Virtual Coast Guard: An Open and Crowdsourced GIS Portal for Stewardship of India's Coast

India's coastline is under tremendous pressure. The current processes of development are becoming a threat to the ecology and livelihoods housed on the coast. If left unchecked, there will not be much of a coast left for our future generations. GIS provides tremendous opportunities to map spatial information for better decision‐making. Government agencies generate maps, but they are localized and inaccessible, preventing an actual assessment of the damage that is already happening to our coast. The Coastal Area Mapping Project (CAMP) envisions creating a collaborative GIS platform using open source technologies. CAMP's vision is to use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for collaboration and cocreation and collective problem solving. CAMP foresees a vision for India's coastline where power is equalized among all constituencies (Government, corporations, media, communities, civil societies, etc.), by capturing the big picture and patterns, thus enabling the creation of strategies for stewardship of India's coastline for human wellbeing, coastal protection and sustainable coastal development.     

Wave constraints for Titan’s Jingpo Lacus and Kraken Mare from VIMS specular reflection lightcurves

Stephan et al. (Stephan, K. et al. [2010]. Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, 7104-+.) first saw the glint of sunlight specularly reflected off of Titan’s lakes. We develop a quantitative model for analyzing the photometric lightcurve generated during a flyby in which the specularly reflected light flux depends on the fraction of the solar specular footprint that is covered by liquid. We allow for surface waves that spread out the geographic specular intensity distribution. Applying the model to the VIMS T58 observations shows that the waves on Jingpo Lacus must have slopes of no greater than 0.15°, two orders of magnitude flatter than waves on Earth’s oceans. Combining the model with theoretical estimates of the intensity of the specular reflection allows a tighter constraint on the waves: ?0.05°. Residual specular signal while the specular point lies on land implies that either the land is wetted, the wave slope distribution is non-Gaussian, or that 5% of the land off the southwest edge of Jingpo Lacus is covered in puddles. Another specular sequence off of Kraken Mare acquired during Cassini’s T59 flyby shows rapid flux changes that the static model cannot reproduce. Points just 1 min apart vary in flux by more than a factor of two. The present dataset does not uniquely determine the mechanism causing these rapid changes. We suggest that changing wind conditions, kilometer-wavelength waves, or moving clouds could account for the variability. Future specular observations should be designed with a fast cadence, at least 6 points per minute, in order to differentiate between these hypotheses. Such new data will further constrain the nature of Titan’s lakes and their interactions with Titan’s atmosphere.     

Remanent Magnetization in Portland-Cement-Based Materials

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the possibility of applying one geophysical method to studying untraditional systems as is the case with Portland-cement-based materials. The research demonstrates how conventional paleomagnetic methodology can be employed in studying the mode of magnetic recording in present-day industrial materials. Portland-cement admixtures such as fly ashes and furnace slags should be discriminated, because those particles interact in soils and sediments in nature. Moreover, a better undertanding of magnetic remanent acquisition in model materials can serve to improve the interpretation of magnetic remanent acquisition in natural rocks formed a long time ago. The magnetic constituents of Portland-cement paste and mortar acquire a magnetic remanence due to their alignment with the earth's magnetic field at the casting place. This magnetization can be measured using ordinary paleomagnetic techniques. The alignment of the individual magnetic particles accounts for the intensity of the magnetic remanence, which can be increased by adding water and by vibration before setting and hardening. Blast furnace slag admixtures also add to the enhancement of the intensity of remanence. The magnetization of Portland-cement-based materials shows a near linear relationship with the water /cement (w/c) ratios employed in the experimental work; the w/c ratios range between 0.2 – 0.6 in pastes and 0.3 – 0.6 in mortar. Stable remanent magnetization was obtained during the first seven days of setting and hardening, a period necessary for magnetic particles to become locked parallel to the earth's magnetic field. The stability of magnetic remanence predicts the usefulness of the methodology in studying the properties of Portland cement and particularly in the control of iron-bearing admixtures.     

Thin-sheet modelling of lithospheric deformation and surface mass transport

We study the effects of incorporating surface mass transport and the gravitational potential energy of both crust and lithospheric mantle to the viscous thin sheet approach. Recent 2D (cross-section) numerical models show that surface erosion and sediment transport can play a major role in shaping the large-scale deformation of the crust. In order to study these effects in 3D (planform view), we develop a numerical model in which both the dynamics of lithospheric deformation and surface processes are fully coupled. Deformation is calculated as a thin viscous layer with a vertically-averaged rheology and subjected to plane stresses. The coupled system of equations for momentum and energy conservation is solved numerically. This model accounts for the isostatic and potential-energy effects due to crustal and lithospheric thickness variations. The results show that the variations of gravitational potential energy due to the lateral changes of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary can modify the mode of deformation of the lithosphere. Surface processes, incorporated to the model via a diffusive transport equation, rather than just passively reacting to changes in topography, play an active role in controlling the lateral variations of the effective viscosity and hence of the deformation of the lithosphere.     

