Mesoscale Variability of the Ocean in the Northern Part of the Weddell Sea

Oceanology - Results of a mesoscale survey in the Powell Basin in the northern part of the Weddell Sea are analyzed. The survey included 24 CTD casts (6 × 4) with an interval of six nautical...     

Automatic Profiling System for Underice Measurements

The article is devoted to the development of an autonomous profiling system for measuring the aquatic environment under ice. The system moves up and down in the water column along a cable with a load at the lower end, which is lowered into a lane in the ice. The system carrier is designed for transporting an acoustic Doppler current profiler and a salinity, temperature, and pressure probe. The system will be useful for long-term measurements of vertical profiles of the current speed and marine environment parameters, as well as ice draft. The article describes in detail the structure and operation of the system. The hydraulic scheme of the carrier buoyancy system is presented.

     

Coupled Earth’s Thermosohere-Ionosphere Global Dynamics Model

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - A coupled Earth’s thermosohere-ionosphere global dynamics model (for altitudes of 90–500 km) is presented. This model is based on a...     

Algorithm for the Atmospheric Correction of Shortwave Channels of the MSU-MR Radiometer of the Meteor-M No. 2 Satellite

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - The problem of atmospheric correction for shortwave channels of a multispectral low-resolution scanning radiometer onboard the Meteor-M No. 2 satellite...     

Incorporating Māori values into land management decision tools

ABSTRACT

Environmental sustainability and the long-term wellbeing of Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) are interdependent and degradation of landscapes risks the progressive degradation of Māori wellbeing. The present study developed an analysis framework based on Ki Uta Ki Tai (holistic-mountains to the sea- management philosophy advocated by Ngāi Tahu) for exploring relationships between landcover and Māori values to enable predictions of cultural values through space and time. We used this framework to predict how two Māori values (Overall Health and Cultural Land Use) have been altered as a result of landcover change between 2001–2012 in three Canterbury catchments. The area of native vegetation declined while exotic pasture increased between 2001–2012, and there were corresponding declines in both cultural health scores. These results suggest that the change in landcover has reduced the ability of the landscape to support Māori values. This framework for assessing changes in Māori values with respect to changing environmental conditions may identify opportunities for Māori to better engage in land use management decisions.     

Estimation of Sea Ice Thickness from SARAL/AltiKa in Drifting Orbit Phase

Abstract

Intra and inter-annual variations in the sea ice thickness are highly sensitive indicators of climatic variations undergoing in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This paper describes the method of estimating sea ice thickness using radar waveforms data acquired by SARAL/Altika mission during its drifting orbit phase from July 2016 onwards yielding spatially dense data coverage. Based on statistical analysis of return echoes, classification of the surface has been carried out in three different types, viz. floe, lead and mixed. Time delay correction methods were suitably selected and implemented to make corrections in altimetric range measurements and thereby freeboard. By assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, freeboard data were converted into sea ice thickness. Results show that sea ice thickness varies from 4 to 5?m near ice shelves and 1 to 2.5?m in the marginal sea ice regions. Freeboard and sea ice thickness estimates were also validated using NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) datasets. Freeboard measurements show very high correlation (0.97) having RMSE of 0.13. Overestimation of approximately 1–2?m observed in the sea ice thickness, which could be attributed to distance between AltiKa footprint and OIB locations. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that snow depth and snow density over sea ice play crucial role in the estimation of sea ice thickness.     

Geoacoustic and physical properties of carbonate sediments of the Lower Florida Keys

 Near-surface sediment geoacoustic and physical properties were measured from a variety of unconsolidated carbonate sediments in the Lower Florida Keys. Surficial values of compressional and shear speed correlate with sediment physical properties and near-surface acoustic reflectivity. Highest speeds (shear 125–150 m s^-1; compressional 1670–1725 m s^-1) are from sandy sediments near Rebecca Shoal and lowest speeds (shear 40–65 m s^-1; compressional 1520–1570 m s^-1) are found in soft, silty sediments which collect in sediment ponds in the Southeast Channel of the Dry Tortugas. High compressional wave attenuation is attributed to scattering of acoustic waves from heterogeneity caused by accumulation of abundant shell material and other impedance discontinuities rather than high intrinsic attenuation. Compared to siliciclastic sediments, carbonate sediment shear wave speed is high for comparable values of sediment physical properties. Sediment fabric, rather than changes due to the effects of biogeochemical processes, is responsible for these differences.     

Automatic Registration of TOBI Side-Scan Sonar and Multi-Beam Bathymetry Images for Improved Data Fusion

Deep towed side-scan sonar vehicles such as TOBI acquire high quality imagery of the seafloor with very high spatial resolution but poor locational accuracy. Fusion of the side-scan sonar data with bathymetry data from an independent source is often desirable to reduce ambiguity in geological interpretations, to aid in slant-range correction and to enhance seafloor representation. The main obstacle to fusion is accurate registration of the two datasets.The application of hierarchical chamfer matching to the registration of TOBI side-scan sonar images and multi-beam swath bathymetry is described. This matches low level features such as edges in the TOBI image, with corresponding features in a synthetic TOBI image created by simulating the flight of the TOBI vehicle through the bathymetry. The method is completely automatic, relatively fast and robust, and much easier than manual registration. It allows accurate positioning of the TOBI vehicle, enhancing its usefulness as a research tool. The method is illustrated by automatic registration of TOBI and multi-beam bathymetry data from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.     

Geodynamic Evolution of the Eastern Segment of the Azores-Gibraltar Zone: The Gorringe Bank and the Gulf of Cadiz Region

Detailed structural interpretation of the recently acquired deep seismic multichannel profiles along the Iberian Atlantic Margins (IAM Project) provides new results on the geodynamic evolution of the eastern part of the Azores-Gibraltar plate boundary. Thrusting and folding of the oceanic basement and of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary cover of the Gorringe Bank region are consistent with the N–S convergence of Iberia and Africa. Compressive structures in the Gorringe Bank region are spread over a wide area. Deformation under compression took place mainly in Tertiary times, as is evidenced by a basal unconformity and several discontinuities in Tertiary sediments, although some deformation has also been recorded in Quaternary sediments. The compressive structures in the Gulf of Cadiz are E–W oriented thrusts, folds and related diapiric structures. N–S oriented transpressive deformation is likely to occur in the western Portuguese platform. There is no continuity of structures from the oceanic to the continental domain, suggesting that deformation transfers from one side to the other through a transcurrent fault zone. The fault contact between the two domains is located in the ocean-continent transition zone.     

Prediction of hydrological phenomena using self-organizing mathematical models

The paper considers the application of self-organizing models, specifically, the method of grouped arguments consideration (MGAC), to forecast short and non-stationary time series of observations in the ocean. A sequence of operations for the treatment of observational series is suggested. To assess its efficiency, we have used mean monthly oxygen concentration data collected in the surface and near-bottom layers of the Taganrog Bay. It is shown that the application of the MGAC model allows one to reduce by two times the root-mean-square error of that of the series prediction by five points, in comparison with the Jenkins-Box regressional model. It has been concluded that the predictors' non-linear functions may be effectively used in the treatment of short samplings. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.