Parametric representation of heat and moisture fluxes in cloud-topped mixed layers

Aircraft measurements were made from the NCAR Electra in stratus and stratocumulus clouds off the coast of California in June 1976. Several types of cloud conditions were observed, including (1) a broken layer less than 100 m thick, capped by an inversion at ~1000 m, (2) a broken stratocumulus layer ~300 m thick with an inversion at ~500 m, and (3) a solid stratocumulus layer ~250 m thick with an inversion at ~500 m. Although these observations indicate that a variety of cloud conditions may exist in mixed layers, simple one-dimensional mixed-layer models implicitly assume a solid cloud layer with no unsaturated region within the cloud. In order to generalize these simple models, a parametric representation of the heat and moisture fluxes is considered. In this scheme, the fluxes are parameterized in terms of the product of a cloud mass flux and the characteristic difference between the thermodynamic properties of an updraft-downdraft circulation. This representation allows for an explicit representation of the buoyancy flux when the downdraft has no liquid water.Data collected during these flights were used to calculate heat and moisture fluxes and to obtain the mean difference in the thermodynamic properties of the updrafts and downdrafts at a given level. The mass flux was calculated using updraft-downdraft differences and the fluxes. The mass fluxes obtained using various thermodynamic quantities are examined for consistency. The vertical distribution of the mass flux is determined. These results indicate that a mass flux formulation could prove to be useful in modeling applications where cloud conditions may vary between solid and broken.     

Incorporating circulation statistics in bias correction of GCM ensembles: hydrological application for the Rhine basin

An adapted statistical bias correction method is introduced to incorporate circulation-dependence of the model precipitation bias, and its influence on estimated discharges for the Rhine basin is analyzed for a historical period. The bias correction method is tailored to time scales relevant to flooding events in the basin. Large-scale circulation patterns (CPs) are obtained through Maximum Covariance Analysis using reanalysis sea level pressure and high-resolution precipitation observations. A bias correction using these CPs is applied to winter and summer separately, acknowledging the seasonal variability of the circulation regimes in North Europe and their correlation with regional precipitation rates over the Rhine basin. Two different climate model ensemble outputs are explored: ESSENCE and CMIP5. The results of the CP-method are then compared to observations and uncorrected model outputs. Results from a simple bias correction based on a delta factor (NoCP-method) are also used for comparison. For both summer and winter, the CP-method offers a statistically significant improvement of precipitation statistics for subsets of data dominated by particular circulation regimes, demonstrating the circulation-dependence of the precipitation bias. Uncorrected, CP and NoCP corrected model outputs were used as forcing to a hydrological model to simulate river discharges. The CP-method leads to a larger improvement in simulated discharge in the Alpine area in winter than in summer due to a stronger dependence of Rhine precipitation on atmospheric circulation in winter. However, the NoCP-method, in comparison to the CP-method, improves the discharge estimations over the entire Rhine basin.     

Turbulence in Continental Stratocumulus,Part I: External Forcings and Turbulence Structures

Comprehensive, ground-based observations from the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurements program Southern Great Plains site are used to study the variability of turbulence forcings and cloud-scale turbulence structures in a continental stratocumulus cloud. The turbulence observations are made from an upward facing cloud (35 GHz) Doppler radar. Cloud base and liquid water path are characterized using a lidar at the surface and a microwave radiometer. The turbulence characterizations are compared and contrasted with those observed in marine stratocumulus clouds. During the 16-h observation period used in this study the cloud-base and cloud-top heights evolve with time and changes in liquid water path observed by the radiometer are consistent with variations in cloud depth. Unlike marine stratocumulus clouds, a diurnal cycle of cloud thickness and liquid water path is not observed. The observed surface latent, sensible, and virtual sensible heat fluxes and the radiative fluxes exhibit a diurnal cycle with values increasing from sunrise to afternoon and decreasing afterwards. During the night, the sensible heat, virtual sensible heat and the net radiative fluxes at the surface are slightly negative. Solar radiative heating prevails in the cloud layer during the day and strong radiative cooling exists at cloud top even during the day. Unlike marine stratocumulus, surface heating described by the convective velocity scale \(W_\mathrm{s}^{*}\) and cloud-top cooling described by \(W_\mathrm{r}^{*}\) are both important in driving the in-cloud turbulence during the day, whereas cloud-top cooling is the exclusive contributor during the night. The combined \(W_\mathrm{s}^{*}\) and \(W_\mathrm{r}^{*}\) (the total velocity scale \(W_\mathrm{t}^{*})\) provides a useful way to track the evolution of the turbulence structure in the cloud. The variance of the radar-measured radial velocity, which is related to resolved turbulence, follows the diurnal cycle and is consistent with the total velocity scale \(W_\mathrm{t}^{*}\) variations. It is higher during the day and lower during the night, which is contrary to that in marine stratocumulus. The \(W_\mathrm{t}^{*}\) values are lowest around sunset when the radiative cooling is also small due to upper-level clouds observed above the low-level stratus. The vertical distribution of the variance results from the surface heating during the day and cloud-top cooling during the night. The squared spectrum width, which is related to turbulence structures within the radar sampling volume (unresolved turbulence) also follows the diurnal cycle. Its vertical distribution indicates that the unresolved turbulence more closely relates to the processes near cloud top. Turbulence in the cloud requires about an hour to respond to the external forcings of surface heating and cloud-top radiative cooling. Positive skewness prevails during the day and negative skewness prevails at night with a sharp transition around sunset. Resolved turbulence dominates near cloud base whereas unresolved turbulence dominates near cloud top. The turbulence characteristics and variability defined in this study can be used to evaluate the time evolution of turbulence structures in large eddy simulation forced by surface and cloud-top radiative forcings.     

