The 3410 Å band of the PH molecule in the solar photospheric spectrum

Some weak unidentified solar photospheric lines in the wavelength range: (3400–3465) Å may be due to PH lines of the (0, 0) band of the PH(A ³ _i - X ^{3 -})system. These faint PH molecular lines have resulted an excitation temperature of the order of 4500 K. Using experimental lifetime data for PH in the A ³ _i state, an absorption oscillator strength f ₀₀ = 0.0075 is derived for the 3410 Å band of the PH (A ³ _i - X ^{3 -})system. Accurate line positions, oscillator strength and transition probability for the 4.4 fundamental rotation-vibration band of the PH molecule are obtained. A comparison of positions of some lines of the 4.4 band with those obtained on new tracings of high resolution solar spectra shows many coincidences with weak solar lines.     

Citizens' perceptions of justice in international climate policy: an empirical analysis

Relying on a recent survey of more than 3400 participants from China, Germany, and the US, this article empirically analyses citizens' perceptions of key guiding principles for sharing mitigation costs across countries, justification of climate policy and trust in climate policy. Our findings suggest that the ranking of the main principles for burden-sharing is identical in China, Germany, and the US: accountability followed by capability, egalitarianism, and sovereignty. Thus, on a general level, citizens across these countries seem to have a common (normative) understanding of fairness. We therefore find no evidence that citizens' (stated) fairness preferences are detrimental to future burden-sharing agreements. In all three countries a majority of citizens considers international climate policy to be justified, but citizens' perceptions differ across specific items and countries. Finally, a substantial portion of citizens in all countries exhibit a lack of trust in international climate agreements.

Policy relevance

Disagreement over the distribution of mitigation costs across countries is blocking current negotiations about a new international climate change agreement to be adopted in 2015. At the heart of this disagreement are different perceptions of distributive justice among those involved in climate policy making. Our findings show that there is no difference in the ranking of fairness principles across citizens in China, Germany, and the US, suggesting that the common ground for crafting a future agreement is larger than expected. In particular, the accountability principle should weigh heavily when deciding on the burden-sharing. In addition, our findings suggest that in order to gain support among citizens, international climate policy may need to take measures to improve trust.     

Reducing climate risk for micro-insurance providers in Africa: A case study of Ethiopia

Recurrent climate hazards challenge subsistence farmers in developing countries. Reliance on various diversification strategies and traditional risk sharing among kin and families has serious limitations, such as the problem of covariate risk within such networks. Index-based crop insurance could help to reduce people's climate-related risk, but raising the necessary capital to make insurance schemes financially secure is difficult for micro-insurance providers. We examine the extent to which spatial pooling of micro-insurance schemes could reduce these capital requirements. We simulate a hypothetical insurance market operating in Ethiopia, using rainfall data and yield estimates for 15 stations. By performing a Monte Carlo analysis, risk capital required to keep the probability of financial ruin below a threshold value is identified. We investigate the marginal benefits of pooling increasing numbers of sites, as well as the relationship between the benefits of pooling and the spatial covariance of rainfall. We find spatial diversification to offer considerable savings in required capitalization with as few as three sites pooled, as well as a weak but significant relationship between rainfall covariance and those benefits. The results suggest that spatial pooling may be an attractive option for micro-insurers, worthy of a detailed case-by-case analysis when designing index-insurance schemes.     

Space observations of Transient Luminous Events and associated emissions in the upper atmosphere above thunderstorm areas

Sprites, jets and elves called Transient Luminous Events (TLE), observed in the middle and upper atmosphere above thunderstorms, are the manifestation of intense energy exchanges between the troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere. Different types of luminous emissions have been identified by ground-based observations, showing the complexity of these phenomena. Space missions showed that transient emissions in the Earth atmosphere are very broad including Radio Frequency (RF), IR to FUV radiations and X-gamma ray emissions called Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGF) with energies reaching 30 Mev. However, there are no global observations of these events together. This paper reviews space observations performed up to now and emphasizes the challenges of the future space missions in global measurements of all possible emissions together for the understanding of the physical mechanisms at the origin of these phenomena and their effects on the Earth environment.     

Performance of the ensemble Kalman filter outside of existing wells for a channelized reservoir

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) appears to give good results for matching production data at existing wells. However, the predictive power of these models outside of the existing wells is much more uncertain. In this paper, for a channelized reservoir for five different cases with different levels of information the production history is matched using the EnKF. The predictive power of the resulting model is tested for the existing wells and for new wells. The results show a consistent improvement for the predictions at the existing wells after assimilation of the production data, but not for prediction of production at new well locations. The latter depended on the settings of the problem and prior information used. The results also showed that the fit during the history match was not always a good predictor for predictive capabilities of the history match model. This suggests that some form of validation outside of observed wells is essential.     

