The implication of transfer faults in foreland basin evolution: application on Pindos foreland basin,West Peloponnesus,Greece

Pindos foreland basin in west Peloponnesus (Tritea, Hrisovitsi and Finikounda sub‐basins) during Late Eocene to Early Oligocene was an underfilled foreland basin. The basin's geometry was affected by the presence of internal thrusting and transfer faults, causing changes in depth and width. Due to internal thrusting, the foreland basin changed through time from a uniform to non‐uniform configuration, whereas transfer faults have an intensive impact on depositional environments within the basin. Internal thrusting (Gavrovo, internal and middle Ionian thrusts) activated synchronously with the major Pindos Thrust, creating intrabasinal highs that influenced palaeocurrent directions. The transfer faults cross‐cut the intrabasinal highs and produced low relief areas that act as pathways for sediment distribution. The sediments are thicker and sandstone‐rich on the downthrown sides of the transfer faults. In these areas, sandstone reservoirs could be produced. Such tectonically active areas constitute promise for oil and gas reservoirs and traps.     

On the Nature and Genesis of EUV Waves: A Synthesis of Observations from SOHO, STEREO, SDO, and Hinode (Invited Review)

A major, albeit serendipitous, discovery of the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory mission was the observation by the Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope (EIT) of large-scale extreme ultraviolet (EUV) intensity fronts propagating over a significant fraction of the Sun??s surface. These so-called EIT or EUV waves are associated with eruptive phenomena and have been studied intensely. However, their wave nature has been challenged by non-wave (or pseudo-wave) interpretations and the subject remains under debate. A string of recent solar missions has provided a wealth of detailed EUV observations of these waves bringing us closer to resolving the question of their nature. With this review, we gather the current state-of-the-art knowledge in the field and synthesize it into a picture of an EUV wave driven by the lateral expansion of the CME. This picture can account for both wave and pseudo-wave interpretations of the observations, thus resolving the controversy over the nature of EUV waves to a large degree but not completely. We close with a discussion on several remaining open questions in the field of EUV waves research.     

Probabilistic economic seismic loss estimation in steel buildings using post‐tensioned moment‐resisting frames and viscous dampers

The potential of post‐tensioned self‐centering moment‐resisting frames (SC‐MRFs) and viscous dampers to reduce the economic seismic losses in steel buildings is evaluated. The evaluation is based on a prototype steel building designed using four different seismic‐resistant frames: (i) conventional moment resisting frames (MRFs); (ii) MRFs with viscous dampers; (iii) SC‐MRFs; or (iv) SC‐MRFs with viscous dampers. All frames are designed according to Eurocode 8 and have the same column/beam cross sections and similar periods of vibration. Viscous dampers are designed to reduce the peak story drift under the design basis earthquake (DBE) from 1.8% to 1.2%. Losses are estimated by developing vulnerability functions according to the FEMA P‐58 methodology, which considers uncertainties in earthquake ground motion, structural response, and repair costs. Both the probability of collapse and the probability of demolition because of excessive residual story drifts are taken into account. Incremental dynamic analyses are conducted using models capable to simulate all limit states up to collapse. A parametric study on the effect of the residual story drift threshold beyond which is less expensive to rebuild a structure than to repair is also conducted. It is shown that viscous dampers are more effective than post‐tensioning for seismic intensities equal or lower than the maximum considered earthquake (MCE). Post‐tensioning is effective in reducing repair costs only for seismic intensities higher than the DBE. The paper also highlights the effectiveness of combining post‐tensioning and supplemental viscous damping by showing that the SC‐MRF with viscous dampers achieves significant repair cost reductions compared to the conventional MRF. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two Years of the STEREO Heliospheric Imagers

Imaging of the heliosphere is a burgeoning area of research. As a result, it is awash with new results, using novel applications, and is demonstrating great potential for future research in a wide range of topical areas. The STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments are at the heart of this new development, building on the pioneering observations of the SMEI (Solar Mass Ejection Imager) instrument aboard the Coriolis spacecraft. Other earlier heliospheric imaging systems have included ground-based interplanetary scintillation (IPS) facilities and the photometers on the Helios spacecraft. With the HI instruments, we now have routine wide-angle imaging of the inner heliosphere, from vantage points outside the Sun-Earth line. HI has been used to investigate the development of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) as they pass through the heliosphere to 1 AU and beyond. Synoptic mapping has also allowed us to see graphic illustrations of the nature of mass outflow as a function of distance from the Sun – in particular, stressing the complexity of the near-Sun solar wind. The instruments have also been used to image co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), to study the interaction of comets with the solar wind and CMEs, and to witness the impact of CMEs and CIRs on planets. The very nature of this area of research – which brings together aspects of solar physics, space-environment physics, and solar-terrestrial physics – means that the research papers are spread among a wide range of journals from different disciplines. Thus, in this special issue, it is timely and appropriate to provide a review of the results of the first two years of the HI investigations.     

Observation of an Extremely Large-Density Heliospheric Plasma Sheet Compressed by an Interplanetary Shock at 1 AU

At 11:46 UT on 9 September 2011, the Wind spacecraft encountered an interplanetary (IP) fast-forward shock. The shock was followed almost immediately by a short-duration (～?35 minutes) extremely dense pulse (with a peak ～?94 cm^?3). The pulse induced an extremely large positive impulse (SYM-H = 74 nT and Dst = 48 nT) on the ground. A close examination of other in situ parameters from Wind shows that the density pulse was associated with i) a spike in the plasma \(\upbeta\) (ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure), ii) multiple sign changes in the azimuthal component of the magnetic field (\(B_{\phi}\)), iii) a depressed magnetic field magnitude, iv) a small radial component of the magnetic field, and v) a large (>?90°) change in the suprathermal (～?255 eV) electron pitch angle across the density pulse. We conclude that the density pulse is associated with the heliospheric plasma sheet (HPS). The thickness of the HPS is estimated to be \({\sim}\,8.2\times10^{5}\ \mbox{km}\). The HPS density peak is about five times the value of a medium-sized density peak inside the HPS (～?18 cm^?3) at 1 AU. Our global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation results (Wu et al. in J. Geophys. Res. 212, 1839, 2016) suggest that the extremely large density pulse may be the result of the compression of the HPS by an IP shock crossing or an interaction between an interplanetary shock and a corotating interaction region.     

Object-based image analysis through nonlinear scale-space filtering

In this research, an object-oriented image classification framework was developed which incorporates nonlinear scale-space filtering into the multi-scale segmentation and classification procedures. Morphological levelings, which possess a number of desired spatial and spectral properties, were associated with anisotropically diffused markers towards the construction of nonlinear scale spaces. Image objects were computed at various scales and were connected to a kernel-based learning machine for the classification of various earth-observation data from both active and passive remote sensing sensors. Unlike previous object-based image analysis approaches, the scale hierarchy is implicitly derived from scale-space representation properties. The developed approach does not require the tuning of any parameter—of those which control the multi-scale segmentation and object extraction procedure, like shape, color, texture, etc. The developed object-oriented image classification framework was applied on a number of remote sensing data from different airborne and spaceborne sensors including SAR images, high and very high resolution panchromatic and multispectral aerial and satellite datasets. The very promising experimental results along with the performed qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach.