A verification of spatio-temporal monsoon rainfall variability across Indian region using NWP model output

Evaluation of weather forecasting systems and assessment of existing verification procedures are essential to achieve desirable seamless rainfall prediction. Prediction of wet and dry spells is quite useful in agriculture and hydrology but very few attempts have been made so far to resolve the issue using numerical model output. Performance of five state-of-the-art global atmospheric general circulation models and their ensemble mean has been examined in predicting the parameters of wet and dry spells (WSs/DSs) during monsoon period of 2008–2011 over seven subzones of the Indian region. The number of WSs across the region is found to be underestimated, while total duration and rainfall amount of WSs (DSs) overestimated (underestimated). Start of the first WS is late and ends of the last WS early in the model forecast. More uncertainty is noticed in the prediction of DS rainfall and its duration than that of the WS. The percentage area of India under wet conditions (rainfall amount over each grid is more than its daily mean monsoon rainfall) and rainwater over the wet area is overestimated by about 59 and 32 %, respectively, in all models.     

Tree water deficit and dynamic source water partitioning

The stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen (δ²H and δ¹⁸O, respectively) have been widely used to investigate tree water source partitioning. These tracers have shed new light on patterns of tree water use in time and space. However, there are several limiting factors to this methodology (e.g., the difficult assessment of isotope fractionation in trees, and the labor-intensity associated with the collection of significant sample sizes) and the use of isotopes alone has not been enough to provide a mechanistic understanding of source water partitioning. Here, we combine isotope data in xylem and soil water with measurements of tree's physiological information including tree water deficit (TWD), fine root distribution, and soil matric potential, to investigate the mechanism driving tree water source partitioning. We used a 2 m³ lysimeter with willow trees (Salix viminalis) planted within, to conduct a high spatial–temporal resolution experiment. TWD provided an integrated response of plant water status to water supply and demand. The combined isotopic and TWD measurement showed that short-term variation (within days) in source water partitioning is determined mainly by plant hydraulic response to changes in soil matric potential. We observed changes in the relationship between soil matric potential and TWD that are matched by shifts in source water partitioning. Our results show that tree water use is a dynamic process on the time scale of days. These findings demonstrate tree's plasticity to water supply over days can be identified with high-resolution measurements of plant water status. Our results further support that root distribution alone is not an indicator of water uptake dynamics. Overall, we show that combining physiological measurements with traditional isotope tracing can reveal mechanistic insights into plant responses to changing environmental conditions.     

A 3D fully coupled analysis of nonlinear sloshing and ship motion

This study investigates the coupling effects of six degrees of freedom in ship motion with fluid oscillation inside a three-dimensional rectangular container using a novel time domain simulation scheme. During the time marching, the tank-sloshing algorithm is coupled with the vessel-motion algorithm so that the influence of tank sloshing on vessel motions and vice versa can be assessed. Several factors influencing the dynamic behavior of tank–liquid system due to moving ship are also investigated. These factors include container parameters, environmental settings such as the significant wave height, current velocity as well as the direction of wind, wave and flow current acting on the ship. The nonlinear sloshing is studied using a finite element model whereas nonlinear ship motion is simulated using a hybrid marine control system. Computed roll response is compared with the existing results, showing fair agreement. Although the two hull forms and the sea states are not identical, the numerical result shows the same trend of the roll motion when the anti-rolling tanks are considered. Thus, the numerical approach presented in this paper is expected to be very useful and realistic in evaluating the coupling effects of nonlinear sloshing and 6-DOF ship motion.     

Convective dynamos in spherical wedge geometry

Self‐consistent convective dynamo simulations in wedge‐shaped spherical shells are presented. Differential rotation is generated by the interaction of convection with rotation. Equatorward acceleration and dynamo action are obtained only for sufficiently rapid rotation. The angular velocity tends to be constant along cylinders. Oscillatory large‐scale fields are found to migrate in the poleward direction. Comparison with earlier simulations in full spherical shells and Cartesian domains is made (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Deep learning for predicting the monsoon over the homogeneous regions of India

Indian monsoon varies in its nature over the geographical regions. Predicting the rainfall not just at the national level, but at the regional level is an important task. In this article, we used a deep neural network, namely, the stacked autoencoder to automatically identify climatic factors that are capable of predicting the rainfall over the homogeneous regions of India. An ensemble regression tree model is used for monsoon prediction using the identified climatic predictors. The proposed model provides forecast of the monsoon at a long lead time which supports the government to implement appropriate policies for the economic growth of the country. The monsoon of the central, north-east, north-west, and south-peninsular India regions are predicted with errors of 4.1%, 5.1%, 5.5%, and 6.4%, respectively. The identified predictors show high skill in predicting the regional monsoon having high variability. The proposed model is observed to be competitive with the state-of-the-art prediction models.     

