Distribution of atmospheric marine salt depositions over Continental Western Europe

This contribution describes the distribution of marine salt aerosols in Belgium, France and Spain, as obtained from applying a kriging model to a set of data. The data was collected over a period of nine years and included wet as well as dry deposition results. It was found that the concentration of the salt particles decreased the fastest in Spain and the slowest in Belgium with increasing inland distance from the sea. These findings have implications for the degradation of monuments and historical buildings as a result of salt attack and ingress that often accompany degradation due to air pollution.     

Detection of Polarized Millimeter and Submillimeter Emission from Sagittarius A*

We report the detection of linear polarization from Sgr A* at 750, 850, 1350, and 2000 μm which confirms the contribution of synchrotron radiation. From the lack of polarization at longer wavelengths, it appears to arise in the millimeter/submillimeter excess. There are large position angle changes between the millimeter and submillimeter results, and these are discussed in terms of a polarized dust contribution in the submillimeter and various synchrotron models. In the model that best explains the data, the synchrotron radiation from the excess is self-absorbed in the millimeter region and becomes optically thin in the submillimeter. This implies that the excess arises in an extremely compact source of approximately 2 Schwarzschild radii.     

VLA Imaging of the Disk Surrounding the Nearby Young Star TW Hydrae

The TW Hydrae system is perhaps the closest analog to the early solar nebula. We have used the Very Large Array to image TW Hya at wavelengths of 7 mm and 3.6 cm with resolutions of 0&farcs;1 ( approximately 5 AU) and 1&farcs;0 ( approximately 50 AU), respectively. The 7 mm emission is extended and appears dominated by a dusty disk of radius greater than 50 AU surrounding the star. The 3.6 cm emission is unresolved and likely arises from an ionized wind or gyrosynchrotron activity. The dust spectrum and spatially resolved 7 mm images of the TW Hya disk are fitted by a simple model with temperature and surface density described by radial power laws, T&parl0;r&parr0;~r-0.5 and Sigma&parl0;r&parr0;~r-1. These properties are consistent with an irradiated gaseous accretion disk of mass approximately 0.03 M middle dot in circle with an accretion rate approximately 10-8 M middle dot in circle yr-1 and viscosity parameter alpha=0.01. The estimates of mass and mass accretion rates are uncertain since the gas-to-dust ratio in the TW Hya disk may have evolved from the standard interstellar value.     

Environmental management of marine fish culture in Hong Kong

Marine fish farming is an important commercial practice in Hong Kong. Marine fish farms located in eutrophic coastal waters often face the threat of severe dissolved oxygen depletion associated with algal blooms and red tides. On the other hand, mariculture activities also contribute to pollution. The sustainable management of mariculture requires proper siting of the fish farms and stocking density control. Both of these are related to the carrying capacity of the water body concerned, which is mainly governed by its flushing characteristics. A simple method to determine the carrying capacity of a fish farm has been developed by using three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic modelling and its effective coupling with a diagenetic water quality model. A systematic methodology using numerical tracer experiments has been developed to compute the tidal flushing in a fish farm. The flushing time is determined from the results of a numerical tracer experiment using robust 3D hydrodynamic and mass transport models. A unit tracer concentration is initially prescribed inside the region of interest and zero elsewhere; the subsequent mass transport and the mass removal process are then tracked. The fish farms are usually situated in well-sheltered shallow embayments and may not connect directly to the open water. It is found that it is necessary to define both "local" and "system-wide" flushing times to represent the effectiveness of the mass exchange with the surrounding water body and the open sea respectively. A diagenetic water quality model simulating the sediment-water-pollutant interaction is employed to address the response of the water column and the benthic layer to pollution discharges. With the flushing rate reliably computed, the carrying capacity of the fish farm can be determined in terms of key water quality parameters: chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, organic nitrogen and potential lowest dissolved oxygen level on a day of negligible photosynthetic production. The predictions are well-supported by field data.