Summertime Characteristics of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Relationships to Ozone Levels over the Eastern United States

— This paper examines the spatial and temporal distributions of the mixing height, ventilation coefficient (defined as the product of mixing height and surface wind speed), and cloud cover over the eastern United States during the summer of 1995, using the high-resolution meteorological data generated by MM5 (Version 1), a mesoscale model widely used in air quality studies. The ability of MM5 to simulate the key temporal and spatial features embedded in the time series of observations of temperature, wind speed, and moisture is assessed using spectral decomposition methods. Also, mixing heights estimated from the MM5 outputs are compared with those derived from observations at a few locations where data with high temporal resolution are available in the Northeast. In addition, the uncertainties associated with the estimation of the evolution of the boundary layer during the morning time are examined. The results indicate that nighttime mixing heights averaged <200?m, rising to 1 km by 10 EST, and to about 2.5?km in the afternoon. Ventilation coefficients followed a similar diurnal pattern, increasing from 500?m²/s at night?to 15,000?m²/s in the afternoon; the increase due to the growing mixing height and increasing surface wind speeds. Spatial variability of these parameters was relatively small (coefficient of variation=0.25) at?night and in the afternoon when conditions were quasi-stationary, but increased (to 0.5) during morning?and evening hours when mixing heights and wind speeds were changing rapidly. Analyses of surface ozone observations from about 400 sites throughout the eastern United States indicate that days with numerous stations reporting surface ozone concentrations in excess of 80 ppb (i.e., “high ozone” days) generally had less daytime cloud cover, lower surface wind speeds, higher mixing heights, and lower ventilation coefficients than did comparable “low ozone” days. Such meteorological features are consistent with a synoptic anticyclone centered over the mid-south region (Kentucky, Tennessee). Low ozone days were characterized by more disturbed weather conditions (low pressure systems, fronts, greater cloud cover, and precipitation events). Ozone observations at two elevated platforms (～400?m agl) in Garner, NC, and Chicago, IL, indicated that ozone concentrations aloft were about 40% larger on “high ozone” days than on “low ozone” days. On average, high levels of ozone persist aloft for about 2 to 3 days. Strong vertical mixing in the daytime can bring this pool of upper-level ozone downward to augment surface ozone production. Since ozone can be transported downwind several hundred kilometers from its source region over this time scale, depending on upper-level winds, effective ozone control strategies must take into consideration spatial scales ranging from local to regional, and time scales of the order of several days.     

The Very Early Universe might not have been Radiation-Dominated

The equation of state of the very early Universe and the formula for the radius, are here evaluated. It is shown that the very early classical Universe might not be radiation-dominated, although we do not exclude the existence of the radiation dominated phase for the early, but not the very early Universe. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Ductility‐dependent intensity measure that accounts for ground‐motion spectral shape and duration

The calculated nonlinear structural responses of a building can vary greatly, even if recorded ground motions are scaled to the same spectral acceleration at a building's fundamental period. To reduce the variation in structural response at a particular ground‐motion intensity, this paper proposes an intensity measure (IM_comb) that accounts for the combined effects of spectral acceleration, ground‐motion duration, and response spectrum shape. The intensity measure includes a new measure of spectral shape that integrates the spectrum over a period range that depends on the structure's ductility. The new IM is efficient, sufficient, scalable, transparent, and versatile. These features make it suitable for evaluating the intensities of measured and simulated ground motions. The efficiency and sufficiency of the new IM is demonstrated for the following: (i) elastic‐perfectly plastic single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) oscillators with a variety of ductility demands and periods; (ii) ductile and brittle deteriorating SDOF systems with a variety of periods; and (iii) collapse analysis for 30 previously designed frames. The efficiency is attributable to the inclusion of duration and to the ductility dependence of the spectral shape measure. For each of these systems, the transparency of the intensity measure made it possible to identify the sensitivity of structural response to the various characteristics of the ground motion. Spectral shape affected all structures, but in particular, ductile structures. Duration only affected structures with cyclic deterioration. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Endangered species, threatened fisheries: Science to the rescue! Evaluating the Congressionally designated Steller Sea Lion Research Program

Between 2001 and 2004, the US Congress designated over $120 million for research on the western population of Steller sea lions. This paper evaluates the science program, summarizing its context and motivation, the amount and distribution of funds, and how the recipients allocated funding to research activities. It considers factors affecting the science program's contribution to solving the problem that spurred Congress to act. While the program failed to achieve its immediate goals for a variety of reasons, it did provide long-term benefits for science and ecosystem management in the North Pacific.     

