Debris flow hazards for mountain regions of Russia: regional features and key events

The total area of debris flow territories of the Russian Federation accounts for about 10% of the area of the country. The highest debris flow activity areas located in Kamchatka-Kuril, North Caucasus and Baikal debris flow provinces. The largest debris flow events connected with volcano eruptions. Maximum volume of debris flow deposits per one event reached 500 × 10⁶ m³ (lahar formed during the eruption of Bezymyanny volcano in Kamchatka in 1956). In the mountains of the Greater Caucasus, the maximum volume of transported debris material reached 3 × 10⁶ m³; the largest debris flows here had glacial reasons. In the Baikal debris flow province, the highest debris flow activity located in the ridges of the Baikal rift zone (the East Sayan Mountains, the Khamar-Daban Ridge and the ridges of the Stanovoye Highland). Spatial features of debris flow processes within the territory of Russia are analyzed, and the map of Debris Flow Hazard in Russia is presented. We classified the debris flow hazard areas into 2 zones, 6 regions and 15 provinces. Warm and cold zones are distinguished. The warm zone covers mountainous areas within the southern part of Russia with temperate climate; rain-induced debris flows are predominant there. The cold zone includes mountainous areas with subarctic and arctic climate; they are characterized by a short warm period, the occurrence of permafrost, as well as the predominance of slush flows. Debris flow events are described for each province. We collected a list of remarkable debris flow events with some parameters of their magnitude and impact. Due to climate change, the characteristics of debris flows will change in the future. Availability of maps and information from previous events will allow to analyze the new cases of debris flows.     

The crystal structure of loparite: a new acentric variety

Mineralogy and Petrology - The crystal structure of a new structural variety of loparite (Na0.56Ce0.21La0.14Ca0.06Sr0.03Nd0.02Pr0.01)Σ=1.03(Ti0.83Nb0.15)Σ=0.98O3 from the Khibiny alkaline...     

New zircon ages on the Cambrian–Ordovician volcanism of the Southern Gemericum basement (Western Carpathians,Slovakia): SHRIMP dating,geochemistry and provenance

International Journal of Earth Sciences - The Southern Gemericum basement in the Inner Western Carpathians, composed of low-grade volcano-sedimentary rock complexes, constitutes a record of the...     

On the optical studies of the atmospheric water vapour from the surface of Mars

Remote observations of the atmospheric water vapour from the Mars orbit were usually carried out to study its global distribution and variability. Measurements of the water vapour abundance onboard the landers have recently become an important complement to the orbital sounding. Narrow-band filter photometry and spectroscopy of the solar radiation from the surface of the planet proved to be a powerful tool in the study of atmospheric water. The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was the first instrument to measure its amount from the surface. The Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) onboard the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) was to follow but the spacecraft was lost at landing. Nevertheless significant expertise in the optical measurements of atmospheric H₂O was gained during these missions. This paper summarizes this experience emphasizing the radiative transfer aspects of the problem. The results of this study could be of importance for future missions to Mars.     

Data‐driven time–frequency analysis of seismic data using non‐stationary Prony method

Empirical mode decomposition aims to decompose the input signal into a small number of components named intrinsic mode functions with slowly varying amplitudes and frequencies. In spite of its simplicity and usefulness, however, empirical mode decomposition lacks solid mathematical foundation. In this paper, we describe a method to extract the intrinsic mode functions of the input signal using non‐stationary Prony method. The proposed method captures the philosophy of the empirical mode decomposition but uses a different method to compute the intrinsic mode functions. Having the intrinsic mode functions obtained, we then compute the spectrum of the input signal using Hilbert transform. Synthetic and field data validate that the proposed method can correctly compute the spectrum of the input signal and could be used in seismic data analysis to facilitate interpretation.     

Developing configuration of WRF model for long-term high-resolution wind wave hindcast over the North Atlantic with WAVEWATCH III

The spatial resolution of wind forcing fields is critical for modeling ocean surface waves. We analyze here the performance of the non-hydrostatic numerical weather prediction system WRF-ARW (Weather Research and Forecasting) run with a 14-km resolution for hindcasting wind waves in the North Atlantic. The regional atmospheric model was run in the domain from 20° N to 70° N in the North Atlantic and was forced with ERA-Interim reanalysis as initial and boundary conditions in a spectral nudging mode. Here, we present the analysis of the impact of spectral nudging formulation (cutoff wavelengths and depth through which full weighting from reanalysis data is applied) onto the performance of the modeled 10-m wind speed and wind wave fields for 1 year (2010). For modeling waves, we use the third-generation spectral wave model WAVEWATCH III. The sensitivity of the atmospheric and wave models to the spectral nudging formulation is investigated via the comparison with reanalysis and observational data. The results reveal strong and persistent agreement with reanalysis data during all seasons within the year with well-simulated annual cycle and regional patterns independently of the nudging parameters that were tested. Thus, the proposed formulation of the nudging provides a reliable framework for future long-term experiments aiming at hindcasting climate variability in the North Atlantic wave field. At the same time, dynamical downscaling allows for simulation of higher waves in coastal regions, specifically near the Greenland east coast likely due to a better representation of the mesoscale atmospheric dynamics in this area.     

