Modelling mechanical behaviour of limestone under reservoir conditions

High porosity and low permeability limestone has presented pore collapse. As fluid is withdrawn from these reservoirs, the effective stresses acting on the rock increase. If the strength of the rock is overcome, pore collapse may occur, leading to irreversible compaction of porous media with permeability and porosity reduction. It impacts on fluid withdrawal. Most of reservoirs have been discovered in weak formations, which are susceptible to this phenomenon. This work presents a study on the mechanical behaviour of a porous limestone from a reservoir located in Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. An experimental program was undergone in order to define its elastic plastic behaviour. The tests reproduced the loading path conditions expected in a reservoir under production. Parameters of the cap model were fitted to these tests and numerical simulations were run. The numerical simulations presented a good agreement with the experimental tests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Astrometry with Virtual Observatories

With the advent of virtual observatories, most astrometry-oriented projects being currently developed—and those to come in the near future—will be greatly enriched. Among these projects it is worth mentioning double stars and multiple systems, proper-motion detections, identification of lost high-proper-motion stars, a detailed census of open cluster members, and precovery of natural satellites, minor planets and comets. A brief discussion of some of these studies is presented. To accomplish the goals proposed by the virtual observatories concept, a massive amount of high-quality astrometric data is needed in advance. It is shown that today's astrometry is about to ready to face these new challenges.     

Radial velocities in the open cluster IC 2602

We determined radial velocities for 25 probable members of the open cluster IC 2602. We identified the stars with variable radial velocity. We improved the orbit of HD 93030, and computed a preliminary orbit for another spectroscopic binary. We discussed with such data the average cluster radial velocity and we compare the incidence of short period binaries among the Main-Sequence members of IC 2602 with the incidence for other clusters with different values of the average axial rotation of their members.Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Extreme climatic events in the Amazon basin

During 2009 the Amazon basin was hit by a heavy flooding with a magnitude and duration few times observed in several decades. Torrential rain in northern and eastern Amazonia during the austral summer of 2008–2009 swelled the Amazon River and its tributaries. By July 2009, water levels of the Rio Negro, a major Amazon tributary, reached at Manaus harbor a new record, the highest mark of the last 107?years. During the 2008–2009 hydrological year, the rainy season on northern and northwestern Amazonia started prematurely, and was followed by a longer-than-normal rainy season. An anomalously southward migration of the ITCZ during May–June 2009, due to the warmer than normal surface waters in the tropical South Atlantic, was responsible for abundant rainfall in large regions of eastern Amazonia and Northeast Brazil from May to July 2009. We also compared the flood of 2009 with other major events recorded in 1989 and 1999. The hydrological consequences of this pattern were earlier than normal floods in Amazon northern tributaries, which peak discharges at their confluences with the main stem almost coincided with the peaks of southern tributaries. Since the time displacement of the contribution to the main stem of northern and southern Amazon tributaries is fundamental for damping flood waves in the main stem, the simultaneous combinations of peak discharges of tributaries resulted in an extreme flood.     

Evolution and modulation of tropical heating from the last glacial maximum through the twenty-first century

Twentieth century observations show that during the last 50?years the sea-surface temperature (SST) of the tropical oceans has increased by ~0.5°C and the area of SST >26.5 and 28°C (arbitrarily referred to as the oceanic warm pool: OWP) by 15 and 50% respectively in association with an increase in green house gas concentrations, with non-understood natural variability or a combination of both. Based on CMIP3 projections the OWP is projected to double during twenty-first century in a moderate CO₂ forcing scenario (IPCC A1B scenario). However, during the observational period the area of positive atmospheric heating (referred to as the dynamic warm pool, DWP), has remained constant. The threshold SST (T _H ), which demarks the region of net heating and cooling, has increased from 26.6°C in the 1950s to 27.1°C in the last decade and it is projected to increase to ~28.5°C by 2100. Based on climate model simulations, the area of the DWP is projected to remain constant during the twenty-first century. Analysis of the paleoclimate model intercomparison project (PMIP I and II) simulations for the Last Glacial maximum and the Mid-Holocene periods show a very similar behaviour, with a larger OWP in periods of elevated tropical SST, and an almost constant DWP associated with a varying T _H . The constancy of the DWP area, despite shifts in the background SST, is shown to be the result of a near exact matching between increases in the integrated convective heating within the DWP and the integrated radiative cooling outside the DWP as SST changes. Although the area of the DWP remains constant, the total tropical atmospheric heating is a strong function of the SST. For example the net heating has increased by about 10% from 1950 to 2000 and it is projected to increase by a further 20% by 2100. Such changes must be compensated by a more vigorous atmospheric circulation, with growth in convective heating within the warm pool, and an increase of subsiding air and stability outside the convective warm pool and an increase of vertical shear at the DWP boundaries. This finding is contrary to some conclusions from other studies but in accord with others. We discuss the similarities and differences at length.     

Appearance of Saturn’s F ring azimuthal channels for the anti-alignment configuration between the ring and Prometheus

In this article we explore the aspect of the F ring with respect to the anti-alignment configuration between the ring and Prometheus. We focus our attention on the shape of the F ring’s azimuthal channels which were first reported by Porco et al. (Porco, C.C., Baker, E., Barbara, J., Beurle, K., Brahic, A., Burns, J.A., Charnoz, S., Cooper, N., Dawson, D.D., Del Genio, A.D., Denk, T., Dones, L., Dyudina, U., Evans, M.W., Giese, B., Grazier, K., Helfenstein, P., Ingersoll, A.P., Jacobson, R.A., Johnson, T.V., McEwen, A., Murray, C.D., Neukum, G., Owen, W.M., Perry, J., Roatsch, T., Spitale, J., Squyres, S., Thomas, P., Tiscareno, M., Turtle, E., Vasavada, A.R., Veverka, J., Wagner, R., West, R. [2005] Science, 307, 1226-1236) and numerically explored by Murray et al. (Murray, C.D., Chavez, C., Beurle, K., Cooper, N., Evans, M.W., Burns, J.A., Porco, C.C. [2005] Nature 437, 1326-1329) who found excellent agreement between Cassini’s ISS reprojected images and their numerical model via a direct comparison. We find that for anti-alignment the channels are wider and go deeper inside the ring material. From our numerical model we find a new feature, an island in the middle of the channel. This island is made up of the particles that have been perturbed the most by Prometheus and only appears when this satellite is close to apoapsis. In addition, plots of the anti-alignment configuration for different orbital stages of Prometheus are obtained and discussed here.