Atmospheric teleconnection patterns and severity of winters in the Laurentian Great Lakes basin

Abstract

We analyzed the relationship between an index of Great Lakes winter severity (winters 1950–1998) and atmospheric circulation characteristics. Classification and Regression Tree analysis methods allowed us to develop a simple characterization of warm, normal and cold winters in terms of teleconnection indices and their combinations. Results are presented in the form of decision trees. The single most important classifier for warm winters was the Polar/Eurasian index (POL). A majority of warm winters (12 out of 15) occurred when this index was substantially positive (POL > 0.23). There were no cold winters when this condition was in place. Warm winters are associated with a positive phase of the Western Pacific pattern and El Niño events in the equatorial Pacific. The association between cold winters and La Niña events was much weaker. Thus, the effect of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on severity of winters in the Great Lakes basin is not symmetric. The structure of the relationship between the index of winter severity and teleconnection indices is more complex for cold winters than for warm winters. It takes two or more indices to successfully classify cold winters. In general, warm winters are characterized by a predominantly zonal type of atmospheric circulation over the Northern Hemisphere (type W1). Within this type of circulation it is possible to distinguish two sub‐types, W2 and W3. Sub‐type W2 is characterized by a high‐pressure cell over North America, which is accompanied by enhanced cyclonic activity over the eastern North Pacific. Due to a broad southerly “anomalous” flow, surface air temperatures (SATs) are above normal almost everywhere over the continent. During the W3 sub‐type, the polar jet stream over North America, instead of forming a typical ridge‐trough pattern, is almost entirely zonal, thus effectively blocking an advection of cold Arctic air to the south. Cold winters tend to occur when the atmospheric circulation is more meridional (type C1). As with warm winters, there are two sub‐types of circulation, C2 and C3. In the case of C2, the jet stream loops southward over the western part of North America, but its northern excursion over the eastern part is suppressed. In this situation, the probability of a cold winter is higher for Lake Superior than for the lower Great Lakes. Sub‐type C3 is characterized by an amplification of the climatological ridge over the Rockies and the trough over the East Coast. The strongest negative SAT anomalies are located south of the Great Lakes basin, so that the probability of a cold winter is higher for the lower Great Lakes than for Lake Superior.     

Spectroscopic constraints on growth of Siberian mixed-habit diamonds

Notable within-crystal variability of mineralogical and geochemical properties of single natural diamonds are commonly attributed to changing chemistry of parental fluids, sources of carbon and redox conditions of diamond precipitation. A distinct type of compositional heterogeneity (mixed-habit structure) is well-known to occur in diamonds as well as in many other minerals due to purely “structural” reasons that are unequal crystal chemistry of crystallographically different faces and selective absorption and fractionation of impurities between adjacent growth pyramids. Based on the combined cathodoluminescence, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy, study of nine diamond crystals with different growth histories and external morphology, but all showing mixed-habit patterns at different growth stages, we show that mixed-diamonds may grow in closed system conditions or with a slowly decreasing growth rate from a media with a much lower impurity content than previously thought. Intracrystal nitrogen distribution seems to be a function of growth rate even in the cases of unusual impurity partitioning between growth sectors. Generally poor with IR-active hydrogen at moderate nitrogen aggregation parameters, studied diamonds likely resemble the low hydrogen content from the growth medium that, for cubic diamonds, was typically suggested hydrogen-rich and a crucial factor for growth of cubic and mixed-habit diamonds. We also show that mixed-habit diamond growth may occur not only in peridotitic suite but also in an extended field of geochemical affinities from high-Ni to low-Ni or maybe even Ni-free environments, such as pyroxenitic or eclogitic.     

Kimberlitic sources of super-deep diamonds in the Juina area,Mato Grosso State,Brazil