Pattern-guided dip estimation with plane-wave destruction filters

We propose to use pattern-guided dip estimation to mitigate aliasing problem that possibly exists in structure-oriented data processing. A straightforward and effective approach of generating pattern-guided dip is presented, which generally involves three rounds of standard dip estimation with plane-wave destruction filters. The first use of plane-wave destruction filter is for generating a mask operator distinguishing aliased and non-aliased data, based on measuring the uncertainty of the first dip estimation. The second plane-wave destruction filter uses the aliasing-free portions of the input data, and the dip in the aliasing-affected area is automatically padded with the ‘pattern’ dip by smoothing regularization. The result of the second plane-wave destruction filter is used as the initial dip for the inversion of the last-pass plane-wave destruction filter, which produces a pattern-guided dip. For some specific applications, the mask operator can be easily generated through other methods, and we can skip the first dip estimation. Two numerical examples, related to picking information using predictive painting and structure-oriented interpolation, respectively, demonstrate that our pattern-guided dip can effectively mitigate the aliasing problem in structure-oriented data processing.     

Understanding how physical-biological coupling influences harmful algal blooms,low oxygen and fish kills in the Sea of Oman and the Western Arabian Sea

In the last decade, green Noctiluca scintillans with its symbiont and other dinoflagellates such as Cochlodinium polykrikoides, Prorocentrum micans and Scrippsiella trochoidea have become the dominant HABs, partially replacing the previously dominant diatoms and red Noctiluca scintillans, especially during the northeast monsoon. Fish kills in the Sea of Oman are linked to a slow seasonal decline in oxygen concentration from January to November, probably due to the decomposition of a series of algal blooms and the deep, low oxygen waters periodically impinging the Omani shelf. In the western Arabian Sea, cyclonic eddies upwell low oxygen, nutrient-rich water and the subsequent algal bloom decays and lowers the oxygen further and leads to fish kills. Warming of the surface waters by 1.2 °C over the last 5 decades has increased stratification and resulted in a shoaling of the oxycline. This has increased the probability and frequency of upwelling low oxygen water and subsequent fish kills.     

Representation of light pressure resultant force and moment as a tensor series

In this article, we address the problem of the determination of light pressure upon space structures with a complex geometric shape. For each surface element, we enforce a condition that it can interact with light only from its front side, a condition represented in the form of series of Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind. This Chebyshev expansion enables the use of a series of tensors of increasing rank for determination of the force and moment acting on the sail. We obtain expressions for the determination of light pressure on space structures of complex geometry, taking into account self-shadowing and reflections within the structure. We also give the expressions for tensor parametrization using the specularity coefficient in case of specular -diffuse reflection. For these expressions, we calculated the principal moment and force upon two-sided flat solar sail, spherical and cylindrical bodies, and approximated light pressure upon the proposed space-based observatory Millimetron. The proposed expressions can be used in the ballistic analysis of solar sails and other space objects significantly affected by radiation pressure. Also, these results can be used to analyze the dynamics of large-scale space structures around their center of gravity under light pressure.     

Research on the HIP 18856 binary system

The results of a study on the binary HIP 18856 and construction of its orbit are presented.New observational data were obtained at the BTA of SAO RAS in 2007-2019.Earlier,Cvetkovic et al.constructed the orbit for this system.However,it is based on six measurements,which cover a small part of the orbit.The positional parameters of the ESA astrometric satellite Hipparcos published speckle interferometric data(Mason et al.,Balega et al.,Horch et al.)and new ones were used in this study.Based on the new orbital parameters,the mass sum was calculated and the physical parameters of the components were found.The obtained orbital and fundamental parameters were compared with the data from the study by Cvetkovic et al..The comparison shows that the new orbital solution is better than the old one,since it fits new observational data accurately.Also based on a qualitative evaluation performed by Worley&Heintz,the new orbit was classified as"reliable",which means data cover more than half of the orbit with sufficient quantities of residuals of measurements.