Geoid determination using adapted reference field, seismic Moho depths and variable density contrast

 The traditional remove-restore technique for geoid computation suffers from two main drawbacks. The first is the assumption of an isostatic hypothesis to compute the compensation masses. The second is the double consideration of the effect of the topographic–isostatic masses within the data window through removing the reference field and the terrain reduction process. To overcome the first disadvantage, the seismic Moho depths, representing, more or less, the actual compensating masses, have been used with variable density anomalies computed by employing the topographic–isostatic mass balance principle. In order to avoid the double consideration of the effect of the topographic–isostatic masses within the data window, the effect of these masses for the used fixed data window, in terms of potential coefficients, has been subtracted from the reference field, yielding an adapted reference field. This adapted reference field has been used for the remove–restore technique. The necessary harmonic analysis of the topographic–isostatic potential using seismic Moho depths with variable density anomalies is given. A wide comparison among geoids computed by the adapted reference field with both the Airy–Heiskanen isostatic model and seismic Moho depths with variable density anomaly and a geoid computed by the traditional remove–restore technique is made. The results show that using seismic Moho depths with variable density anomaly along with the adapted reference field gives the best relative geoid accuracy compared to the GPS/levelling geoid. Received: 3 October 2001 / Accepted: 20 September 2002 Correspondence to: H.A. Abd-Elmotaal     

Remote sensing and gis applications in the identification of aquaculture hotspots at village level

Interpretation of IRS LISS II and LISS III imagery has revealed the various landforms as well as land use/land cover features in a part of the Godavari delta coastal belt. A comparative analysis of geomorphological vs. land use/land cover maps suggested that the landforms exert a certain degree of control over human land use activities even in this monotonously plain area. Further, an analysis of the sequential imagery pertaining to 1992 and 2001 aimed at detecting the land use/land cover change has indicated that the aquaculture has phenomenally increased by 9,293.5 ha during the 9-year period. At the same time, the cropland which occupied about 29,104 ha in 1992 has been reduced to 19,153.9 ha by 2001 mainly due to the encroachment of aquaculture. Village level data on temporal variation in land use/land cover extracted through GIS analysis revealed that in 14 out of the total 39 villages in the area, the conversion of cropland into aquaculture ponds was more than 30% with the highest conversion rate of 89.8% in Gondi village. These fourteen villages, which are designated as ‘aquaculture hotspots’ are grouped into 4 priority classes based on the intensity of conversion.     

High-resolution simulations of global climate, part 2: effects of increased greenhouse cases

We report results from the highest-resolution simulations of global warming yet performed with an atmospheric general circulation model. We compare the climatic response to increased greenhouse gases of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) climate model, CCM3, at T42 and T170 resolutions (horizontal grid spacing of 300 and 75 km respectively). All simulations use prescribed sea surface temperatures (SST). Simulations of the climate of 2100 ad use SSTs based on those from NCAR coupled model, Climate System Model (CSM). We find that the global climate sensitivity and large-scale patterns of climate change are similar at T42 and T170. However, there are important regional scale differences that arise due to better representation of topography and other factors at high resolution. Caution should be exercised in interpreting specific features in our results both because we have performed climate simulations using a single atmospheric general circulation model and because we used with prescribed sea surface temperatures rather than interactive ocean and sea-ice models.     

A Technique for Direct Retrieval of Surface Specific Humidity Over Open Oceans from Irs-P4/Msmr Satellite Data

The Multi frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) onboard Oceasat-1 was used to develop a retrieval method fornear-surface specific humidity by means of multivariate regressiontechnique. The MSMR measures the microwaveradiances in 8 channels at the frequencies of 6.6, 10.7, 18 and 21 GHzfor both vertical and horizontal polarizations. Regression coefficients were derived using the ship reports of the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) for the months of July, October and December, in 1999. Daily near-surface specific humidity data from COADS in 2° × 2° latitude/longitude bins and collocated brightness temperature data from MSMR were used to derive the coefficients. The derived coefficients werevalidated with humidity given in COADS.A linear relationship is established to determine the near-surface specifichumidity from MSMR brightness temperature (Tb) with an rms error of 1.2 g kg^-1 for individual situations and an rms errorof 0.84 g kg^-1 for monthly time scales over global oceans.The retrieval algorithm is validonly for the open sea regions.     

Synoptic and mesoscale study of a severe convective outbreak with the nonhydrostatic Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model

Summary ?A nonhydrostatic 4-km version of the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model, with detailed microphysics included, was used to forecast the initiation, development, and structure of a tornado-producing supercell storm that occurred near Pine Lake (Alberta, Canada) on 15 July 2000. Examination of observations and comparison with conceptual models indicate that this storm is a good example of supercell storms that regularly produce summertime severe weather over Alberta. It was found that the high-resolution model was able to reproduce the early initiation of convective activity along the Rocky Mountains foothills, as well as the rapid northeastward propagation towards the Pine Lake area and the subsequent intensification into a supercell storm. The general structures of the forecasted convective system correspond well with conceptual representations of such events. Overall, this high-resolution forecast of the Pine Lake supercell storm was a significant improvement over the current operational version of the GEM model (24 km), which was not able to intensify the foothills’ convection into a supercell storm. Finally, it was found that the nonhydrostatic version of the model produces better trajectory and propagation speed of the convective system, as compared with the hydrostatic one. Received March 20, 2001; revised August 24, 2001     

Intercomparison of Stratospheric Chemistry Models under Polar Vortex Conditions

Several stratospheric chemistry modules from box, 2-D or 3-D models, have been intercompared. The intercomparison was focused on the ozone loss and associated reactive species under the conditions found in the cold, wintertime Arctic and Antarctic vortices. Comparisons of both gas phase and heterogeneous chemistry modules show excellent agreement between the models under constrained conditions for photolysis and the microphysics of polar stratospheric clouds. While the mean integral ozone loss ranges from 4–80% for different 30–50 days long air parcel trajectories, the mean scatter of model results around these values is only about ±1.5%. In a case study, where the models employed their standard photolysis and microphysical schemes, the variation around the mean percentage ozone loss increases to about ±7%. This increased scatter of model results is mainly due to the different treatment of the PSC microphysics and heterogeneous chemistry in the models, whereby the most unrealistic assumptions about PSC processes consequently lead to the least representative ozone chemistry. Furthermore, for this case study the model results for the ozone mixing ratios at different altitudes were compared with a measured ozone profile to investigate the extent to which models reproduce the stratospheric ozone losses. It was found that mainly in the height range of strong ozone depletion all models underestimate the ozone loss by about a factor of two. This finding corroborates earlier studies and implies a general deficiency in our understanding of the stratospheric ozone loss chemistry rather than a specific problem related to a particular model simulation.