The Juina diamond field, in the 1970–80s, was producing up to 5–6 million carats per year from rich placer deposits, but no economic primary deposits had been found in the area. In 2006–2007, Diagem Inc. discovered a group of diamondiferous kimberlitic pipes within the Chapadão Plateau (Chapadão, or Pandrea cluster), at the head of a drainage system which has produced most of the alluvial diamonds mined in the Juina area. Diamonds from placer deposits and newly discovered kimberlites are identical; they have super-deep origins from the upper-mantle and transition zone. Field observations and petrographic studies have identified crater-facies kimberlitic material at seven separate localities. Kimberlitic material is represented by tuffs, tuffisites and various epiclastic sediments containing chrome spinel, picroilmenite, manganoan ilmenite, zircon and diamond. The diamond grade varies from 0.2–1.8 ct/m³. Chrome spinel has 30–61 wt.% Cr₂O₃. Picroilmenite contains 6–14 wt.% MgO and 0.2–4 wt.% Cr₂O₃. Manganoan ilmenite has less than 3 wt.% MgO and 0.38–1.41 wt.% MnO. The ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf ratio in kimberlitic zircons is 0.028288–0.28295 with ε_Hf = 5.9–8.3, and lies on the average kimberlite trend between depleted mantle and CHUR. The previously known barren and weakly diamondiferous kimberlites in the Juina area have ages of 79–80 Ma. In contrast, zircons from the newly discovered Chapadão kimberlites have a mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 93.6 ± 0.4 Ma, corresponding to a time of magmatic activity related to the opening of the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The most likely mechanism of the origin of kimberlitic magma is super-deep subduction process that initiated partial melting of zones in lower mantle with subsequent ascent of proto-kimberlitic magma.     

The comparable analysis of the Cepheids and non-variable supergiants from the instability strip.I

The elemental abundances, temperatures, gravities and microturbulence velocities were derived for 14 non-variable supergiants from the Cepheids' instability strip and two hotter supergiants. For 8 stars the abundances were determined for the first time. The comparable analysis of the program stars' chemical composition and that of the small-amplitude Cepheids has shown that there is no essential differences in the elemental abundances for two stellar groups. Some discussion of the phenomenon of non-variable supergiants in the instability strip is given.     

A relativistic theory of plasma cut-offs

It is pointed out that at frequencies near the plasma cut-off frequencies, the corrections to wave refractive indices in a cold plasmaN ₀due to the contribution of ions and relativistic effects can be of the same order of magnitude or greater thanN ₀. Expressions for wave refractive indicesN taking into account these corrections are derived in a limiting case |N| I. It is shown that the increase in cut-off frequencies due to effects of ions is negligibly small unless the electron plasma frequency is well below the electron gyrofrequency. The decrease of the cut-off frequencies due to relativistic effects is significant ( 1%) only in a rather hot plasma (T _e 1 keV), which may be observed in a plasma sheet region of the Earth's magnetosphere and in astrophysical conditions. These effects appear to be particularly important in a strongly anisotropic plasma (the electron perpendicular temperature is noticeably greater than the parallel one).     

Plankton distribution associated with frontal zones in the vicinity of the Pribilof Islands

We studied the effect of four types of fronts, the coastal front, the middle front, the shelf partition front and the shelf break front on the quantitative distribution and the composition of plankton communities in the Pribilof area of the eastern Bering Sea shelf in late spring and summer of 1993 and 1994. The coastal fronts near St. Paul and St. George Islands and the coastal domains encircled by the fronts featured specific taxonomic composition of planktonic algae, high abundance and production of phytoplankton, as well as large numbers of heterotrophic nanoplankton. The coastal fronts also were characterized by high values of total mesozooplankton biomass, high concentrations of Calanus marshallae, as well as relatively high abundances of Parasagitta setosa and Euphausiacea compared to surrounding shelf waters. We hypothesize that wind-induced erosion of a weak thermocline in the inner part of the coastal front as well as transfrontal water exchange in subthermocline layers result in nutrient enrichment of the euphotic layer in the coastal fronts and coastal domains in summer time. This leads to prolonged high primary production and high phytoplankton biomass. In this paper a new type of front—the shelf partition front located 45–55 km to the north-east off St. Paul Island—is described, which is assumed to be formed by the flux of oceanic domain waters onto the shelf. This front features a high abundance of phytoplankton and a high level of primary production compared to the adjacent middle shelf. Near the southwestern periphery of the front a mesozooplankton peak occurred, composed of C. marshallae, with biomass in the subthermocline layer, reaching values typical for the shelf break front and the highest for the area. High abundance of phyto- and zooplankton as well as heterotrophic nanoplankton and elevated primary production were most often observed in the area adjacent to the shelf break front at its oceanic side. The phyto- and mesozooplankton peaks here were formed by oceanic community species. The summer levels of phytoplankton numbers, biomass and primary production in the shelf break frontal area were similar to those reported for the outer and middle shelf during the spring bloom and the coastal domains and coastal fronts in summer. In the environment with a narrow shelf to the south of St. George Island, the mesozooplankton peak was observed at the inner side of the shelf break front as close as 20 km from the island shore and was comprised of a “mixed” community of shelf and oceanic species. The biomass in the peak reached the highest values for the Pribilof area at 2.5 g mean wet weight m⁻³ in the 0–100 m layer. Details of the taxonomic composition and the numbers and production of phytoplankton hint at the similarity of processes that affect the phytoplankton summer community in the coastal domains of the islands, at the coastal fronts, and at the oceanic side of the shelf break front. The middle front was the only one that had no effect on plankton composition or its quantitative characteristics in June and July. Location of a variety of frontal productive areas within 100 km of the Pribilof Islands creates favorable foraging habitat for higher trophic level organisms, including sea birds and marine mammals, populating the islands.     

