WAVERYS: a CMEMS global wave reanalysis during the altimetry period

Ocean Dynamics - As part of the Copernicus Marine Service, WAVERYS is the multi-year wave reanalysis that provides global wave data with a fine grid resolution of 1/5°. This wave reanalysis...     

Concluding remarks and perspectives on the evolution and seismic tools activity (ESTA) of the CoRoT community

A first part gives a summary of the main conclusions stemmed from the different comparisons reported in this book. One main conclusion is: with some care in the computations, one is able to obtain frequency differences between different computations which are smaller than required by Corot challenges. This is true for high frequency modes. Small frequency differences are much less easily obtained for low frequencies around the fundamental radial mode frequency. Care here means: having the same physics, same constants of physics, same input stellar parameters, computing models and oscillations with enough self numerical consistent accuracy. The ESTA group has built reference grids of models and associated oscillation frequencies and made them available to the community. In a second part of the present paper, a study case is considered in order to show the need and the use of such reference grids. Finally some perspectives concerning the remaining tasks are suggested.     

Vertical accuracy evaluation of freely available latest high-resolution (30 m) global digital elevation models over Cameroon (Central Africa) with GPS/leveling ground control points.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) contain topographic relief data that are vital for many geoscience applications. This study relies on the vertical accuracy of publicly available latest high-resolution (30?m) global DEMs over Cameroon. These models are (1) the ALOS World 3D-30?m (AW3D30), (2) the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 1 Arc-Second C-Band Global DEM (SRTM 1) and (3) the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Global DEM Version 2 (ASTER GDEM 2). After matching their coordinate systems and datums, the horizontal positional accuracy evaluation was carried out and it shows that geolocation errors significantly influence the vertical accuracy of global DEMs. After this, the three models are compared among them, in order to access random and systematic effects in the elevation data each of them contains. Further, heights from 555 GPS/leveling points distributed all over Cameroon are compared to each DEM, for their vertical accuracy determination. Traditional and robust statistical measures, normality test, outlier detection and removal were used to describe the vertical quality of the DEMs. The test of the normality rejected the hypothesis of normal distribution for all tested global DEMs. Overall vertical accuracies obtained for the three models after georeferencing and gross error removal in terms of Root Mean Square (RMS) and Normalized Median Absolute Deviation (NMAD) are: AW3D30 (13.06?m and 7.75?m), SRTM 1 (13.25?m and 7.41?m) and ASTER GDEM 2 (18.87?m and 13.30?m). Other accuracy measures (MED, 68.3% quantile, 95% quantile) supply some evidence of the good quality of AW3D30 over Cameroon. Further, the effect of land cover and slope on DEM vertical accuracy was also analyzed. All models have proved to be worse in the areas dominated by forests and shrubs areas. SRTM 1 and AW3D30 are more resilient to the effects of the scattering objects respectively in forests and cultivated areas. The dependency of DEMs accuracy on the terrain roughness is evident. In all slope intervals, AW3D30 is performing better than SRTM 1 and ASTER GDEM 2 over Cameroon. AW3D30 is more representative of the external topography over Cameroon in comparison with two others datasets and SRTM 1 can be a serious alternative to AW3D30 for a range of DEM applications in Cameroon.     

The geopotential value <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript> for specifying the relativistic atomic time scale and a global vertical reference system

The TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) satellite alti- meter mission marked a new era in determining the geopotential constant W ₀. On the basis of T/P data during 1993–2003 (cycles 11–414), long-term variations in W ₀ have been investigated. The rounded value W ₀ = 62636856.0 ± 0.5) m ² s ⁻² has already been adopted by the International Astronomical Union for the definition of the constant L _G = W ₀/c ² = 6.969290134 × 10⁻¹⁰ (where c is the speed of light), which is required for the realization of the relativistic atomic time scale. The constant L _G , based on the above value of W ₀, is also included in the 2003 International Earth Rotation and Reference Frames Service conventions. It has also been suggested that W ₀ is used to specify a global vertical reference system (GVRS). W ₀ ensures the consistency with the International Terrestrial Reference System, i.e. after adopting W ₀, along with the geocentric gravitational constant (GM), the Earth’s rotational velocity (ω) and the second zonal geopotential coefficient (J ₂) as primary constants (parameters), then the ellipsoidal parameters (a,α) can be computed and adopted as derived parameters. The scale of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000 (ITRF2000) has also been specified with the use of W ₀ to be consistent with the geocentric coordinate time. As an example of using W ₀ for a GVRS realization, the geopotential difference between the adopted W ₀ and the geopotential at the Rimouski tide-gauge point, specifying the North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88), has been estimated.     

Rock thermal data at the grain scale: applicability to granular disintegration in cold environments

Consideration of the mechanisms associated with the granular disintegration of rock has been limited by available data. In most instances, both the size of the transducer and the nature of the study have negated any applicability of the resulting data to the understanding of grain‐to‐grain separation within rock. The application of microthermocouples (≤0·15 mm diameter) and high‐frequency logging (20 s intervals) at a taffoni site on southern Alexander Island and from a rock outcrop on Adelaide Island (Antarctica) provide new data pertaining to the thermal conditions, at the grain scale, of the rock surface. The results show that thermal changes (ΔT/t) can be very high, with values of 22 °C min^?1 being recorded. Although available data indicate that there can be differences in frequency and magnitude of ?uctuations as a function of aspect, all aspects experienced some large magnitude (≥2 °C min^?1) ?uctuations. Further, in many instances, large thermal changes in more than one direction could occur within 1 min or in subsequent minutes. These data suggest that the surface grains experience rapidly changing stress ?elds that may, with time, effect fatigue at the grain boundaries; albedo differences between grains and the resulting thermal variations are thought to exacerbate this. The available data failed to show any indication of water freezing (an exotherm) and thus it is suggested that microgelivation may not play as large a role in granular breakdown as is often postulated for cold regions, and that in this dry, Antarctic region thermal stress may play a signi?cant role. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.