Measurement of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Plumes from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska Oil Fields

Large carbon dioxide plumes with concentrations up to 45 ppm aboveambient levels were measured about 15 km downwind of the Prudhoe Bay, Alaskamajor oil production facilities, located at 70° N Lat. above the ArcticCircle. The measured emissions were 1.3 × 10³ metrictons (C) hour^-1 (11.4× 10⁶ metric tons(C) year^-1), six times greater than the combustion emissionsassumed by Jaffe and coworkers in J. Atmos. Chem. 20 (1995), 213–227,based on 1989 reported Prudhoe Bay oil facility fuel consumption data, andfour times greater than the total C emissions reported by the oil facilitiesfor the same months as the measurement time periods. Variations in theemissions were estimated by extrapolating the observed emissions at a singlealtitude for all tundra research transect flights conducted downwind of theoil fields. These 30 flights yielded an average emission rate of1.02 × 10³ metric tons (C) hour^-1 with astandard deviation of 0.33 × 10³. These quantity ofemissions are roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of7–10 million hectares of arctic tussock tundra (Oechel and Vourlitis,Trends in Ecol. Evolution 9 (1994), 324–329).     

Hydrological response to climate change in a glacierized catchment in the Himalayas

The analysis of climate change impact on the hydrology of high altitude glacierized catchments in the Himalayas is complex due to the high variability in climate, lack of data, large uncertainties in climate change projection and uncertainty about the response of glaciers. Therefore a high resolution combined cryospheric hydrological model was developed and calibrated that explicitly simulates glacier evolution and all major hydrological processes. The model was used to assess the future development of the glaciers and the runoff using an ensemble of downscaled climate model data in the Langtang catchment in Nepal. The analysis shows that both temperature and precipitation are projected to increase which results in a steady decline of the glacier area. The river flow is projected to increase significantly due to the increased precipitation and ice melt and the transition towards a rain river. Rain runoff and base flow will increase at the expense of glacier runoff. However, as the melt water peak coincides with the monsoon peak, no shifts in the hydrograph are expected.     

Mean and Turbulent Flow Statistics in a Trellised Agricultural Canopy

Flow physics is investigated in a two-dimensional trellised agricultural canopy to examine that architecture’s unique signature on turbulent transport. Analysis of meteorological data from an Oregon vineyard demonstrates that the canopy strongly influences the flow by channelling the mean flow into the vine-row direction regardless of the above-canopy wind direction. Additionally, other flow statistics in the canopy sub-layer show a dependance on the difference between the above-canopy wind direction and the vine-row direction. This includes an increase in the canopy displacement height and a decrease in the canopy-top shear length scale as the above-canopy flow rotates from row-parallel towards row-orthogonal. Distinct wind-direction-based variations are also observed in the components of the stress tensor, turbulent kinetic energy budget, and the energy spectra. Although spectral results suggest that sonic anemometry is insufficient for resolving all of the important scales of motion within the canopy, the energy spectra peaks still exhibit dependencies on the canopy and the wind direction. These variations demonstrate that the trellised-canopy’s effect on the flow during periods when the flow is row-aligned is similar to that seen by sparse canopies, and during periods when the flow is row-orthogonal, the effect is similar to that seen by dense canopies.     

Persistence and long-term memories of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in southern South America

The persistence and long-term memories in daily maximum and minimum temperature series during the instrumental period in southern South America were analysed. Here, we found a markedly seasonal pattern both for short- and long-term memories that can lead to enhanced predictability on intraseasonal timescales. In addition, well-defined spatial patterns of these properties were found in the region. Throughout the entire region, the strongest dependence was observed in autumn and early winter. In the Patagonia region only, the temperatures exhibited more memory during the spring. In general, these elements indicate that nonlinear interactions exist between the annual cycles of temperature and its anomalies. Knowledge of the spatiotemporal behaviour of these long-term memories can be used in the building of stochastic models that only use persistence. It is possible to propose two objective forecast models based on linear interactions associated with persistence and one that allows for the use of information from nonlinear interactions that are manifested in the form of forerunners.     

