Report of the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements: 2003

Every three years the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements revises tables giving the directions of the north poles of rotation and the prime meridians of the planets, satellites, and asteroids. This report introduces a system of cartographic coordinates for asteroids and comets. A topographic reference surface for Mars is recommended. Tables for the rotational elements of the planets and satellites and size and shape of the planets and satellites are not included, since there were no changes to the values. They are available in the previous report (Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron., 82, 83–110, 2002), a version of which is also available on a web site.     

Thermophysical Modelling of Comet P/Borrelly Effects of Volume Energy Absorption and Volume Sublimation

In this work, we continue revising the theoretical basis ofnumerical models describing the transport of matter andenergy inside a porous dust-ice mixture at low temperature. Amodel of a light-absorbing near-surface layer of a comet nucleus isinvestigated. Gas transport is considered simultaneously with thesolution of the general heat transfer equation. Thequasi-stationary temperature distribution and the H₂O massflux and sublimation rate are computed for a nucleus model ofcomet 19P/Borrelly at the Deep Space 1 (DS1) encounter. Theenergy is deposited in a layer of about 20 particle radii: Thiscorresponds to a solid-state greenhouse effect. The surfacetemperature of the layer-absorbing model as well as the gasproduction rate are significantly smaller than the ones in thesurface-absorbing model. An active fraction of 40–50% would berequired to explain the observed water production rate ofP/Borrelly with our layer-absorption model at the time of the DS1encounter.     

Maralinga,a metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrite found in Australia

Abstract— The Maralinga meteorite was found near the village of Maralinga, South Australia (30°18′S, 131°16′E) in 1974, but was not recognized as a meteorite until 1989. One weathered individual was recovered with a total mass of 3.38 kg. The bulk composition and petrography of Maralinga indicate that it is a metamorphosed (petrographic type 4) carbonaceous chondrite with major similarities to the Vigarano-subtype. However, recent trace element data from the literature suggest that Maralinga should be included with the CK (Karoonda-type) carbonaceous chondrites. We classify Maralinga as an anomalous CK4 chondrite because of its abundant chondrules and refractory inclusions relative to other known members of the CK group. Maralinga contains homogeneous silicates, including Ni-bearing olivines (Fa₃₄), high-Ca clinopyroxene, and rare orthopyroxene. Plagioclase is chemically heterogeneous and falls into two distinct compositional groups one of ～ An₂₀ and an ～ An₈₀ group. Highly oxidizing conditions during metamorphism of Maralinga are indicated by the abundance of magnetite and the paucity of Fe-Ni metal.     

Annual Primary Production in Narragansett Bay with no Bay-Wide Winter–Spring Phytoplankton Bloom

Primary production was estimated over the annual cycle from ¹⁴C incubations conducted in 5 m deep enclosures and modeled for 16 stations in Narragansett Bay with data from biweekly surveys in which light, chlorophyll, attenuation coefficients and other parameters were measured. Annual values ranged from 160 g C m⁻² y⁻¹ in the lower West Passage to 619 g C m⁻² y⁻¹ at the mouth of the Providence River. The annual bay-wide, area mean fell near the middle of this range at 323 g C m⁻² y⁻¹ and was not apparently different from previous surveys. In the 1998 warm, El Niño winter, no bay-wide winter–spring phytoplankton flowered. Bloom limitation was correlated with warm temperatures which may have stimulated grazing rates. The lack of a bloom did not change annual levels of primary production but this alteration in carbon flow may impact macrofauna in the benthic infauna community.     

Relaxation‐Based Point Feature Matching for Vector Map Conflation

With the rapid advance of geospatial technologies, the availability of geospatial data from a wide variety of sources has increased dramatically. It is beneficial to integrate / conflate these multi‐source geospatial datasets, since the integration of multi‐source geospatial data can provide insights and capabilities not possible with individual datasets. However, multi‐source datasets over the same geographical area are often disparate. Accurately integrating geospatial data from different sources is a challenging task. Among the subtasks of integration/conflation, the most crucial one is feature matching, which identifies the features from different datasets as presentations of the same real‐world geographic entity. In this article we present a new relaxation‐based point feature matching approach to match the road intersections from two GIS vector road datasets. The relaxation labeling algorithm utilizes iterated local context updates to achieve a globally consistent result. The contextual constraints (relative distances between points) are incorporated into the compatibility function employed in each iteration's updates. The point‐to‐point matching confidence matrix is initialized using the road connectivity information at each point. Both the traditional proximity‐based approach and our relaxation‐based point matching approach are implemented and experiments are conducted over 18 test sites in rural and suburban areas of Columbia, MO. The test results show that our relaxation labeling approach has much better performance than the proximity matching approach in both simple and complex situations.     

Impacts,volcanism and mass extinction: random coincidence or cause and effect?

