel drought. In the extratropics, models do not reproduce the observed increase in the North Atlantic Oscillation in response to forcings, through internal variability, or as a combination of both.     

Aerosol properties at gosan in Korea during two pollution episodes caused by contrasting weather conditions

We analyzed aerosol optical and chemical properties over Northeast Asia for two pollution episodes caused by contrasting weather conditions, stagnant anticyclone (November, 2011) and fastmoving continental outflow associated with migratory cyclone/anticyclone (February, 2003). Pollution levels were significantly high and even comparable with heavily polluted urban cities in China and Korea even though these levels were from the episodic measurements since Gosan is an internationally well-known remote background site. Space-borne MODIS measurements clearly show that the pollution plume with high aerosol optical depth (AOD) overlaid and very slowly moved over Northeast Asia during the stagnation episode. On the other hand, a strong synoptic wind transported the plume from eastern China to its downwind regions during the continental outflow episode. The two pollution episodes showed discriminative aerosol chemical compositions associated with different source characteristics. Concentrations of nss (non-sea-salt)-sulfates and ammonium in the continental outflow episode were almost two times higher than those in the stagnation episode due to the influence of anthropogenic emissions from China. A higher fraction of nitrate, accompanied with an increase of carbonaceous species in the stagnation episode, was attributable to vehicular emissions originated from Korea.     

Seasonal volume transport variation in the Tsushima Warm Current through the Tsushima Straits from 10 years of ADCP observations

The seasonal variation in the structure and volume transport of the Tsushima Warm Current through the Tsushima Straits is studied using the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data obtained by the ferryboat Camellia between Hakata, Japan and Pusan, Korea from February 1997 to February 2007. A robust estimation method to eliminate the effects of aliasing and tidal signals more accurately leads to a significant increase in the volume transport in winter time compared to the previously reported one by Takikawa et al. (2005) who analyzed this ADCP dataset for the first 5.5 years. The 10 years average of volume transport through the Tsushima Straits is 2.65 Sv, and those through the channels east (CE) and west (CW) of the Tsushima Islands are 1.20 Sv and 1.45 Sv, respectively, which represent a 13% increase and an 8% decrease from those of Takikawa et al. (2005). The transport through the CE increases rapidly from winter to spring and then decreases gradually as winter approaches. On the other hand, the transport through the CW increases gradually from winter to autumn and then decreases rapidly as winter approaches. The transport through the CE is larger than that of through the CW from February to April. The contribution of the Ekman transport near the sea surface, which is not measured with the ADCP, to the seasonal volume transport variation across our ADCP section is not significant.     

Flow-based seismic risk assessment of a water transmission network employing probabilistic seismic hazard analysis

Natural Hazards - In this study, a seismic risk assessment model was proposed to evaluate the seismic reliability of a water transmission network. The proposed risk assessment model involves...