Lithospheric boudinage in the Western Mediterranean back-arc basin

The western Mediterranean is composed of irregular troughs formed as back-arc basins in the hanging wall of the W-directed Apenninic subduction which retreated eastward during Neogene and Quaternary times. The basins are progressively younger toward the east, ageing from late Oligocene–early Miocene (Valencia, Provençal, Alboran and Algerian basins), to middle Miocene–Pleistocene (Tyrrhenian Sea). The basins isolated boudins of continental lithosphere, the Sardinia–Corsica block representing the largest. The boudinage has a wavelength of 100–400 km and facilitated stretching of the continental lithosphere with formation of new oceanic crust in the Provençal, Algerian, Vavilov and Marsili basins. The boudins developed both in the earlier Alpine–Betic orogen (Alboran basin) and in its foreland (Provençal and Valencia troughs). The extension appears clearly asymmetric due to its eastward polarity, accommodated by E-dipping master low-angle normal faults. Moreover the thinning shows variations in boudinage wavelength and is characterized by several along-strike transfer zones and heterogeneities. The western Mediterranean back-arc setting is comparable with Atlantic and western Pacific back-arc basins associated with W-directed subduction zones that show similar large-scale lithospheric boudinage.     

Phase Diagram in Asteroidal Motion

In order to study the dynamical behaviour of asteroids in commensurability with a planet, we propose a phase diagram obtained by short computer time. We test this numerical procedure by analyzing the behaviour of real and fictitious asteroids in first order commensurabilities with Jupiter. We have also studied the evolution time of the orbital elements and other variables to compare these results with those obtained in the phase diagram. The results obtained with our numerical technique were compared to similar results previously obtained by other authors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Search for Pulsating, Mass-Accreting Components in Algol-Type Eclipsing Binaries

We present a status report on the search for pulsations in primary componants of Algols systems (oEA stars). Analysis of 21 systems with A0-F2 spectral type primaries revealed pulsations in two systems suggesting that of the order of ten persent of Algols primaries in this range are actually pulsators.     

Spatio-temporal fragmentation of leisure activities in information era: Empirical evidence from Nanjing,China

Activity fragmentation provides a new approach for understanding the transformation of urban space and function in the information era. Numerous theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted on activity fragmentation, but few studies have focused on the fragmentation of leisure activities. This study was intended to extend the extant literature by: 1) analysing the spatio-temporal fragmentation of physical and virtual leisure activities by using a dataset collected in Nanjing, China, and 2) evaluating the reasons of leisure activity fragmentation, as well as the potential spatial effect of activity fragmentation. The results indicated that virtual leisure activities are more fragmented than physical leisure activities, but the fragmentation of physical and virtual leisure activities varies on weekday and weekend, as well as in various locations and urban districts. In addition, the results suggested that sociodemographic factors and information and communication technology (ICT) variables distinctly affect the fragmentation of leisure activities. Meanwhile, the fragmentation of virtual leisure activities may enhance the transformation of traditional urban space by reallocating leisure activity times and locations.     

Estimating Travel Times of Coronal Mass Ejections to 1 AU Using Multi-spacecraft Coronagraph Data

We study the relationship between the speeds of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) obtained close to the Sun and in the interplanetary medium during the low solar-activity period from 2008 to 2010. We use a multi-spacecraft forward-modeling technique to fit a flux-rope-like model to white-light coronagraph images from the STEREO and SOHO spacecraft to estimate the geometrical configuration, propagation in three-dimensions (3D), and the radial speeds of the observed CMEs. The 3D speeds obtained in this way are used in existing CME travel-time prediction models. The results are compared to the actual CME transit times from the Sun to STEREO, ACE, and Wind spacecraft as well as to the transit times calculated using projected CME speeds. CME 3D speeds give slightly better predictions than projected CME speeds, but a large scatter is observed between the predicted and observed travel times, even when 3D speeds are used. We estimate the possible sources of errors and find a weak tendency for large interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) with high magnetic fields to arrive faster than predicted and small, low-magnetic-field ICMEs to arrive later than predicted. The observed CME transit times from the Sun to 1?AU show a particularly good correlation with the upstream solar-wind speed. Similar trends have not been observed in previous studies using data sets near solar maximum. We suggest that near solar minimum a relatively narrow range of CME initial speeds, sizes, and magnetic-field magnitudes led to a situation where aerodynamic drag between CMEs and ambient solar wind was the primary cause of variations in CME arrival times from the Sun to 1?AU.     

Review of crystal diffraction and its application to focusing energetic gamma rays

The basic features of crystal diffraction and their application to the construction of a crystal diffraction lens for focusing energetic gamma rays are described using examples from the work performed at the Argonne National Laboratory. Both on-axis and off-axis performance are discussed. The review includes the use of normal crystals, bent crystals, and crystals with variable crystal-plane spacing to develop both condenser-type lenses and point-to-point imaging lenses.