Coronal Density Structures and CMEs: Superior Solar Conjunctions of Mars Express, Venus Express, and Rosetta: 2004, 2006, and 2008

Coronal radio-sounding experiments were carried out using the S-band (2.3 GHz) and X-band (8.4 GHz) signals of the ESA Mars Express, Venus Express, and Rosetta spacecraft during five superior conjunctions occurring in 2004, 2006 (3×), and 2008/2009. Differential frequency and propagation delay (ranging) observations were recorded during these opportunities over the better part of a solar cycle, yielding information on the large-scale structure of the coronal electron-density distribution and its variations, including fluctuations on time scales from seconds to hours. These results concern primarily regions of slow solar wind because the radio propagation path is generally confined to the low heliolatitude regions by the conjunction. The mean frequency fluctuation and total electron content are determined as a function of heliocentric distance, and, with a few exceptions caused by streamers and CMEs, are found to be consistent with previous results from experiments on Ulysses. Dense coronal streamers and several coronal mass ejection (CME) events were identified in the radio-frequency data, some of which were observed in white light by the LASCO coronagraphs onboard SOHO. For those events with sufficient mutual coverage, good correlations are found between the electron-content fluctuations and structure imaged by the LASCO instrument.     

The Late Eocene and Late Miocene fronts of the Atlas Belt in eastern Maghreb: integration in the geodynamic evolution of the Mediterranean Domain

Regional cross sections at the scale of the eastern Maghreb based on subsurface and field data allow presenting the structural styles related to the Middle-Late Eocene compressional events. The structural cross sections depict that the Late Eocene front of the Atlas Belt extends far through the Northern Africa plate margin comparatively to the Late Miocene front cropping out in the Eastern Tunisian Atlas. The sections allow proposing a new subsurface front for the Atlas belt encompassing a large part of the Pelagian-Sirt basins. The consequences of this particular configuration are discussed at the scale of the south Tethys margin and replaced in the frame of the geodynamic evolution of the Mediterranean Domain.     

Considering groundwater use to improve the assessment of groundwater pumping for irrigation in North Africa

Groundwater resources in semi-arid areas and especially in the Mediterranean face a growing demand for irrigated agriculture and, to a lesser extent, for domestic uses. Consequently, groundwater reserves are affected and water-table drops are widely observed. This leads to strong constraints on groundwater access for farmers, while managers worry about the future evolution of the water resources. A common problem for building proper groundwater management plans is the difficulty in assessing individual groundwater withdrawals at regional scale. Predicting future trends of these groundwater withdrawals is even more challenging. The basic question is how to assess the water budget variables and their evolution when they are deeply linked to human activities, themselves driven by countless factors (access to natural resources, public policies, market, etc.). This study provides some possible answers by focusing on the assessment of groundwater withdrawals for irrigated agriculture at three sites in North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). Efforts were made to understand the different features that influence irrigation practices, and an adaptive user-oriented methodology was used to monitor groundwater withdrawals. For each site, different key factors affecting the regional groundwater abstraction and its past evolution were identified by involving farmers’ knowledge. Factors such as farmer access to land and groundwater or development of public infrastructures (electrical distribution network) are crucial to decode the results of well inventories and assess the regional groundwater abstraction and its future trend. This leads one to look with caution at the number of wells cited in the literature, which could be oversimplified.     

Non-Kyoto radiative forcing in long-run greenhouse gas emissions and climate change scenarios

Climate policies must consider radiative forcing from Kyoto greenhouse gases, as well as other forcing constituents, such as aerosols and tropospheric ozone that result from air pollutants. Non-Kyoto forcing constituents contribute negative, as well as positive forcing, and overall increases in total forcing result in increases in global average temperature. Non-Kyoto forcing modeling is a relatively new component of climate management scenarios. This paper describes and assesses current non-Kyoto radiative forcing modeling within five integrated assessment models. The study finds negative forcing from aerosols masking (offsetting) approximately 25 % of positive forcing in the near-term in reference non-climate policy projections. However, masking is projected to decline rapidly to 5–10 % by 2100 with increasing Kyoto emissions and assumed reductions in air pollution—with the later declining to as much as 50 % and 80 % below today’s levels by 2050 and 2100 respectively. Together they imply declining importance of non-Kyoto forcing over time. There are however significant uncertainties and large differences across models in projected non-Kyoto emissions and forcing. A look into the modeling reveals differences in base conditions, relationships between Kyoto and non-Kyoto emissions, pollution control assumptions, and other fundamental modeling. In addition, under climate policy scenarios, we find air pollution and resulting non-Kyoto forcing reduced to levels below those produced by air pollution policies alone—e.g., China sulfur emissions fall an additional 45–85 % by 2050. None of the models actively manage non-Kyoto forcing for climate implications. Nonetheless, non-Kyoto forcing may be influencing mitigation results, including allowable carbon dioxide emissions, and further evaluation is merited.     