Formation and early evolution of galaxies: Constraints on the properties of “hot” protogalaxies

Rostov State University. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 48–59, January–February, 1989.     

The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability at Venus: What is the unstable boundary?

The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability gained scientific attention after observations at Venus by the spacecraft Pioneer Venus Orbiter gave rise to speculations that the instability contributes to the loss of planetary ions through the formation of plasma clouds. Since then, a handful of studies were devoted to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability at the ionopause and its implications for Venus. The aim of this study is to investigate the stability of the two instability-relevant boundary layers around Venus: the induced magnetopause and the ionopause. We solve the 2D magnetohydrodynamic equations with the total variation diminishing Lax–Friedrichs algorithm and perform simulation runs with different initial conditions representing the situation at the boundary layers around Venus. Our results show that the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability does not seem to be able to reach its nonlinear vortex phase at the ionopause due to the very effective stabilizing effect of a large density jump across this boundary layer. This seems also to be true for the induced magnetopause for low solar activity. During high solar activity, however, there could occur conditions at the induced magnetopause which are in favour of the nonlinear evolution of the instability. For this situation, we estimated roughly a growth rate for planetary oxygen ions of about 7.6 × 10²⁵ s⁻¹, which should be regarded as an upper limit for loss due to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability.     

The role of arcuate ridges and gullies in the degradation of craters in the Newton Basin region of Mars

A survey of craters in the vicinity of Newton Basin, using high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, was conducted to find and analyze examples of gullies and arcuate ridges and assess their implications for impact crater degradation processes. In the Phaethontis Quadrangle (MC-24), we identified 225 craters that contain these features. Of these, 188 had gullies on some portion of their walls, 118 had arcuate ridges at the bases of the crater walls, and 104 contained both features, typically on the same crater wall. A major result is that the pole-facing or equator-facing orientation of these features is latitude dependent. At latitudes >44° S, equator-facing orientations for both ridges and gullies are prevalent, but at latitudes <44° S, pole-facing orientations are prevalent. The gullies and arcuate ridges typically occupy craters between ∼2 and 30 km in diameter, at elevations between −1 and 3 km. Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) elevation profiles indicate that most craters with pole-facing arcuate ridges have floors sloping downward from the pole-facing wall, and some of these craters show asymmetry in crater rim heights, with lower pole-facing rims. These patterns suggest viscous flow of ice-rich materials preferentially away from gullied crater walls. Clear associations exist between gullies and arcuate ridges, including (a) geometric congruence between alcoves and sinuous arcs of arcuate ridges and (b) backfilling of arcuate ridges by debris aprons associated with gully systems. Chronologic studies suggest that gullied walls and patterned crater floor deposits have ages corresponding to the last few high obliquity cycles. Our data appear consistent with the hypothesis that these features are associated with periods of ice deposition and subsequent erosion associated with obliquity excursions within the last few tens of millions of years. Arcuate ridges may form from cycles of activity that also involve gully formation, and the ridges may be in part due to mass-wasted, ice-rich material transported downslope from the alcoves, which then interacts with previously emplaced floor deposits. Most observed gullies may be late-stage features in a degradational cycle that may have occurred many times on a given crater wall.     

Is the Universe a white-hole?

Pathria (1972) has shown, for a pressureless closed Universe, that it is inside a black (or white) hole. We show now, that the Universe with a cosmic pressure obeying Einstein’s field equations, can be inside a white-hole. In the closed case, a positive cosmological constant does the job; for the flat and open cases, the condition we find is not verified for the very early Universe, but with the growth of the scale-factor, the condition will be certainly fulfilled for a positive cosmological constant, after some time. We associate the absolute temperature of the Universe, with the temperature of the corresponding white-hole.