Using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis as weather input data for watershed models

Obtaining representative meteorological data for watershed‐scale hydrological modelling can be difficult and time consuming. Land‐based weather stations do not always adequately represent the weather occurring over a watershed, because they can be far from the watershed of interest and can have gaps in their data series, or recent data are not available. This study presents a method for using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) global meteorological dataset to obtain historical weather data and demonstrates the application to modelling five watersheds representing different hydroclimate regimes. CFSR data are available globally for each hour since 1979 at a 38‐km resolution. Results show that utilizing the CFSR precipitation and temperature data to force a watershed model provides stream discharge simulations that are as good as or better than models forced using traditional weather gauging stations, especially when stations are more than 10 km from the watershed. These results further demonstrate that adding CFSR data to the suite of watershed modelling tools provides new opportunities for meeting the challenges of modelling un‐gauged watersheds and advancing real‐time hydrological modelling. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phytoplankton and chlorophyll a relationships with ENSO in Prydz Bay,East Antarctica

The historical data of phytoplankton and chlorophyll a(Chl a)(1990–2002)obtained during the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition(CHINARE)in the Prydz Bay have been integrated.The results showed that the temperature,salinity,nutrients,and oxygen of seawater changed when El Nino/La Nina occurred.The variation of biological communities reflected the response of ecosystem to environmental changes.During El Ni?o period,Chl a concentration and phytoplankton community structure changed significantly,and the relative proportion of diatoms increased while dinoflagellates decreased.During La Ni?a period,the proportion of diatoms decreased,but the golden-brown algae and blue-green algae increased significantly.The variation of phytoplankton population directly affected the biodiversity of the bay,which were also quite sensitive to the marine environment changes.Meanwhile,the satellite remote sensing data of 2002–2011(December–March)have been used to study the temporal connection change of Chl a and phytoplankton in the Prydz Bay.We found that there were significant differences in the monthly variation characteristics of satellite remote sensing Chl a and sea surface temperature(SST),which had some links with sea ice melting and El Ni?o/La Ni?a events.We found that the start time of bloom advanced,lagged or synchronized with the changes of the SST,and we also found the occurrence time of phytoplankton bloom corresponded with the sea ice melting inner bay.To some extent,this study will help us understand the relationships between ENSO events and the phytoplankton bloom in the Southern Ocean.     

What controls levels of dissolved phosphate and ammonium in surface waters?

Dissolved inorganic nutrient pools are small relative to particulate pools, and dissolved pools turnover rapidly. It has been observed that pools change little from day to day on the sampling scales usually employed. A simple model is presented where uptake and regeneration rates balance to cause a local steady state concentration for dissolved inorganic nutrients. Enrichment and dilution perturbation experiments with lake water support the idea of steady state nutrient concentrations. Although inorganic nutrient concentrations are often controlled by biota, the absolute concentrations present tell little about the activity of that biota.     

Surveillance for previously unmonitored organic contaminants in the San Francisco Estuary

The San Francisco Estuary Regional Monitoring Program initiated surveillance monitoring to identify previously unmonitored synthetic organic contaminants in the San Francisco Estuary. Organic extracts of water samples were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in full scan mode. The major contaminant classes identified in the samples were fire retardants, pesticides, personal care product ingredients, and plasticizers. Evidence from the literature suggests that some of these contaminants can persist in the environment, induce toxicity, and accumulate in marine biota and in higher food chain consumers. The major sources of these contaminants into the marine environment are the discharge of municipal and industrial wastewater effluents, urban stormwater, and agricultural runoff. As a proactive effort, it is suggested that surveillance studies be used routinely in monitoring programs to identify and prevent potential problem contaminants from harming the marine environment.     

Über die Bestimmung von Differenzen der Lotrichtung mit Hilfe des GradientenU zzs

Zusammenfassung R. v. Eötvös hat für die Bestimmung von Lotrichtungsdifferenzen mit seiner Drehwaage zwei Verfahren angegeben, die aber nur unter Hinzuziehung astronomisch-geodätischer Messungen zum Ziel führen. Beide Verfahren sind sehr umständlich, und in der einschlägigen Literatur finden sich keine Hinweise, daß eines der genannten Verfahren seitEötvös nochmals angewandt wurde. — In Freiburg i. Br. wird zur Zeit eine Drehwaage erprobt, mit der voraussichtlich die direkte Messung des GradientenU _zzs möglich sein wird. Es soll nun gezeigt werden, daß die Bestimmung der Lotrichtungsdifferenz zweier Feldpunkte mit Hilfe dieser Größe, ohne Zuhilfenahme von astronomisch-geodätischen Messungen, möglich ist.

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Summary R. v. Eötvös has showed two methods for the measurement of differences between vertical lines with his torsion-balance. Both methods are only applicable, if they are connected with astronomic and geodetic measurements, and they are very troublesome. In the special publications are no remarks, that one of these methods everytime has been applied since the measurement ofEötvös. —At Freiburg i. Br. (Western Germany) now a new torsion-balance is built, with which foreseeable the direct measurement of the gradientU _zzs will be possible. In the following publication will be demonstrated, that the fixation of differences between the vertical lines of two points of the gravity field of the earth is possible with this gradientU _zzs without astronomic and geodetic measurements.