Assessment of terrestrial laser scanning technology for obtaining high‐resolution DEMs of soils

Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) provide a non‐contact method to measure soil microtopography of relatively large surface areas. The appropriateness of the technology in relatation to the derived Digital Elevation Models (DEM) however has not been reported. The suitability of TLS for soil microtopography measurements was tested on‐field for three large soil surface areas in agricultural fields. The acquired point clouds were filtered with a custom cloud import algorithm, and converted into digital elevation models (DEM) of different resolutions. To assess DEM quality, point clouds measured from different viewpoints were statistically compared. The statistical fit between point clouds from different viewpoints depends on spatial resolution of the DEM. The best results were obtained at the higher resolutions (0.02 to 0.04 cm), where less than 5 % of the grid cells showed significant differences between one viewpoint and the next (p < 0.01). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of a projected future Arctic Sea Ice reduction on extratropical storminess and the NAO

The impact of a reduced Arctic sea ice cover on wintertime extratropical storminess is investigated by conducting atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments. The AGCM ECHAM5 is forced by the present and a projected future seasonal cycle of Arctic sea ice. In the experiment with projected sea-ice concentrations significant reductions in storminess were found during December and January in both midlatitudes and towards the Arctic. However, a substantially larger reduction in extratropical storminess was found in March, despite a smaller change in surface energy fluxes in March than in the other winter months. The projected decrease in storminess is also related to the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The March response is consistent with a forcing from transient and quasi-stationary eddies associated with negative NAO events. The greater sensitivity to sea-ice anomalies in late winter sets this study apart from earlier ones.     

A new approach to oscillatory rough turbulent boundary layers

Velocity measurements have been performed in an oscillatory turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall, using a large oscillating water tunnel. These together with measurements by Kalkanis (1964) over an oscillating wall indicate the existence of universal wall and defect laws for velocity. A logarithmic overlap layer is predicted and observed as in a steady turbulent boundary layer, and this results in a new relationship between friction factor and relative boundary layer thickness. The phase lead of the defect velocity relative to the wall ditto seems to follow a universal law over the whole defect layer. A method is suggested for the calculation of the phase lead of wall shear stress over velocity in the free stream for large amplitude to roughness ratios. Apart from the inner layer, it is in principle possible to construct the velocity profiles in a turbulent oscillatory boundary layer at a rough wall, using the findings of this report. A review of experimental and theoretical investigations of the stability of the oscillatory boundary layer is also given.     

Energy properties and shoaling of higher-order stokes waves on a current

The energy density, the energy flux, the set-down, the radiation stress, and some wave energy velocities have been derived correct to fourth order in wave steepness for waves on a vorticity-free current. The energy flux and the set-down have been used for shoaling predictions for finite amplitude waves with and without a net volume flux. The results with a zero volume flux are compared with more accurate shoaling predictions showing rather good accordance, except for large steepnesses. This also applies to the deep water wave energy transport velocity. The results with a net volume flux show that the steepness of the waves reduces the influence of this flux on the wave evolution. Some problems in connection with the orders in Stokes waves are discussed, among others concerning the dispersion relation and the orders of integral properties. Bed shear and accompanying dissipation is neglected.     

Control-Volume Discretization Method for Quadrilateral Grids with Faults and Local Refinements

This paper extends the multipoint flux-approximation (MPFA) control-volume method to quadrilateral grids for which the adjacent cells do not necessarily share corners. Examples are grids with faults and locally refined grids. This paper gives a derivation of the method for such grids. The difference between two-point flux-approximation (TPFA) results and MPFA results for faults and local grid refinements is demonstrated for synthetic problems. Further, the results are compared with results from uniform fine-grid simulations. The effect of repeated fault patterns as well as anisotropy is investigated. Large errors may be found for the TPFA method for flow through a series of faults in an anisotropic medium. Finally, a comparison is done for a reservoir field application.     

Current-depth refraction of water waves

Surface gravity waves propagating on large-scale currents over a gently sloping sea bed are considered. Assuming irrotational flow a general proof is given of the existence of a mean energy level, leading directly to the current wave set-down. The complete set of conservation equations describing combined current-depth refraction is presented and solved in two special ssituations. Also a case with a rotational current is considered. Dissipation is neglected.     

