Lateral inhomogeneities in the Venus atmosphere: Analysis of thermal infrared maps

The thermal infrared maps of Venus published by Murray, Wildey, and Westphal (1963) and Westphal, Wildey, and Murray (1965) have been analyzed systematically in order to separate the observed intensity into a limb-darkening component and a solar-associated component representing fixed patterns of intensity corotating with the earth and sun, respectively. Interesting new results are obtained for the solar-associated component. Regions near the subsolar point and the poles are not covered in the original maps or in the analysis.The solar-associated pattern of intensity is very nearly symmetric about the equator. In both northern and southern hemispheres, an intensity minimum seems to occur near the morning terminator at middle to high latitudes, slightly beyond the limit of the maps. An intensity maximum occurs on the equator slightly to the east of the antisolar point. Three broad ridges of relatively high intensity radiate away from this point, one pointing to the west along the equator, the others pointing to the northeast and southeast, respectively. The eastward tilt of the latter two ridges may indicate that horizontal exchange is important in maintaining the equatorial maximum of zonal momentum which is associated with the 4-day circulation of the Venus atmosphere.     

An assessment of the climate change impacts on groundwater recharge at a continental scale using a probabilistic approach with an ensemble of GCMs

This study used 16 Global Climate Models and three global warming scenarios to make projections of recharge under a 2050 climate for the entire Australian continent at a 0.05° grid resolution. The results from these 48 future climate variants have been fitted to a probability distribution to enable the results to be summarised and uncertainty quantified. The median results project a reduction in recharge across the west, centre and south of Australia and an increase in recharge across the north and a small area in the east of the continent. The range of results is quite large and for large parts of the continent encompasses both increases and decreases in recharge. This makes it difficult to utilise for water resources management so the results have been analysed with a risk analysis framework; this enables the future projections for groundwater recharge to be communicated to water managers in terms of likelihood and consequence of a reduction in recharge. This highlights an important message for water resource managers that in most areas of Australia they will be making decisions on water allocations under considerable uncertainty as to the direction and magnitude of recharge change under a future climate and that this uncertainty may be irreducible.     

Mortality during Hurricane Sandy: the effects of waterfront flood protection on Staten Island,New York

Natural Hazards - Hard defenses, such as levees or land berms, are often considered the most effective approach to reduce flood risk. This study reveals a potential increase in mortality when hard...     

Far-infrared and submillimeter brightness temperatures of the giant planets

We have measured the brightness temperatures of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the range 35 to 1000 μm. The effective temperatures derived from the measurements, supplemented by shorter wavelength Voyager data for Jupiter and Saturn, are 126.8 ± 4.5, 93.4 ± 3.3, 58.3 ± 2.0, and 60.3 ± 2.0°K, respectively. We discuss the implications of the measurements for bolometric output and for atmospheric structure and composition. The temperature spectrum of Jupiter shows a strong peak at ～350 μm followed by a deep valley at ～450 to 500 μm. Spectra derived from model atmospheres qualitatively reproduce these features but do not fit the data closely.     

The effect of ammonia ice on the outgoing thermal radiance from the atmosphere of Jupiter

We examine the effects of NH₃ ice particle clouds in the atmosphere of Jupiter on outgoing thermal radiances. The cloud models are characterized by a number density at the cloud base, by the ratio of the scale height of the vertical distribution of particles (H_p) to the gas scale height (H_g), and by an effective particle radius. NH₃ ice particle-scattering properties are scaled from laboratory measurements. The number density for the various particle radius and scale height models is inferred from the observed disk average radiance at 246 cm^?1, and preliminary lower limits on particle sizes are inferred from the lack of apparent NH₃ absorption features in the observed spectral radiances as well as the observed minimum flux near 2100 cm^?1. We find lower limits on the particle size of 3 μm if H_p/H_g = 0.15, or 10μmif H_p/H_g = 0.50 or 0.05. NH₃ ice particles are relatively dark near the far-infrared and 8.5-μm atmospheric windows, and the outgoing thermal radiances are not very sensitive to various assumptions about the particle-scattering function as opposed to radiances at 5 μm, where particles are relatively brighter. We examined observations in these three different spectral window regions which provide, in principle, complementary constraints on cloud parameters. Characterization of the cloud scale height is difficult, but a promising approach is the examination of radiances and their center-to-limb variation in spectral regions where there is significant opacity provided by gases of known vertical distribution. A blackbody cloud top model can reduce systematic errors due to clouds in temperature sounding to the level of 1K or less. The NH₃ clouds provide a substantial influence on the internal infrared flux field near the 600-mbar level.     

Airborne Laser Sensing of Scottish Coastal Waters

An Nd:YAG-based airborne lidar system has been used to measure the optical properties of littoral waters off the northwest Scottish coast. The small-scale structure of subsurface scattering layers was also investigated. Methods of solving the Lidar Sensing Equation in the single scattering approximation are described and the values of the derived extinction indices presented. The extinction index averaged over a series of five flights to the northeast of the Gulf Stream was k = 0.224 m -1 with a standard deviation of 0.212 m -1 . Further, it was demonstrated that, in coastal waters, optical inhomogeneities with dimensions between 50 m and 200 km obey the power law Sp k ~ k -P with the parameter P close to two. In turbid or transparent areas, the water extinction index can change by several tenths of a percent with respect to the surrounding water mass. This suggests that the observed nonmonotonic behavior of the power spectra of the water extinction index fluctuations is caused by the outer scale of turbulence, in particular, by the bottom depth at the measurement site.     

Common cause or common concern? The role of common lands in the post-productivist countryside

Summary The aim of this paper is to contribute towards a better understanding of the contemporary position of commons as a land resource, and to evaluate whether commons have a distinct role to play in today's 'post-productivist' countryside. Following the government's recent recognition of the multi-functional role of commons, the paper sets out to investigate whether this can be achieved through existing agri-environmental schemes. A case study of commons in the Cambrian Mountains (Wales) enables an assessment of the compatibility of one recent agri-environmental scheme, the ESA scheme, with commons management. It is concluded that new legislation and policy are needed, and that agri-environmental policy may provide an opportunity to develop a framework within which the management of common land can be improved to meet conservation and amenity as well as farming objectives.