Assessment of heavy metal pollution in soils around a paper mill using metal fractionation and multivariate analysis

Effects of paper mill wastes on the status of soil copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) in and around 16 sites near a paper mill in Assam, North East India (26°07.485′ to 26°07.915′ N latitude and 92°12.706′ to 92°15.065′ E longitude), have been investigated in the present study. The six-step sequential extraction techniques revealed that the water-soluble fraction had the least contribution (below detectable limit to 3.24 mg kg^?1 of Cu, 13.87 mg kg^?1 of Mn and 1.25 mg kg^?1 of Zn) towards soil contamination, irrespective of the metals evaluated. Chemical fractionation of Cu, Mn and Zn in majority of the sampling locations showed non-homogenous orders of contamination. Comparison of the magnitude of local and individual heavy metal contamination factors against global values showed that the places near the paper mill waste disposal site displayed higher potential risk from metal contamination. Furthermore, the mobility factor related to ecotoxicity of soil environment was found to be metal specific and depended not only on total metal concentration but also on the nature of metal in the order Mn > Cu > Zn.     

Recycled concrete aggregate coated with quaternary ammonium compounds for water disinfection

Growing demand for point-of-use water treatment including greywater recycling as well as appropriate disinfection without formation of harmful disinfection byproducts (DBPs) calls for new methods of efficient microbial control. In recent years, antimicrobial nanomaterials (NMs) have been widely studied as a potential alternative to traditional chlorine disinfection, yet concerns over their releases to environments and subsequent impacts have limited their use on a large scale. In this work, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) was proposed as a sustainable and environmentally friendly disinfecting substrate for water disinfection by coating with a composite of silica-quaternary ammonium compound (Fixed-Quat). Two different types (gel and particle) of Fixed-Quat were applied to RCA, and their adherence and antimicrobial activities were compared each other. When using E. Coli as a model bacterial pathogen, the Fixed-Quat gel and particle coated RCA materials showed similar and effective microbial inactivation performance with a rate of 2.0 × 10^?3 (gel) and 1.82 × 10^?3 (particle) log reduction cm^?2 min^?1. By potentially eliminating regulated DBPs formation and minimizing release of NMs into the environment, the antimicrobial coated RCA would be a promising and sustainable alternative to conventional disinfection methods in engineered aquatic systems.     

Performance testing of selected automated coastline detection techniques applied on multispectral satellite imageries

Coastline detection has been of major interest for environmentalists and many methods have been introduced to detect coastline automatically. Remote Sensing techniques are the most promising ones to deliver a satisfactory result in this regard. In our study, the objective was to retrieve performance level of certain image processing techniques vigorously used for the purpose to delineate coastline automatically and they were tested against two images acquired almost on the same period by LISS III and LANDSAT ETM+ sensors. The algorithms used in the study are Water Index, NDVI, Complex Band Ratio, ISODATA, Thresholding, ISH Transfirmation techniques. Accuracy of the shoreline detection by classifying the image in land and water has been tried to be estimated in three ways, firstly with comparison to the visually interpreted high resolution google earth image, secondly field collected GCP data of reference points of classes and thirdly the raw image itself. But problem in temporal disparity caused the constraint doing accuracy assessment from the first two reference data and maps along the coast. As a whole although four techniques among six, show satisfactory results namely density slicing, ISODATA classification, Water Index and ISH transformation technique, in the case of LISS-III and ETM+, Water Index (with kappa value being 0.95 for LISS-III and 0.97 for ETM+) and Intensity-Hue-Saturation transformation techniques give better performance. Sensor to sensor variation might have introduced certain differences in shoreline detection in images of same season with similar tidal influence.     

Secondary dynamical spectra of pulsars as indicators of inhomogeneities in the interstellar plasma

Observations of ten bright pulsars were obtained on the Giant Meter-wavelength Radio Telescope (GMRT, India) in order to study the effects of scattering of their radio waves by contructing and analyzing secondary dynamical spectra. The observations were conducted at 610 and 1420 MHz using a digital spectral analyzer operating in a real-time regime. The frequency resolution was 32.5 or 65.1 kHz, and the readout time was from 61.44 to 512 μs. Archival data for five pulsars at 327 MHz were also used. Procedures for normalizing the spectra and for constructing the secondary dynamical spectra were developed. Parabolic arcs were found in the secondary spectra of four pulsars (B1642-03, B1556-44, B2154+40, and B2021+51). The curvature of these arcs can be used to determine the distance to the effective scattering screen. In all cases, these screens are located relatively near the pulsars themselves.     

Motion of Venusian clouds by the deposition of meteoroids

The theory of superrotation of the Earth's atmosphere by global deposition of meteoroids recently developed by the author (Mitra, 1974) is extended after a slight refinement to explain the rotation period of Venusian clouds. A satisfactory agreement with observations is obtained.