Quality assessment and hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater in Agastheeswaram taluk,Kanyakumari district,Tamil Nadu,India

The present study investigates the hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater quality in Agas- theeswaram taluk of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 69 groundwater samples were collected during pre- and post-monsoon periods of 2011-2012. The groundwater quality assessment has been carried out by evaluating the physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, HCO3, Cl, SO42-, Ca2＋, Mg2＋, Na＋ and K＋ for both the seasons. Based on these parameters, groundwater has been assessed in favor of its suitability for drinking and irrigation purpose. Dominant cations for both the seasons are in the order of Na＋〉 Ca2＋〉 Mg2＋ 〉 K＋ while the dominant anions for post monsoon and pre monsoon have the trends of CI 〉 HCO3 〉 SO42- and HCO3- 〉 CI 〉 SO42-, respectively. Analytical results observed from various indices reveal that the groundwater quality is fairly good in some places. Analytical results of few samples show that they are severely polluted and incidentally found to be near the coasts, estuaries and salt pans in the study area. The Gibbs plot indicates that the majority of groundwater samples fall in rock dominant region, which indicates rock water interaction in the study area. The United States salinity （USSL） diagram shows that the groundwater is free from sodium hazards but the salinity hazard varies from low to very high throughout the study area. This reveals that the groundwater is moderately suitable for agricultural activities. The observed chemical variations in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons may be the effect to rock-water interactions, ion-exchange reactions, and runoff of fertilizers from the surrounding agricultural lands.     

Seismic velocity imaging of the Kumaon–Garhwal Himalaya,India

Natural Hazards - Since the initial collision at 55 Ma, rocks of the Indian crust below the Himalayas have undergone modification chemically and compositionally due to the ongoing...     

Reducing errors in the GRACE gravity solutions using regularization

The nature of the gravity field inverse problem amplifies the noise in the GRACE data, which creeps into the mid and high degree and order harmonic coefficients of the Earth’s monthly gravity fields provided by GRACE. Due to the use of imperfect background models and data noise, these errors are manifested as north-south striping in the monthly global maps of equivalent water heights. In order to reduce these errors, this study investigates the use of the L-curve method with Tikhonov regularization. L-curve is a popular aid for determining a suitable value of the regularization parameter when solving linear discrete ill-posed problems using Tikhonov regularization. However, the computational effort required to determine the L-curve is prohibitively high for a large-scale problem like GRACE. This study implements a parameter-choice method, using Lanczos bidiagonalization which is a computationally inexpensive approximation to L-curve. Lanczos bidiagonalization is implemented with orthogonal transformation in a parallel computing environment and projects a large estimation problem on a problem of the size of about 2 orders of magnitude smaller for computing the regularization parameter. Errors in the GRACE solution time series have certain characteristics that vary depending on the ground track coverage of the solutions. These errors increase with increasing degree and order. In addition, certain resonant and near-resonant harmonic coefficients have higher errors as compared with the other coefficients. Using the knowledge of these characteristics, this study designs a regularization matrix that provides a constraint on the geopotential coefficients as a function of its degree and order. This regularization matrix is then used to compute the appropriate regularization parameter for each monthly solution. A 7-year time-series of the candidate regularized solutions (Mar 2003–Feb 2010) show markedly reduced error stripes compared with the unconstrained GRACE release 4 solutions (RL04) from the Center for Space Research (CSR). Post-fit residual analysis shows that the regularized solutions fit the data to within the noise level of GRACE. A time series of filtered hydrological model is used to confirm that signal attenuation for basins in the Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP) database over 320 km radii is less than 1 cm equivalent water height RMS, which is within the noise level of GRACE.     

Role of Vertical Resolution in Numerical Models Towards the Intensification,Structure and Track of Tropical Cyclones

The impact of vertical resolution on the evolution and movement of tropical cyclones was studied using NCAR MM5 model with a horizontal resolution of 9 km. Four numerical experiments were performed with different vertical resolutions, that is, with 23 vertical levels as control experiment, and 36 vertical levels with high resolution in the lower troposphere, 33 vertical levels with high resolution in the upper troposphere and 46 vertical levels with increased vertical resolution throughout the troposphere as relative to base experiment. The results indicate that increased vertical resolution in the lower troposphere produces efficient intensification and better structure in terms of eye and eyewall. Increased vertical resolution at lower levels improves the prediction of vertical shear of horizontal wind. Experiments with high resolution in the lower troposphere and high resolution throughout the troposphere simulate better track up to 72 hours.     

Cardboard monuments: City, language and 'nation' in contemporary Telugu cinema

This paper looks at how the city of Hyderabad, the capital of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and production centre of the Telugu film industry, has been represented in recent popular cinema. It outlines the history of a new mode of representing the city in Telugu cinema and argues that its significance lies in the tendency to delocalize the city. Criminalization of the city's older inhabitants, who are marked by either religion (Islam) or their 'non-standard' dialect of Telugu, often accompanies this move. In the process, any claims that they might have on the city are delegitimized. Okkadu, a major commercial hit, restaged the country versus city dichotomy and the antagonisms complicated by cultural and political tensions between the three constituent regions of Andhra Pradesh. This film follows the late 1990s trend in the film industry to recreate entire cityscapes within the studio, ensuring that location shooting in busy city streets and neighbourhoods merely returns us to the grandeur of lavish and 'realistic' studio sets. It reconstructs Hyderabad's most recognizable monument, the 400-year-old Charminar, in addition to its obviously imaginary residential neighbourhood. This paper looks at how and why the city of Hyderabad, especially its older parts, for which Charminar is a metonym, is rendered into a fantasy space in the film.     