Morphological and Biological Particularities of Black Sea Whiting Merlangius merlangus euxinus (nordmann) (Teleostei: Gadidae)*

Abstract. From 1987–1992 nearly 4000 specimens of Merlangius merlangus euxinus were collected from most Black Sea areas. Biological parameters such as weight, standard length, sex, and age were studied. Seven meristic and twenty-four morphometric parameters were analyzed from 756 specimens. Data were processed employing discriminant and cluster analyses; they indicate the existence of several populations or sub-populations of the Black Sea whiting. The findings are supported by biological data and the general circulation pattern of the Black Sea.     

Advanced relativistic VLBI model for geodesy

Our present relativistic part of the geodetic VLBI model for Earthbound antennas is a consensus model which is considered as a standard for processing high-precision VLBI observations. It was created as a compromise between a variety of relativistic VLBI models proposed by different authors as documented in the IERS Conventions 2010. The accuracy of the consensus model is in the picosecond range for the group delay but this is not sufficient for current geodetic purposes. This paper provides a fully documented derivation of a new relativistic model having an accuracy substantially higher than one picosecond and based upon a well accepted formalism of relativistic celestial mechanics, astrometry and geodesy. Our new model fully confirms the consensus model at the picosecond level and in several respects goes to a great extent beyond it. More specifically, terms related to the acceleration of the geocenter are considered and kept in the model, the gravitational time-delay due to a massive body (planet, Sun, etc.) with arbitrary mass and spin-multipole moments is derived taking into account the motion of the body, and a new formalism for the time-delay problem of radio sources located at finite distance from VLBI stations is presented. Thus, the paper presents a substantially elaborated theoretical justification of the consensus model and its significant extension that allows researchers to make concrete estimates of the magnitude of residual terms of this model for any conceivable configuration of the source of light, massive bodies, and VLBI stations. The largest terms in the relativistic time delay which can affect the current VLBI observations are from the quadrupole and the angular momentum of the gravitating bodies that are known from the literature. These terms should be included in the new geodetic VLBI model for improving its consistency.     

A search for unique objects in nearby galaxies

A list of 171 stars in the galaxy M33 is presented. The stars could be considered as candidates for unique objects, such as SS 433, S Dor, P Cyg stars and possibly new kinds of peculiar objects. All these stars have been selected on the basis of the similarity to SS 433, free from interstellar absorption: OB star with strongH emission or with HeII 4686 and CIII, NIII 4630 - 4660 emission lines; a hot star inside a supernovae remnant or radio nebula. The variability of these stars has been used as an additional criterion of the selection. It is important to carry out spectral observations of the presented stars, which will allow us to select stars with intrinsicH emission.     

Geodesy and relativity

Relativity, or gravitational physics, has widely entered geodetic modelling and parameter determination. This concerns, first of all, the fundamental reference systems used. The Barycentric Celestial Reference System (BCRS) has to be distinguished carefully from the Geocentric Celestial Reference System (GCRS), which is the basic theoretical system for geodetic modelling with a direct link to the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), simply given by a rotation matrix. The relation to the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) is discussed, as well as various properties and relevance of these systems. Then the representation of the gravitational field is discussed when relativity comes into play. Presently, the so-called post-Newtonian approximation to GRT (general relativity theory) including relativistic effects to lowest order is sufficient for practically all geodetic applications. At the present level of accuracy, space-geodetic techniques like VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), GPS (Global Positioning System) and SLR/LLR (Satellite/Lunar Laser Ranging) have to be modelled and analysed in the context of a post-Newtonian formalism. In fact, all reference and time frames involved, satellite and planetary orbits, signal propagation and the various observables (frequencies, pulse travel times, phase and travel-time differences) are treated within relativity. This paper reviews to what extent the space-geodetic techniques are affected by such a relativistic treatment and where—vice versa—relativistic parameters can be determined by the analysis of geodetic measurements. At the end, we give a brief outlook on how new or improved measurement techniques (e.g., optical clocks, Galileo) may further push relativistic parameter determination and allow for refined geodetic measurements.