Modelling water-table movement in flat low-lying lands

The unsteady water-table movement caused by intermittent rainfall and varying evaporation in flat lands intersected by a network of ditches is modelled using land-drainage theory. The unsteady water tables are assumed to behave as a continuous succession of steady states with the flux through the water table given by the sum of components due to rainfall and evaporation through the soil surface and due to water released or taken up by the unsaturated soil above the water table. A simple steady-state drainage equation is used for the relationship between water-table height and flux, and the specific yield is assumed to have a constant value. The simulated seasonal water table using estimated hydraulic soil properties and meteorological records for a field site agreed with available dip-well observations. The water table was much lower than the ditch-water level during the summer months. The sensitivity of simulated results to model parameters is demonstrated.     

Benchmarking geoacoustic inversion methods for range-dependent waveguides

Inversion methods have been developed over the past decade to extract information about unknown ocean-bottom environments from acoustic field data. This paper summarizes results from the Office of Naval Research/Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Geoacoustic Inversion Techniques Workshop, which was designed to benchmark present-day inversion methods. The format of the workshop was a blind test to estimate unknown geoacoustic profiles by inversion of synthetic acoustic field data. The fields were calculated using a high-angle parabolic approximation and verified using coupled normal modes for three range-dependent shallow-water test cases: a monotonic slope; a shelf break; and a fault intrusion in the sediment. Geoacoustic profiles were generated to simulate sand, silt, and mud sediments in these environments. Several different approaches for inverting the acoustic field data were presented at the workshop: model-based matched-field methods; perturbation methods; methods using transmission loss data; and methods using horizontal array information. An effective inversion must provide both an estimate of the bottom parameters and a measure of the uncertainty of the estimated values. New methods were presented at the workshop to formalize the measure of uncertainty in the inversion. Comparisons between the different inversions are discussed in terms of a metric-based transmission loss calculated using the inverted profiles. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of present-day inversion techniques and indicate the limits of their capabilities for range-dependent waveguides.     

The San Fernando Observatory Video Spectra-Spectroheliograph

We describe recent work in the development of the San Fernando Observatory (SFO) Video Spectra-Spectroheliograph (VSSHG), a spectrum-based instrument for the measurement of the solar Stokes profiles. Its most important features are: simultaneous measurement of Stokes I plus one of Stokes Q, U, or V; spatial sampling of 0.5 arc sec; spectral sampling of 8.8 mÅ; and time sampling of one minute (for one pair of Stokes profile) to three minutes (for all four profiles). Routine data processing is carried out using a moments technique; tests of this technique show it to be reasonably accurate. Sample data are shown and briefly discussed: a longitudinal magnetogram and Dopplergram of NOAA 5573 observed on 17 August, 1989, and a vector magnetic field map and Dopplergram of NOAA 6659 observed on 10 June, 1991.     

Shelf wave dispersion in a geophysical ocean

We consider subinertial, free waves trapped along three coastlines (i.e., shelf waves) in an ocean governed by a geophysical model in which stratification is explicitly obtained by taking the Vaisala frequency N much greater than the inertial frequency f. The behavior is generalized in terms of the parameter S = (N/f)a where a is the bottom slope of the trapping region. Only when $\text{S}\text{\$}\text{?}\text{0.2}$, are the predicted shelf waves like those predicted by Laplace's tidal equations (LTE) on an f-plane. When 0.2 ? S < 1, LTE are inappropriate because the shelf waves are only qualitatively like those predicted by LTE, and when S 1, the shelf waves are like baroclinic Kelvin waves in that they can occur at any subinertial frequency up to f (in qualitative disagreement with the predictions of LTE). Since N/f is usually a large number in the real ocean (of order 50–250), S is likely to be large unless the bottom slope is very gentle throughout the trapping region. Some applications to coastal current observations are discussed.     

Cumulative subject index volumes 27–29

It is premature to establish a chronology for Mars and Mercury, relative to the known lunar chronology, to better than an order of magnitude. Lunar evidence neither requires nor excludes a “cataclysmic” episode of bombardment about 4.0 b.y. ago. Such a cataclysm might have resulted naturally from tidal disruption by a planet or collisional fragmentation in the asteroid belt of either a Uranus/Neptune-scattered planetesimal or a large asteroid, in which case any lunar cataclysm would have occurred as well on other planets. There is no independent evidence in Mariner 10 imagery for (or against) an early episodic bombardment on Mercury. Crater densities on plains units of the Moon, Mars, and Mercury have not been shown to be “strikingly similar” and do not imply, in the absence of definitive dynamical calculations of planetary impact rates of plausible populations of planetesimals, any similarity in the geological chronologies for those planets. Photogeological studies alone cannot determine absolute chronologies for planets. In combination with dynamical analyses, they can help us date to no better than a factor of 3 to 10 the formation of the Caloris Basin or the epoch when the Martian rivers ran.     

Time-averaged observations of the sun with a 3840 Å filter

Observations of the Sun with a 3840 Å interference filter of 12 Å full-width at half-maximum are compared with broad band filtergrams at 5300 Å and 6103 Å magnetograms. The limit for detecting faculae by the three techniques is compared. An improvement in detecting faculae at 3840 Å can be obtained by time-averaged photographs with the time-averaging done either at the telescope or in the darkroom. The former method has certain disadvantages. The 3840 Å filter can show the presence of faculae near the limb much better than white-light photographs or magnetograms. This feature makes 3840 Å filtergrams useful in conjunction with solar oblateness studies.This research was supported by company funds of The Aerospace Corporation.     

PETROCHEMICALS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE PUERTO RICAN EXPERIENCE*

The oil refining and petrochemical industries have occupied an important role in Puerto Rico's development strategy since the early 1960s. However, the hopes epitomized in various planning models of highly integrated and diversified oil-based industrial complexes have not been fulfilled. This paper attempts to account for the discrepancy between official expectations and subsequent events in Puerto Rico and indicates some of the lessons for other developing countries.