Analysis and prediction of a catastrophic Indian coastal heat wave of 2015

Heat wave of 2015 over India, a natural disaster with 2500 human deaths, was studied to understand the characteristics, associated atmospheric circulation patterns and to evaluate its predictability. Although temperatures are highest in May over India, occurrence of heat wave conditions over southeast coastal parts of India in May 2015 had been unanticipated. Analyses revealed that isolated region of Andhra Pradesh (AP) had experienced severe heat wave conditions during May 23–27, 2015, with temperatures above 42 °C and the sudden escalation by 7–10 °C within a short span of 2–3 days. Short-range weather predictions with Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model at 3-km resolution, up to 72-h lead time, have been found accurate with statistical metrics of small mean absolute error and root-mean-square error and high index of agreement confirming the predictability of the heat wave evolution. Analyses have indicated that regional atmospheric pressure disparities within the Eurasia region, i.e., increased pressure gradient between the Middle East and India, had been responsible for increased northwest wind flow over to northwest India and to southeast India which have advected higher temperatures. Estimates of warm air advection have shown heat accumulation over AP region, due to sea breeze effect. The study led to the conclusion that changing pressure gradients between Middle East and India, enhancement of northwest wind flow with warm air advection and sea breeze effect along southeast coast blocking the free flow have contributed to the observed heat wave episode over coastal Andhra Pradesh.     

Inter-annual variability and skill of tropical rainfall and SST in APCC seasonal forecast models

Climate Dynamics - The present study explored the performance of the current coupled models obtained from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Climate Centre (APCC) in representing the...     

Hydrogeophysical investigations in a typical khondalitic terrain to delineate the kaolinised layer using resistivity imaging

Investigation for high yielding water wells in the khondalitic terrain (graneti ferrous silliminite gnesiss) is mostly faced with the problem of identification of the extent of the depth of kaolinisation of the aquifer. The traditional Vertical Electrical Sounding survey, Seismic Refraction survey and Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic survey could not identify the kaolinisation of the aquifer in the present investigations. The Two Dimensional (2D) Resistivity and Induced Polarization (IP) Imaging surveys are attempted for the identification of kaolinised layer and depth of kaolinisation. Number of 2D Resistivity and IP Imaging profiles were conducted near Chipurupally in Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh, India along successful and failed wells located within short distances. Resistivity and IP measurements were carried out using an ABEM SAS 4000 Terrameter. The resistivity and I.P. images have provided a clear view of the thickness of the highly weathered zone (kaolinised zone) at both successful and failed wells. The highly weathered zone is identified with the resistivity values below 25 ohm.m. The depth of highly weathered material at failed well is extended about 8–10 m more deeper than the successful wells at some places to as much as 20 m more deep at some other places. This extended deeper kaolinisation of the aquifer is responsible for failure of wells. Layers having resistivities between 25–65 Ohm.m are identified as aquifer layers which are composed of moderately weathered and fractured khondalitic suit of rocks (Garnti ferrous sillimanite/biotite gneiss). Layers with resistivities greater than 65 Ohm.m are interpreted to have basement characteristics belonging to the granite gneiss. Interestingly IP imaging has not provided any greater insights in delineating the kaolinistion of the aquifer when compared to resistivity Imaging, in fact resitivity imaging has shown greater depths of kaolinisation than IP Imaging.     

Morphometry using remote sensing and GIS techniques in the sub-basins of Kagna river basin, Gulburga district, Karnataka, India

The study area is a part of Kagna river basin in the Gulburga district of Karnataka, India. It covers an area of 1320 km² and it has been subdivided into 4 sub-basins namely Wadi, Chitapur, Sedam and Kurkunta, which range in area from 184 to 537 km². The drainage pattern of these sub-basins are delineated using Geo-coded FCC bands 2,3,4 of IRS 1C and 1D(LISS III+PAN merged) on 1:50,000 scale and Survey of India toposheets as reference. The morphometric parameters are computed using ArcInfo and ArcView GIS softwares. The drainage pattern of the study area is dendritic to sub-dendritic with stream orders ranging from IV to VII orders. Drainage density ranges from 1.40 to 1.86 km/km² suggesting coarse to moderate drainage texture. The change in values of stream length ratio indicate their late youth stage of geomorphic development. The values of bifurcation ratio ranging from 2.00 to 4.71 indicate that all the sub-basins fall under normal basin category. The values of form factor and circulatory ratio, suggest that the Kurkunta sub-basin is elongated and the remaining sub-basins are more or less circular in shape. Elongation ratio indicates that the Wadi sub-basin is a region of very low relief whereas the other sub-basins are associated with moderate to high relief and steep ground slopes. It is concluded that remote sensing and GIS have been proved to be efficient tools in drainage delineation and updation. In the present study these updated drainages have been used for the morphometric analysis.     

Delineation of crustal and lithospheric structure below the 2019 Palghar swarm activity region,Maharashtra, India

Natural Hazards - Here, we present crustal and lithospheric structure at six broadband stations below the Palghar swarm activity region, Maharashtra, India, which has produced 7786 events of...