Large impacts are credited with the most devastating mass extinctions in Earth's history and the Cretaceous?–?Tertiary (K/T) boundary impact is the strongest and sole direct support for this view. A review of the five largest Phanerozoic mass extinctions provides no support that impacts with craters up to 180 km in diameter caused significant species extinctions. This includes the 170 km-diameter Chicxulub impact crater regarded as 0.3 million years older than the K/T mass extinction. A second, larger impact event may have been the ultimate cause of this mass extinction, as suggested by a global iridium anomaly at the K/T boundary, but no crater has been found to date. The current crater database suggests that multiple impacts, for example comet showers, were the norm, rather than the exception, during the Late Eocene, K/T transition, latest Triassic and the Devonian?–?Carboniferous transition, but did not cause significant species extinctions. Whether multiple impacts substantially contributed to greenhouse warming and associated environmental stresses is yet to be demonstrated. From the current database, it must be concluded that no known Phanerozoic impacts, including the Chicxulub impact (but excluding the K/T impact) caused mass extinctions or even significant species extinctions. The K/T mass extinction may have been caused by the coincidence of a very large impact (>?250 km) upon a highly stressed biotic environment as a result of volcanism. The consistent association of large magmatic provinces (large igneous provinces and continental flood-basalt provinces) with all but one (end-Ordovician) of the five major Phanerozoic mass extinctions suggests that volcanism played a major role. Faunal and geochemical evidence from the end-Permian, end-Devonian, end-Cretaceous and Triassic/Jurassic transition suggests that the biotic stress was due to a lethal combination of tectonically induced hydrothermal and volcanic processes, leading to eutrophication in the oceans, global warming, sea-level transgression and ocean anoxia. It must be concluded that major magmatic events and their long-term environmental consequences are major contributors, though not the sole causes of mass extinctions. Sudden mass extinctions, such as at the K/T boundary, may require the coincidence of major volcanism and a very large Impact.     

Tectonics of the Lepontine Alps: ductile thrusting and folding in the deepest tectonic levels of the Central Alps

The Lepontine dome represents a unique region in the arc of the Central and Western Alps, where complex fold structures of upper amphibolite facies grade of the deepest stage of the orogenic belt are exposed in a tectonic half-window. The NW-verging Mont Blanc, Aar und Gotthard basement folds and the Lower Penninic gneiss nappes of the Central Alps were formed by ductile detachment of the upper European crust during its Late Eocene–Early Oligocene SE-directed underthrust below the upper Penninic and Austroalpine thrusts and the Adriatic plate. Four underthrust zones are distinguished in the NW-verging stack of Alpine fold nappes and thrusts: the Canavese, Piemont, Valais and Adula zones. Up to three schistosities S1–S3, folds F1–F3 and a stretching lineation XI with top-to-NW shear indicators were developed in the F1–F3 fold nappes. Spectacular F4 transverse folds, the SW-verging Verzasca, Maggia, Ziccher, Alpe Bosa and Wandfluhhorn anticlines and synclines overprint the Alpine nappe stack. Their formation under amphibolite facies grade was related to late ductile folding of the southern nappe roots during dextral displacement of the Adriatic indenter. The transverse folding F4 was followed since 30 Ma by the pull-apart exhumation and erosion of the Lepontine dome. This occurred coevally with the formation of the dextral ductile Simplon shear zone, the S-verging backfolding F5 and the formation of the southern steep belt. Exhumation continued after 18 Ma with movement on the brittle Rhone-Simplon detachment, accompanied by the N-, NW- and W-directed Helvetic and Dauphiné thrusts. The dextral shear is dated by the 29–25 Ma crustal-derived aplite and pegmatite intrusions in the southern steep belt. The cooling by uplift and erosion of the Tertiary migmatites of the Bellinzona region occurred between 22 and 18 Ma followed by the exhumation of the Toce dome on the brittle Rhone–Simplon fault since 18 Ma.     

Closed solution of the Hill differential equation for short arcs and a local mass anomaly in the central body

The Hill differential equation describes the relative motion of a satellite w.r.t. a circular reference orbit. The deviations in the orbit are caused by a residual acceleration, which is small compared to the effect of the central gravitational field. In this paper, the acceleration of a local mass anomaly in the central body is considered, which rotates w.r.t. the inertial frame with a constant angular velocity. The mass anomaly is modeled by a superposition of radial base functions. The potential and the gradient of each base function are represented in the orbit by the Keplerian elements, the rotation rate of the central body and the parameters of the base function, i.e. the position of its center, the shape and a scaling factor. The inhomogeneous solution of the Hill differential equation for short arcs is found by means of the Laplace transform. A few lower orders of the solution require an additional Laplace transform, to consider the so-called resonance cases. The final deviations are described in a closed and differentiable formula of the Keplerian elements and the parameters of the base function.     

Modelling indicators of water security,water pollution and aquatic biodiversity in Europe

Abstract

The GWAVA (Global Water AVailability Assessment) model for indicating human water security has been extended with a newly developed module for calculating pollutant concentrations. This module is first described and then illustrated by being used to model nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter concentrations. The module uses solely input variables that are likely to be available for future scenarios, making it possible to apply the module to such scenarios. The module first calculates pollutant loading from land to rivers, lakes and wetlands by considering drivers such as agriculture, industry and sewage treatment. Calculated loadings are subsequently converted to concentrations by considering aquatic processes, such as dilution, downstream transport, evaporation, human water abstraction and biophysical loss processes. Aquatic biodiversity is indicated to be at risk if modelled pollutant concentrations exceed certain water quality standards. This is indicated to be the case in about 35% of the European area, especially where lakes and wetlands are abundant. Human water security is indicated to be at risk where human water demands cannot be fulfilled during drought events. This is found to be the case in about 10% of the European area, especially in Mediterranean, arid and densely-populated areas. Modelled spatial variation in concentrations matches well with existing knowledge, and the temporal variability of concentrations is modelled reasonably well in some river basins. Therefore, we conclude that the updated GWAVA model can be used for indicating changes in human water security and aquatic biodiversity across Europe.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz

Citation Dumont, E., Williams, R., Keller, V., Voss, A., and Tattari, S., 2012. Modelling indicators of water security, water pollution and aquatic biodiversity in Europe. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (7), 1378–1403.