Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019

Human-emitted greenhouse gases(GHGs)have resulted in a long-term and unequivocal warming of the planet(IPCC,2019).More than 90%of the excess heat is stored within the world's oceans,where it accumulates and causes increases in ocean temperature(Rhein et al.,2013;Abram et al.,2019).     

Diagnosing the column-integrated moist static energy budget associated with the northward-propagating boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation

Climate Dynamics - Column-integrated moist static energy (MSE) budgets associated with the northward-propagating boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) are diagnosed for the Bay of Bangel...     

Constraints regarding gold deposition in episyenites: the Permian episyenites associated with the Villalcampo Shear Zone, central western Spain

The Villalcampo Shear Zone (around 307 Ma) shows second-order shear zones (420–390 °C) with gold ore bodies hosted by episyenites, which consist of albite episyenites (albitites) and albite-Kfs episyenites, both types with different contents in sulphides and gold. Mass transfer modelling supports higher fluid/rock ratios in albitites than in albite-Kfs episyenites. The study of worldwide barren and gold-bearing episyenites reveals abundant sulphides in the latter as a distinguishing feature. The electrochemical processes at the surface of sulphide would have enhanced gold precipitation, sulphides working as a gold trap. A complex fluid history occurred in gold ore bodies hosted by episyenites, although in essence, it was similar to quartz-sealed faults hosting late Variscan gold deposits: (a) an early fluid equilibrated with the metamorphic pile with sulphides or with a metamorphic fingerprint, resulted in a sulphide deposition and (b) a shallower fluid reservoir of meteoric origin provided gold deposition. In contrast to earlier claims regarding episyenite fluid flow, a down temperature and probably an upwards fluid flow are proposed for the episyenitization process, also in keeping with the early stages of fluid flow in quartz-sealed faults. Fluid inclusions in albite confirm that the striking coupled quartz leaching albitization processes occurred around 400 °C and 60 MPa, crosscutting the retrograde solubility field of silica and yielding a vuggy rock. Initially, albite, and later quartz and sulphide, filled the vugs from the same or a very similar fluid. Uraninites deposited during the albitization and probably the onset of the sulphide deposition afforded the same age (270 ± 12 Ma) as other Spanish episyenites, confirming a synchronous and a regional-scale process and ruling out a relationship with the granite cooling history (324 ± 11 Ma).     

Eight-phase alkali feldspars: low-temperature cryptoperthite, peristerite and multiple replacement reactions in the Klokken intrusion

Eight feldspar phases have been distinguished within individual alkali feldspar primocrysts in laminated syenite members of the layered syenite series of the Klokken intrusion. The processes leading to the formation of the first four phases have been described previously. The feldspars crystallized as homogeneous sodian sanidine and exsolved by spinodal decomposition, between 750 and 600 °C, depending on bulk composition, to give fully coherent, strain-controlled braid cryptoperthites with sub-μm periodicities. Below ~500 °C, in the microcline field, these underwent a process of partial mutual replacement in a deuteric fluid, producing coarse (up to mm scale), turbid, incoherent patch perthites. We here describe exsolution and replacement processes that occurred after patch perthite formation. Both Or- and Ab-rich patches underwent a new phase of coherent exsolution by volume diffusion. Or-rich patches began to exsolve albite lamellae by coherent nucleation in the range 460–340 °C, depending on patch composition, leading to film perthite with ≤1 μm periodicities. Below ~300 °C, misfit dislocation loops formed, which were subsequently enlarged to nanotunnels. Ab-rich patches (bulk composition ~Ab₉₁Or₁An₈), in one sample, exsolved giving peristerite, with one strong modulation with a periodicity of ~17 nm and a pervasive tweed microtexture. The Ab-rich patches formed with metastable disorder below the peristerite solvus and intersected the peristerite conditional spinodal at ~450 °C. This is the first time peristerite has been imaged using TEM within any perthite, and the first time peristerite has been found in a relatively rapidly cooled geological environment. The lamellar periodicities of film perthite and peristerite are consistent with experimentally determined diffusion coefficients and a calculated cooling history of the intrusion. All the preceding textures were in places affected by a phase of replacement correlating with regions of extreme optical turbidity. We term this material ultra porous late feldspar (UPLF). It is composed predominantly of regions of microporous very Or-rich feldspar (mean Ab_2.5Or_97.4An_0.1) associated with very pure porous albite (Ab_97.0Or_1.6An_1.4) implying replacement below 170–90 °C, depending on degree of order. In TEM, UPLF has complex, irregular diffraction contrast similar to that previously associated with low-temperature albitization and diagenetic overgrowths. Replacement by UPLF seems to have been piecemeal in character. Ghost-like textural pseudomorphs of both braid and film parents occur. Formation of patch perthite, film perthite and peristerite occurred 10⁴–10⁵ year after emplacement, but there are no microtextural constraints on the age of UPLF formation.     

