A methodology to constrain the parameters of a hydrogeological discrete fracture network model for sparsely fractured crystalline rock,exemplified by data from the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository site at Forsmark,Sweden

The large-scale geological structure of the crystalline rock at the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository site at Forsmark, Sweden, has been classified in terms of deformation zones of elevated fracture frequency. The rock between deformation zones was divided into fracture domains according to fracture frequency. A methodology to constrain the geometric and hydraulic parameters that define a discrete fracture network (DFN) model for each fracture domain is presented. The methodology is based on flow logging and down-hole imaging in cored boreholes in combination with DFN realizations, fracture connectivity analysis and pumping test simulations. The simulations suggest that a good match could be obtained for a power law size distribution where the value of the location parameter equals the borehole radius but with different values for the shape parameter, depending on fracture domain and fracture set. Fractures around 10–100 m in size are the ones that typically form the connected network, giving inflows in the simulations. The report also addresses the issue of up-scaling of DFN properties to equivalent continuous porous medium (ECPM) bulk flow properties. Comparisons with double-packer injection tests provide confidence that the derived DFN formulation of detailed flows within individual fractures is also suited to simulating mean bulk flow properties and their spatial variability.     

Enhancing integrated indoor/outdoor mobility in a smart campus

A Smart City relies on six key factors: Smart Governance, Smart People, Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Living and Smart Mobility. This paper focuses on Smart Mobility by improving one of its key components: positioning. We developed and deployed a novel indoor positioning system (IPS) that is combined with an outdoor positioning system to support seamless indoor and outdoor navigation and wayfinding. The positioning system is implemented as a service in our broader cartography-based smart university platform, called SmartUJI, which centralizes access to a diverse collection of campus information and provides basic and complex services for the Universitat Jaume I (Spain), which serves as surrogate of a small city. Using our IPS and based on the SmartUJI services, we developed, deployed and evaluated two end-user mobile applications: the SmartUJI APP that allows users to obtain map-based information about the different facilities of the campus, and the SmartUJI AR that allows users to interact with the campus through an augmented reality interface. Students, university staff and visitors who tested the applications reported their usefulness in locating university facilities and generally improving spatial orientation.     

Deep 3D thermal modelling for the city of Berlin (Germany)

This study predicts the subsurface temperature distribution of Germany’s capital Berlin. For this purpose, a data-based lithosphere-scale 3D structural model is developed incorporating 21 individual geological units. This model shows a horizontal grid resolution of (500 × 500) m and provides the geometric base for two different approaches of 3D thermal simulations: (1) calculations of the steady-state purely conductive thermal field and (2) simulations of coupled fluid flow and heat transport. The results point out fundamentally different structural and thermal configurations for potential geothermal target units. The top of the Triassic Middle Buntsandstein strongly varies in depth (159–2,470 m below sea level) and predicted temperatures (15–95 °C), mostly because of the complex geometry of the underlying Permian Zechstein salt. The top of the sub-salt Sedimentary Rotliegend is rather flat (2,890–3,785 m below sea level) and reveals temperatures of 85–139 °C. The predicted 70 °C-isotherm is located at depths of about 1,500–2,200 m, cutting the Middle Buntsandstein over large parts of Berlin. The 110 °C-isotherm at 2,900–3,700 m depth widely crosscuts the Sedimentary Rotliegend. Groundwater flow results in subsurface cooling the extent of which is strongly controlled by the geometry and the distribution of the Tertiary Rupelian Clay. The cooling effect is strongest where this clay-rich aquitard is thinnest or missing, thus facilitating deep-reaching forced convective flow. The differences between the purely conductive and coupled models highlight the need for investigations of the complex interrelation of flow- and thermal fields to properly predict temperatures in sedimentary systems.     

High-temperature neutron diffraction study of deuterated brucite

To study the structural behavior of brucite at high temperature, we conducted in situ neutron diffraction experiments of a deuterated brucite powder sample, Mg(OD)₂, in the temperature range 313–583 K. The sample was stable up to 553 K, above which it started to decompose into periclase (MgO) and D₂O vapor. Rietveld analyses of the obtained data were performed using both single-site and three-site split-atom hydrogen models. Our results show that with increasing temperature, unit-cell parameter c increases at a rate ~7.7 times more rapidly than a. This large anisotropy of thermal expansion is primarily due to rapid increase in the interlayer thickness along the c-axis on heating. The amplitudes of thermal vibration for Mg, O, and D increase linearly with increasing temperature; however, the rate of the increase for the lighter D is much larger. In addition, D vibrates anisotropically with a higher magnitude within the (001) plane, as confirmed by our first-principles phonon calculations. On heating, the interatomic distances between a given D and its associated O and D from the adjacent [MgO₆] layer increase, whereas the O–D bond length decreases. This behavior suggests weakened D···O and D···D interlayer interactions but strengthened O–D bonding with increasing temperature.     

