Suspended‐sediment sources in an urban watershed,Northeast Branch Anacostia River,Maryland

Fine sediment sources were characterized by chemical composition in an urban watershed, the Northeast Branch Anacostia River, which drains to the Chesapeake Bay. Concentrations of 63 elements and two radionuclides were measured in possible land‐based sediment sources and suspended sediment collected from the water column at the watershed outlet during storm events. These tracer concentrations were used to determine the relative quantity of suspended sediment contributed by each source. Although this is an urbanized watershed, there was not a distinct urban signature that can be evaluated except for the contributions from road surfaces. We identified the sources of fine sediment by both physiographic province (Piedmont and Coastal Plain) and source locale (streambanks, upland and street residue) by using different sets of elemental tracers. The Piedmont contributed the majority of the fine sediment for seven of the eight measured storms. The streambanks contributed the greatest quantity of fine sediment when evaluated by source locale. Street residue contributed 13% of the total suspended sediment on average and was the source most concentrated in anthropogenically enriched elements. Combining results from the source locale and physiographic province analyses, most fine sediment in the Northeast Branch watershed is derived from streambanks that contain sediment eroded from the Piedmont physiographic province of the watershed. Sediment fingerprinting analyses are most useful when longer term evaluations of sediment erosion and storage are also available from streambank‐erosion measurements, sediment budget and other methods. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1999年海城-岫岩地震序列的精准定位

1999年11月29日,北京时间12点10分39秒(04:10:39 UTC)在我国辽宁海城-岫岩地区发生了一次Ms5.4地震.这次地震是继1975年2月4日海城Ms7.3地震之后该地区发生的震级最大的一次地震.区域性的辽宁数字地震台网记录了这一序列的前震、主震与 余震.本文运用该台网的记录资料,用双差法对海城-岫岩地...     

Contemporary and palaeo channel patterns and the late quaternary stratigraphy of Cooper Creek,Southwest Queensland,Australia

Braided and anastomosing channels make up two major coexistent networks in the mud-dominated fluvial system of Cooper Creek, Southwest Queensland. The floodplain is characterized by a system of mud braids operative when floods inundate the whole alluvial surface. Anastomosing channels are inset deeper into the floodplain, operate at modern flows, and transport a traction load of sand. Shallow stratigraphic data show that an underlying sand sheet is unrelated to surface channel patterns and was formed by a system of meandering streams. According to preliminary dates based on thermoluminescence, the change from a sand- to mud-dominated fluvial regime took place between 50 000 and 200 000 years B.P., and probably reflects increasing aridity.     

Near‐surface hydraulic conductivity of northern hemisphere glaciers

The hydrology of near‐surface glacier ice remains a neglected aspect of glacier hydrology despite its role in modulating meltwater delivery to downstream environments. To elucidate the hydrological characteristics of this near‐surface glacial weathering crust, we describe the design and operation of a capacitance‐based piezometer that enables rapid, economical deployment across multiple sites and provides an accurate, high‐resolution record of near‐surface water‐level fluctuations. Piezometers were employed at 10 northern hemisphere glaciers, and through the application of standard bail–recharge techniques, we derive hydraulic conductivity (K) values from 0.003 to 3.519 m day^?1, with a mean of 0.185 ± 0.019 m day^?1. These results are comparable to those obtained in other discrete studies of glacier near‐surface ice, and for firn, and indicate that the weathering crust represents a hydrologically inefficient aquifer. Hydraulic conductivity correlated positively with water table height but negatively with altitude and cumulative short‐wave radiation since the last synoptic period of either negative air temperatures or turbulent energy flux dominance. The large range of K observed suggests complex interactions between meteorological influences and differences arising from variability in ice structure and crystallography. Our data demonstrate a greater complexity of near‐surface ice hydrology than hitherto appreciated and support the notion that the weathering crust can regulate the supraglacial discharge response to melt production. The conductivities reported here, coupled with typical supraglacial channel spacing, suggest that meltwater can be retained within the weathering crust for at least several days. Not only does this have implications for the accuracy of predictive meltwater run‐off models, but we also argue for biogeochemical processes and transfers that are strongly conditioned by water residence time and the efficacy of the cascade of sediments, impurities, microbes, and nutrients to downstream ecosystems. Because continued atmospheric warming will incur rising snowline elevations and glacier thinning, the supraglacial hydrological system may assume greater importance in many mountainous regions, and consequently, detailing weathering crust hydraulics represents a research priority because the flow path it represents remains poorly constrained.     

Effects of charge exchange involving H and H+ in the upper atmosphere

It is argued that there is a terrestrial loss of hydrogen as ions which includes the polar wind but extends effectively down to a latitude in the range 45–50° invariant. In daytime and for much of the night-time the flux is close to the limiting value for H⁺ flow through the topside ionosphere. It is argued that the flux decreases rapidly with increasing solar activity, following the decrease in neutral hydrogen concentration. It has been found that as solar activity increases the Jeans escape flux increases, and the charge exchange escape flux increases until moderate solar activity levels are reached. As solar activity increases from moderate to high levels, the charge exchange escape may decrease again. A new budget for terrestrial hydrogen loss over the solar cycle is given. The global flux of hydrogen ions outward from the ionosphere is comparable with estimates of the plasma sheet loss rates, and this flux, together with some solar wind plasma, is an attractive source for the plasma sheet.The energetic neutrals produced from the charge exchange of ring current ions with thermal-energy neutrals in the exosphere produce the optical emission of the equatorial aurora, which can be related to ion production rates near and above the E-region. The ionization production is adequate to explain the enhancements in ion production observed during magnetic storms at Arecibo.     

Monitoring changes of clouds

An analysis of the spatial and temporal scales of cloud variability and their coupling provided by the results from existing cloud observing systems allows us to reach the following conclusions about the necessary attributes of a cloud monitoring system. (1) Complete global coverage with uniform density is necessary to obtain an unbiased estimate of cloud change and an estimate of the reliability with which that change can be determined. (2) A spatial sampling interval of less than 50 km is required so that cloud cover distributions will generally be homogeneous, or statistically homogeneous, within a sample. (3) A sampling frequency of at least six times a day ensures not only that the diurnal and semi-diurnal cycles are not aliased into long term mean values, but also that changes in them can be monitored. (4) Since estimated climate changes are only evident on a decadal time-scale, unless cloud monitoring is continuous with a record length greater than 10 years and has very high precision ( 1%) instrument calibration with overlapping observations between each pair of instruments, it will not be possible either to detect or to diagnose the effects of cloud changes on the climate.     

Anisotropy beneath Hawaii from surface wave particle motion observations

Observed polarization ellipses for fundamental-mode surface waves observed at a digital station in Hawaii deviate from those expected for isotropic models of crust and mantle structure for that region. The anomalous motion occurs as rotations of the ellipse about all three axes in a cartesian corrdinate system. The largest and most consistent deviations occur as anomalous slopes of the ellipse about the horizontal axis transverse to the direction of propagation.The observed orientations and magnitudes of these angles can be explained by models of the upper mantle which contain olivine for which thea-axis dips significantly from the horizontal and which includes a sufficiently thick sedimentary layer (1 km) and a thicker than normal oceanic crust (15 km). The ellipses are also generally inclined from great circle paths about the vertical axis and are tilted about the axis aligned with the propagation direction. Both angles are small and difficult to measure, but the inclination angles are consistent with a model of the upper mantle in which thea-axis of olivine is preferentially oriented in an east-west direction.