Some Characteristics of the Ionospheric Behavior During the Solar Cycle 23 – 24 Minimum

The Solar Cycle 23?–?24 minimum has been considered unusually deep and complex. In this article we study the ionospheric behavior during this minimum, and we have found that, although observable, the ionosphere response is minor and marginally exceeds the range of normal geophysical variability of the system. Two main ionospheric parameters have been studied: vertical TEC (vTEC, total electron content) and NmF2 (peak concentration of the F region). While vTEC showed a consistent modest decrease of the mean value, NmF2 behavior was less clear, with instances where the mean value for the minimum 23?–?24 was even higher that for the minimum 22?–?23. More extensive work is required to gain a better understanding of the ionospheric behavior under conditions similar to those presented in the last minimum.     

A collinearity diagnosis of the GNSS geocenter determination

The problem of observing geocenter motion from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) solutions through the network shift approach is addressed from the perspective of collinearity (or multicollinearity) among the parameters of a least-squares regression. A collinearity diagnosis, based on the notion of variance inflation factor, is therefore developed and allows handling several peculiarities of the GNSS geocenter determination problem. Its application reveals that the determination of all three components of geocenter motion with GNSS suffers from serious collinearity issues, with a comparable level as in the problem of determining the terrestrial scale simultaneously with the GNSS satellite phase center offsets. The inability of current GNSS, as opposed to satellite laser ranging, to properly sense geocenter motion is mostly explained by the estimation, in the GNSS case, of epoch-wise station and satellite clock offsets simultaneously with tropospheric parameters. The empirical satellite accelerations, as estimated by most Analysis Centers of the International GNSS Service, slightly amplify the collinearity of the $Z$ geocenter coordinate, but their role remains secondary.     

A reconstruction of extratropical Indo-Pacific sea-level pressure patterns during the Medieval Climate Anomaly

Subtropical and extratropical proxy records of wind field, sea level pressure (SLP), temperature and hydrological anomalies from South Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Patagonian South America and Antarctica were used to reconstruct the Indo-Pacific extratropical southern hemisphere sea-level pressure anomaly (SLPa) fields for the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA ~700–1350 CE) and transition to the Little Ice Age (LIA 1350–1450 CE). The multivariate array of proxy data were simultaneously evaluated against global climate model output in order to identify climate state analogues that are most consistent with the majority of proxy data. The mean SLP and SLP anomaly patterns derived from these analogues illustrate the evolution of low frequency changes in the extratropics. The Indo-Pacific extratropical mean climate state was dominated by a strong tropical interaction with Antarctica emanating from: (1) the eastern Indian and south-west Pacific regions prior to 1100 CE, then, (2) the eastern Pacific evolving to the central Pacific La Niña-like pattern interacting with a +ve SAM to 1300 CE. A relatively abrupt shift to –ve SAM and the central Pacific El Niño-like pattern occurred at ~1300. A poleward (equatorward) shift in the subtropical ridge occurred during the MCA (MCA–LIA transition). The Hadley Cell expansion in the Australian and Southwest Pacific, region together with the poleward shift of the zonal westerlies is contemporaneous with previously reported Hadley Cell expansion in the North Pacific and Atlantic regions, and suggests that bipolar climate symmetry was a feature of the MCA.     

Impacts of the diurnal cycle of radiation on tropical cyclone intensification and structure

To investigate the impacts of the diurnal cycle on tropical cyclones （TCs）,a set of idealized simulations were conducted by specifying different radiation （i.e.,nighttime-only,daytime-only,full diurnal cycle）.It was found that,for an initially weak storm,it developed faster during nighttime than daytime.The impacts of radiation were not only on TC intensification,but also on TC structure and size.The nighttime storm tended to have a larger size than its daytime counterparts.During nighttime,the radiative cooling steepened the lapse rate and thus reduced the static stability in cloudy regions,enhancing convection.Diabatic heating associated with outer convection induced boundary layer inflows,which led to outward expansion of tangential winds and thus increased the storm size.     

A Small‐Diameter NMR Logging Tool for Groundwater Investigations

A small‐diameter nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging tool has been developed and field tested at various sites in the United States and Australia. A novel design approach has produced relatively inexpensive, small‐diameter probes that can be run in open or PVC‐cased boreholes as small as 2 inches in diameter. The complete system, including surface electronics and various downhole probes, has been successfully tested in small‐diameter monitoring wells in a range of hydrogeological settings. A variant of the probe that can be deployed by a direct‐push machine has also been developed and tested in the field. The new NMR logging tool provides reliable, direct, and high‐resolution information that is of importance for groundwater studies. Specifically, the technology provides direct measurement of total water content (total porosity in the saturated zone or moisture content in the unsaturated zone), and estimates of relative pore‐size distribution (bound vs. mobile water content) and hydraulic conductivity. The NMR measurements show good agreement with ancillary data from lithologic logs, geophysical logs, and hydrogeologic measurements, and provide valuable information for groundwater investigations.