Pyrolytic and spectroscopic studies of Eocene resin from Vastan lignite Mine,Cambay basin,Western India

The molecular structure of an Eocene fossil resin (Vastan, Cambay basin, Western India) has been investigated with complimentary spectroscopic techniques. The FTIR spectrum shows strong aliphatic CH _x (3000–2800 and 1460–1450 cm⁻¹) and CH₃ (1377 cm⁻¹) absorptions and less intense aromatic C=C (1560–1610 cm⁻¹) absorptions. The major products from analytical pyrolysis are cadalene based bicyclic sesquiterpenoids including some bicadinenes and bicadinanes. The polycadinane products confirm the fossil material as an Angiosperm dammar resin, associated with inputs of tropical rain forests supported by past climates.     

Nowcasting visibility during wintertime fog over the airport of a metropolis of India: decision tree algorithm and artificial neural network approach

Natural Hazards - The endeavor of the present research is to nowcast the spatial visibility during fog over the airport of Kolkata (22.6°N; 88.4°E), India, with artificial neural network...     

Groundwater arsenic contamination in Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra plain, its health effects and an approach for mitigation

The authors’ survey of the Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra (GMB) plain (area 569,749 km²; population >500 million) over the past 20 years and analysis of more than 220,000 hand tube-well water samples revealed groundwater arsenic contamination in the floodplains of the Ganga–Brahmaputra river (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam) in India and the Padma–Meghna–Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh. On average, 50 % of the water samples contain arsenic above the World Health Organization guideline value of 10 μg/L in India and Bangladesh. More than 100 million people in the GMB plain are potentially at risk. The authors’ medical team screened around 155,000 people from the affected villages and registered 16,000 patients with different types of arsenical skin lesions. Arsenic neuropathy and adverse pregnancy outcomes have been recorded. Infants and children drinking arsenic-contaminated water are believed to be at high risk. About 45,000 biological samples analyzed from arsenic-affected villages of the GMB plain revealed an elevated level of arsenic present in patients as well as non-patients, indicating that many are sub-clinically affected. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, there are huge surface water in rivers, wetlands, and flooded river basins. In the arsenic-affected GMB plain, the crisis is not over water scarcity but about managing the available water resources.     

Multiple forecasts of kharif rice in orissa state-four year experience of fasal pilot study

Considering the requirement of multiple pre-harvest crop forecasts, the concept of Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL) has been formulated. Development of procedure and demonstration of this technique for four in-season forecasts for kharif rice has been carried out as a pilot study in Orissa State since 1998. As the availability of cloud-free optical remote sensing data during kharif season is very poor for Orissa state, multi-date RADARSAT SCANSAR data were used for acreage estimation of kharif rice. Meteorological models have been developed for early assessment of acreage and prediction of yield at mid and late crop growth season. Four in-season forecasts were made during four kharif seasons (1998-2001); the first forecast of zone level rice acreage at the beginning of kharif crop season using meteorological models, second forecast of district level acreage at mid growth season using two-date RADARSAT SCANSAR data and yield using meteorological models, third forecast at late growth season of district level acreage using three-date RADARSAT SCANSAR data and yield using meteorological models and revised forecast incorporating field observations at maturity. The results of multiple forecasts have shown rice acreage estimation and yield prediction with deviation up to 14 and 11 per cent respectively. This study has demonstrated the potential of FASAL concept to provide inseason multiple forecasts using data of remote sensing, meteorology and land based observations.     

Vegetation Dynamics from Denoised NDVI Using Empirical Mode Decomposition

A novel approach to study vegetation dynamics is introduced, using the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to analyze NDVI time series. The NDVI time series which is nonlinear and nonstationary can be decomposed by EMD into components called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), based on inherent temporal scales. The highest frequency component which has been found to represent noise is subtracted from the original NDVI series; thus smoothing the noisy signal. The different key features describing vegetation phenology have been extracted by analyzing the noise free signal. The lowest frequency component (last IMF) is the trend in the NDVI series. The trend in the series has been identified finding the Sen’s slope of last IMF, and the non-parametric seasonal Mann–Kendall test has been used to confirm the significance of the observed trend. The method has been applied on per–pixel basis to the SPOT Vegetation NDVI product covering Northeast India and surrounding regions for the time span of 1998–2009. Results show that the method has performed well in identifying the pixel clusters with significant trends. Hotspot regions with severe vegetation degeneration have been identified, and the relationship of the observed trends with the expected causative variables such as land use and land cover, topographic relief, and anthropogenic causes has been explored. The spatial locations of these critical regions closely matches with the findings of the previous studies carried out locally in the region, mainly indicating the shifting cultivation practice to be the main cause for land cover change.     

Remote Sensing for Martian Studies: Inferences from Syrtis Major

Remote sensing techniques have proved to be highly efficient in the exploration of Mars. Availability of several sensors operating across the electromagnetic spectrum on-board orbiters, landers and rovers has helped better understand the surface and atmospheric conditions on the Red planet. This article summarises the application potential of the sensors operating in different wavelength regions for Martian surface studies. Mars unlike Earth allows for utilizing remote sensing techniques in the complete thermal infrared region, owing to narrow absorption regions from a singularly dominant CO₂ atmosphere which facilitate detailed lithological mapping. This work also reviews various methodologies adopted till date to study the lithology, mineralogy and fluvial geomorphology including inferences from Syrtis Major volcanic construct. It is evident from the studies, Syrtis Major has well developed fluvial channels mostly attributed to lava flows. However, spectroscopic studies reveal the presence of hydroxylated and hydrated minerals which indicate that lava might not be the sole factor resulting in channel generation in the construct. Future space missions with high resolution payloads targeting this volcanic construct are indispensable to study these channels in detail.