利用支持向量分类(SVC)估算断层深度和特征选择(英文)

地下断层深度的估算是重力解释难题之一,我们试利用支持向量分类(SVC)法进行计算。使用正演和非线性反演技术,通过相关误错使检测地下断层深度成为可能。但必要有一个深度初始猜测值,而且这猜测值通常不是由重力资料得。本文我们介绍以SVC作为利用重力数据估算断层深度的一种手段。在这项研究中,我们假设一种地下断层深度可归为一种类型,SVC作为一个分类算法。为了有效地利用此SVC算法,我们基于一个正确的特征选择算法去选择正确的深度特征。本次研究中我们建立了一套基于不同深度地下断层的合成重力剖面训练集,用以训练用于计算实际的地下断层深度的SVC代码。然后用其它合成重力剖面训练集测试我们训练的SVC代码,同时也用实际资料验证了我们的训练SVC代码。     

The orientations of molecular clouds in the outer Galaxy: evidence for the scale of the turbulence driver?

Supernova (SN) explosions inject a considerable amount of energy into the interstellar medium (ISM) in regions with high-to-moderate star formation rates. In order to assess whether the driving of turbulence by supernovae is also important in the outer Galactic disc, where the star formation rates are lower, we study the spatial distribution of molecular cloud (MC) inclinations with respect to the Galactic plane. The latter contains important information on the nature of the mechanism of energy injection into the ISM. We analyse the spatial correlations between the position angles (PAs) of a selected sample of MCs (the largest clouds in the catalogue of the outer Galaxy published by Heyer et al). Our results show that when the PAs of the clouds are all mapped to values into the  [0°, 90°]  interval, there is a significant degree of spatial correlation between the PAs on spatial scales in the range of 100–800 pc. These scales are of the order of the sizes of individual SN shells in low-density environments such as those prevailing in the outer Galaxy and where the metallicity of the ambient gas is of the order of the solar value or smaller. These findings suggest that individual SN explosions, occurring in the outer regions of the Galaxy and in likewise spiral galaxies, albeit at lower rates, continue to play an important role in shaping the structure and dynamics of the ISM in those regions. The SN explosions we postulate here are likely associated with the existence of young stellar clusters in the far outer regions of the Galaxy and the ultraviolet emission and low levels of star formation observed with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite in the outer regions of local galaxies.     

A new scenario framework for climate change research: the concept of shared socioeconomic pathways

The new scenario framework for climate change research envisions combining pathways of future radiative forcing and their associated climate changes with alternative pathways of socioeconomic development in order to carry out research on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation. Here we propose a conceptual framework for how to define and develop a set of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) for use within the scenario framework. We define SSPs as reference pathways describing plausible alternative trends in the evolution of society and ecosystems over a century timescale, in the absence of climate change or climate policies. We introduce the concept of a space of challenges to adaptation and to mitigation that should be spanned by the SSPs, and discuss how particular trends in social, economic, and environmental development could be combined to produce such outcomes. A comparison to the narratives from the scenarios developed in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) illustrates how a starting point for developing SSPs can be defined. We suggest initial development of a set of basic SSPs that could then be extended to meet more specific purposes, and envision a process of application of basic and extended SSPs that would be iterative and potentially lead to modification of the original SSPs themselves.     

Inactivation of the gene katA or sodA affects the transient entry into the viable but non-culturable response of Staphylococcus aureus in natural seawater at low temperature

We have investigated the fate of Staphylococcus aureus by starving the cells and maintaining them in natural seawater at 22 and 4 °C. At 22 °C, cells developed a long-term survival state where about 0.037% of the initial population remained culturable over more than 7 months, whereas at 4 °C, bacteria lost culturability and transiently entered into the viable but non-culturable state (VBNC). However, after 22 days of entry into the VBNC state, the number of viable cells detected via the direct viable count method decreased significantly. We show here that mutational inactivation of catalase (KatA) or superoxide dismutase (SodA) rendered strains hypersensitive to seawater stress at 4 °C and consequently, part of the seawater lethality on S. aureus at low temperature is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) during microcosm-survival process. Shifting the temperature from 4 to 22 °C of totally non-culturable wild-type cells induced a partial recovery of the population. However, deficiencies in catalase or superoxide dismutase prevent resuscitation ability.     

Mars high resolution gravity fields from MRO, Mars seasonal gravity, and other dynamical parameters

With 2 years of tracking data collection from the MRO spacecraft, there is noticeable improvement in the high frequency portion of the spherical harmonic Mars gravity field. The new JPL Mars gravity fields, MRO110B and MRO110B2, show resolution near degree 90. Additional years of MGS and Mars Odyssey tracking data result in improvement for the seasonal gravity changes which compares well to global circulation models and Odyssey neutron data and Mars rotation and precession (). Once atmospheric dust is accounted for in the spacecraft solar pressure model, solutions for Mars solar tide are consistent between data sets and show slightly larger values (k₂ = 0.164 ± 0.009, after correction for atmospheric tide) compared to previous results, further constraining core models. An additional 4 years of Mars range data improves the Mars ephemeris, determines 21 asteroid masses and bounds solar mass loss (dGM_Sun/dt < 1.6 × 10⁻¹³ GM_Sun year⁻¹).     

Using landforms of Saudi Arabia for scenic and recreational purposes (With special reference to the Riyadh area)

The landform of Saudi Arabia in general and the Riyadh area in particular have their own potentiality for scenic and recreational purposes. The higher lands or features which have well cemented material in some areas of Riyadh have been recommended for scenic use, while lower lands like wide natural lakes, sand dunes and others can be mostly used for recreational purposes. Such features and purposes found here may be extrapolated into other similar areas within Saudi Arabia and may be compared with other areas elsewhere in the world.