Accuracy of asymptotic series for the kinematics of high solitary waves

The accuracy of several asymptotic series expansions for wave speed and particle velocity under the crest of a solitary wave (on a fluid at rest) up to maximum height is investigated. The very accurate numerical results of Williams (1985) are the measure for our comparisons. The results are based on a scaling of calculated properties of long periodic waves to the case of solitary waves.For wave speeds the classical Boussinesq–Rayleigh expression gives good agreement up to a relative wave height of, say, 0.3. An asymptotic fourth-order expression based on Fenton (1990) can be used up to a relative wave height of 0.7, whereas the corresponding fifth-order expression is slightly less accurate.The Eulerian particle velocity profile under the wave crest is examined using a cnoidal wave expression from Fenton (1990) in the limit of the solitary wave. For low waves a `consistent' (i.e. properly truncated) fifth-order expression and an `inconsistent' ditto both coincide with Williams' results. Beginning at medium high waves, the consistent expression surprisingly exhibits oscillations in the velocity profile, and the oscillations become stronger as the wave gets higher. The inconsistent expression, however, yields the same shape as Williams' profile, but is displaced parallel to this, resulting in slightly larger velocities. For high waves also the inconsistent expression begins to differ in shape from Williams' profile, and asymptotic theory fails. Only for low waves `lowest order theory' gives acceptable results. We show analytically that for the highest wave the particle velocity profile has a horizontal tangent at the water surface; this is corroborated by Williams' numerical results.We also study the particle velocity at the wave crest as a function of wave height. It is shown that the variation has a vertical tangent for the highest wave. Two fifth-order asymptotic series for this velocity, based on the wave speed through the Bernoulli equation, show very good agreement with Williams up to a relative wave height of about 0.6.It is finally shown that it is possible to produce very accurate rational-function approximations to Williams' results for the wave speed as well as for the particle velocity at the wave crest.     

Supradetachment to rift basin transition recorded in continental to marine deposition; Paleogene Bandar Jissah Basin,NE Oman

A transition from supradetachment to rift basin signature is recorded in the ~1,500 m thick succession of continental to shallow marine conglomerates, mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic shallow marine sediments and carbonate ramp deposits preserved in the Bandar Jissah Basin, located southeast of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. During deposition, isostatically‐driven uplift rotated the underlying Banurama Detachment and basin fill ~45° before both were cut by the steep Wadi Kabir Fault as the basin progressed to a rift‐style bathymetry that controlled sedimentary facies belts and growth packages. The upper Paleocene to lower Eocene Jafnayn Formation was deposited in a supradetachment basin controlled by the Banurama Detachment. Alluvial fan conglomerates sourced from the Semail Ophiolite and the Saih Hatat window overlie the ophiolitic substrate and display sedimentary transport directions parallel to tectonic transport in the Banurama Detachment. The continental strata grade into braidplain, mouth bar, shoreface and carbonate ramp deposits. Subsequent detachment‐related folding of the basin during deposition of the Eocene Rusayl and lower Seeb formations marks the early transition towards a rift‐style basin setting. The folding, which caused drainage diversion and is affiliated with sedimentary growth packages, coincided with uplift‐isostasy as the Banurama Detachment was abandoned and the steeper Marina, Yiti Beach and Wadi Kabir faults were activated. The upper Seeb Formation records the late transition to rift‐style basin phase, with fault‐controlled sedimentary growth packages and facies distributions. A predominance of carbonates over siliciclastic sediments resulted from increasing near‐fault accommodation, complemented by reduced sedimentary input from upland catchments. Hence, facies distributions in the Bandar Jissah Basin reflect the progression from detachment to rift‐style tectonics, adding to the understanding of post‐orogenic extensional basin systems.     

A method for automatic history matching of a compositional reservoir simulator with multipoint flux approximation

A method for history matching of an in-house petroleum reservoir compositional simulator with multipoint flux approximation is presented. This method is used for the estimation of unknown reservoir parameters, such as permeability and porosity, based on production data and inverted seismic data. The limited-memory Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno method is employed for minimization of the objective function, which represents the difference between simulated and observed data. In this work, we present the key features of the algorithm for calculations of the gradients of the objective function based on adjoint variables. The test example shows that the method is applicable to cases with anisotropic permeability fields, multipoint flux approximation, and arbitrary fluid compositions.