Spatio-temporal Variability of Soil Water at Three Seasonal Floodplain Sites: A Case Study in Tarim Basin,Northwest China

The floodplain -egetation of the Tarim River in Northwest China is strongly influenced by irrigated agriculture. The abstrac- tion of river water disturbs; the natural dynamics of the floodplain ecosystem. The human impact on the hydrological system by bank dams and the irrigation of cotton plantings have caused adverse changes of the Tarim River and its floodplains, so the current stocks of the typical Tugai vegetation show significant signs of degradation. Field studies of soils and statistical analysis of soil moisture data have shown that the vitality of the Tugai vegetation is primarily determined by its position to the riverbank and the groundwater. There exist complex interactions between soil hydrological conditions and the vitality of the vegetation. But the availability of water is not only influenced by the groundwater level and seasonal flood events. The spatial distribution of stocks at different states of vitality seems also to be decisively influenced by physical soil properties. Our results show that the water supply of plant communities is strongly in- fluenced by the soil texture. Spatial differences of soil moisture and corresponding soil water tensions may be the decisive factors for the zonafion of vegetation. Physical soil properties control the water retention and rising of capillary water from deeper soil layers and the phreatic zone and may supply the root systems of the phreatophytic vegetation with water. Keywords： soil moisture;soil texture; soil water tensions; Tarim River; water retention     

Danish Regional Development During Economic Crisis

Illeris, Sven: Danish Regional Development During Economic Crisis. Geografisk Tidsskrift 84: 53–62. Copenhagen, January 1984.

The paper deals with the distribution of population and economic activities during the 1980–83 economic crisis. The decentralisation of the 1970's was weakened, but there was no return to the concentration of former decades. Important reasons seem to be the decline in house-building, and the structural developments (in 1980 crisis in the primary and secondary sectors which are over-represented in peripheral regions and small settlements).     

Origin of Mercury’s double magnetopause: 3D hybrid simulation study with A.I.K.E.F.

During the first and second Mercury flyby the MESSENGER spacecraft detected a dawn side double-current sheet inside the Hermean magnetosphere that was labeled the “double magnetopause” (Slavin, J.A. et al. [2008]. Science 321, 85). This double current sheet confines a region of decreased magnetic field that is referred to as Mercury’s “dayside boundary layer” (Anderson, M., Slavin, J., Horth, H. [2011]. Planet. Space Sci.). Up to the present day the double current sheet, the boundary layer and the key processes leading to their formation are not well understood. In order to advance the understanding of this region we have carried out self-consistent plasma simulations of the Hermean magnetosphere by means of the hybrid simulation code A.I.K.E.F. (Müller, J., Simon, S., Motschmann, U., Schüle, J., Glassmeier, K., Pringle, G.J. [2011]. Comput. Phys. Commun. 182, 946–966). Magnetic field and plasma results are in excellent agreement with the MESSENGER observations. In contrast to former speculations our results prove this double current sheet may exist in a pure solar wind hydrogen plasma, i.e. in the absence of any exospheric ions like sodium. Both currents are similar in orientation but the outer is stronger in intensity. While the outer current sheet can be considered the “classical” magnetopause, the inner current sheet between the magnetopause and Mercury’s surface reveals to be sustained by a diamagnetic current that originates from proton pressure gradients at Mercury’s inner magnetosphere. The pressure gradients in turn exist due to protons that are trapped on closed magnetic field lines and mirrored between north and south pole. Both, the dayside and nightside diamagnetic decreases that have been observed during the MESSENGER mission show to be direct consequences of this diamagnetic current that we label Mercury’s “boundary-layer-current“.     

Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices I (ASTROD I)—a class-M fundamental physics mission proposal for cosmic vision 2015–2025: 2010 Update

ASTROD I is a planned interplanetary space mission with multiple goals. The primary aims are: to test General Relativity with an improvement in sensitivity of over 3 orders of magnitude, improving our understanding of gravity and aiding the development of a new quantum gravity theory; to measure key solar system parameters with increased accuracy, advancing solar physics and our knowledge of the solar system; and to measure the time rate of change of the gravitational constant with an order of magnitude improvement and the anomalous Pioneer acceleration, thereby probing dark matter and dark energy gravitationally. It is envisaged as the first in a series of ASTROD missions. ASTROD I will consist of one spacecraft carrying a telescope, four lasers, two event timers and a clock. Two-way, two-wavelength laser pulse ranging will be used between the spacecraft in a solar orbit and deep space laser stations on Earth, to achieve the ASTROD I goals.For this mission, accurate pulse timing with an ultra-stable clock, and a drag-free spacecraft with reliable inertial sensor are required. T2L2 has demonstrated the required accurate pulse timing; rubidium clock on board Galileo has mostly demonstrated the required clock stability; the accelerometer on board GOCE has paved the way for achieving the reliable inertial sensor; the demonstration of LISA Pathfinder will provide an excellent platform for the implementation of the ASTROD I drag-free spacecraft. These European activities comprise the pillars for building up the mission and make the technologies needed ready. A second mission, ASTROD or ASTROD-GW (depending on the results of ASTROD I), is envisaged as a three-spacecraft mission which, in the case of ASTROD, would test General Relativity to one part per billion, enable detection of solar g-modes, measure the solar Lense-Thirring effect to 10 parts per million, and probe gravitational waves at frequencies below the LISA bandwidth, or in the case of ASTROD-GW, would be dedicated to probe gravitational waves at frequencies below the LISA bandwidth to 100?nHz and to detect solar g-mode oscillations. In the third phase (Super-ASTROD), larger orbits could be implemented to map the outer solar system and to probe primordial gravitational-waves at frequencies below the ASTROD bandwidth. This paper on ASTROD I is based on our 2010 proposal submitted for the ESA call for class-M mission proposals, and is a sequel and an update to our previous paper (Appouchaux et al., Exp Astron 23:491?C527, 2009; designated as Paper I) which was based on our last proposal submitted for the 2007 ESA call. In this paper, we present our orbit selection with one Venus swing-by together with orbit simulation. In Paper I, our orbit choice is with two Venus swing-bys. The present choice takes shorter time (about 250?days) to reach the opposite side of the Sun. We also present a preliminary design of the optical bench, and elaborate on the solar physics goals with the radiation monitor payload. We discuss telescope size, trade-offs of drag-free sensitivities, thermal issues and present an outlook.