Cosmogenic nuclides in core samples of the Chico L6 chondrite: Evidence for irradiation under high shielding

Abstract— Core samples were obtained from various locations of the ～ 105-kg Chico, NM, L6 chondrite in order to study the effects of large shielding on the production rates of cosmic-ray-produced nuclides. Relations between measured abundances of cosmogenic nuclides (¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, and stable isotopes of He, Ne, and Ar) and the cosmogenic ²²Ne/²¹Ne ratio were determined and compared with recent model predictions of production rates. The measured ²²Ne/²¹Ne ratios (1.06-1.08) and significant variations observed in concentrations of cosmogenic ²¹Ne and ³He suggest an ～40-cm shielding gradient across Chico and irradiation within a large object (> 100-cm radius). Noble gas data indicate that Chico experienced greater shielding than chondrites Knyahinya or Keyes and similar to Jilin. Values of ¹⁰Be (average = 20.7 dpm/kg) and ²⁶Al (average = 71.1 dpm/kg) are nearly constant, however, and show no correlation with either ²²Ne/²¹Ne or ²¹Ne. Activities of ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al suggest irradiation in a smaller object (～40–80 cm radius). The ²⁶Al activity and the ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be ratio (average value = 3.42) are both significantly larger than values for most other chondrites. These results could indicate a two-stage irradiation with t₁ ～ 104 Ma and t₂ ～ 4 Ma and a second-stage body the size of Knyahinya. The single stage, ¹⁰Be/²¹Ne exposure age for Chico is 65 Ma. The ²²Ne/²¹Ne ratio apparently becomes insensitive to shielding for objects the size of Chico. No substantial evidence exists for chondrites with ²²Ne/²¹Ne ratios significantly less than ～ 1.055.     

Neotectonic Crustal Uplift on the Continents and its Possible Mechanisms. The Case of Southern Africa

According to a large volume of data an intensive crustal uplift began in the Oligocene over most of the continental areas after a long period of relative tectonic stability. This Neotectonic uplift formed most of the present positive topographic features on the continents, and its strong acceleration took place during the last several million years. In many regions the uplift was associated with magmatism. The main methods of studying the Neotectonic uplift are considered together with the data on the uplift of Southern Africa. In this area the uplift took place in the Early Miocene (up to 300 m) and in the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene (up to 900 m). It occurred without stretching or shortening of the crust. Rapid erosion of the lower part of mantle lithosphere by a plume material is proposed as a mechanism of the uplift. This material ascended from below and rapidly spread along the base of the lithosphere. Its spreading for 1000 km during a few million years is possible only under a low viscosity of normal asthenosphere (1019 Pa s) and a much lower viscosity of a plume material (2 × 1016 Pa s). As in Southern Africa, in most of the regions the Neotectonic uplift was associated with insignificant shortening or stretching of the crust. This indicates that in some regions a plume material ascended from below and rapidly spread along the base of the lithosphere and eroded the mantle lithosphere in vast areas beneath the continents. In regions with a hot asthenosphere a strong weakening of the mantle lithosphere which allows its erosion can be associated with a high temperature of the plume material. In regions where the asthenosphere is at moderate temperature weakening of the mantle lithosphere can result from infiltration of volatiles from the plume material.     

Methods for point source analysis in high energy neutrino telescopes

Neutrino telescopes are moving steadily toward the goal of detecting astrophysical neutrinos from the most powerful galactic and extragalactic sources. Here we describe analysis methods to search for high energy point-like neutrino sources using detectors deep in the ice or sea. We simulate an ideal cubic kilometer detector based on real world performance of existing detectors such as AMANDA, IceCube, and ANTARES. An unbinned likelihood ratio method is applied, making use of the point spread function and energy distribution of simulated neutrino signal events to separate them from the background of atmospheric neutrinos produced by cosmic ray showers. The unbinned point source analyses are shown to perform better than binned searches and, depending on the source spectral index, the use of energy information is shown to improve discovery potential by almost a factor of two.     

Niobium-tantalum Fractionation During Slab Subduction:Implications for the Formation of Continental Crust

Compared with the oceanic crust, knowledge about the formation of the continental crust (CC) is relatively poor. Although melting of subducted slabs in the early history of the Earth has been considered as the major way that shaped the chemical characteristics of the CC by most geologists, as the CC shares many characteristics with modern adakites, some geologists argued that Archean TTG was formed in the same way as modern arcs rather than slab melting, whereas others proposed that melting at the bottom of the thickened oceanic crust was more important. Recently,the debate is mainly focused on the unique subchondritic Nb/Ta value of the CC, and particularly, how Nb and Ta fractionated from each other and consequently how, in detail, the CC was built.