Ten guiding principles for the delineation of priority habitat for endangered small cetaceans

The adoption of endangered species laws in various nations has intensified efforts to better understand, and protect, at-risk species or populations, and their habitats. In many countries, delineating a portion of a species' habitat as particularly worthy of protection has become a mantra of these laws. Unfortunately, the laws themselves often provide scientists and managers with few, if any, guidelines for how to define such habitat. Conservationists and scientists may view protecting part of the habitat of an endangered species as an ineffectual compromise, while managers may be under pressure to allow a range of human activities within the species' habitat. In the case of small cetaceans, establishing boundaries for such areas can also be complicated by their mobility, the fluid nature of their environment, and the often ephemeral nature of their habitat features. The convergence of multiple human impacts in coastal waters around the world is impacting many small cetaceans (and other species) that rely on these areas for feeding, reproducing, and resting. The ten guiding principles presented here provide a means to characterize the habitat needs of small, at-risk cetaceans, and serve as a basis for the delineation of ‘priority habitat’ boundaries. This conceptual approach should facilitate a constructive discourse between scientists and managers engaged in efforts to recover endangered species. The degree to which the recovery of an at-risk species can be reconciled with sustainable economic activity will depend in part on how well these principles are incorporated into the delineation of priority habitat.     

Possible evidence for on-going volcanism on Mars as suggested by thin, elliptical sheets of low-albedo particulate material around pits and fissures close to Cerberus Fossae

High quality CCD images obtained at two different observatories in North Italy allowed the identification of four morphological structures near the nuclear region of the comet Ikeya-Zhang (I-Z): haloes, jets, shells and spirals. The interpretation of the nature of these structures has been attempted by means of a comparison of different up-to-date image processing techniques, which led to a single common estimate of the rotation period (p=1.48±0.20 days).     

Interpretation of Na–Cl–Br Systematics in Sedimentary Basin Brines: Comparison of Concentration, Element Ratio, and Isometric Log-ratio Approaches

Mathematicians and geochemists have long realized that compositional data intrinsically exhibit a structure prone to spurious and induced correlations. This paper demonstrates, using the Na–Cl–Br system, that these mathematical problems are exacerbated in the study of sedimentary basin brines by such processes as the evaporation or dissolution of salts owing to their high salinities. Using two published datasets of Na–Cl–Br data for fluids from the Appalachian Basin, it is shown that log concentration and Na/Br versus Cl/Br methods for displaying solute chemistry may lead to misinterpretation of mixing trends between meteoric waters (for example shallow drinking water aquifers) and basinal brines, partially due to spurious mathematical relationships. An alternative approach, based on the isometric log-ratio transformation of molar concentration data, is developed and presented as an alternative method, free from potential numerical problems of the traditional methods. The utility, intuitiveness, and potential for mathematical problems of the three methods are compared and contrasted. Because the Na–Cl–Br system is a useful tool for sourcing solutes and investigating the evolution of basinal brines, results from this research may impact such critical topics as evaluating sources of brine contamination in the environment (possibly related to oil and gas production), evaluating the behavior of fluids in the reservoir during hydraulic fracturing, and tracking movement of fluids as a result of geologic CO₂ sequestration.     

Cold-season soil respiration in response to grazing and warming in High-Arctic Svalbard

The influence of goose grazing intensity and open-topped chambers (OTCs) on near-surface quantities and qualities of soil organic carbon (SOC) was evaluated in wet and mesic ecosystems in Svalbard. This study followed up a field experiment carried out in 2003–05 (part of the project Fragility of Arctic Goose Habitat: Impacts of Land Use, Conservation and Elevated Temperatures). New measurements of soil CO₂ effluxes, temperatures and water contents were regularly made from July to November 2007. SOC stocks were quantified, and the reactivity and composition measured by basal soil respiration (BSR) and solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Results reveal variations in soil carbon cycling, with significant seasonal trends controlled by temperature, water content and snow. Experimental warming (OTCs) increased near-surface temperatures in the growing season, resulting in significantly higher CO₂ effluxes. Different grazing intensities had no significant effects on observed soil respiration, but BSR rates at the mesic site (13–23 µg CO₂ g soil-C⁻¹ h⁻¹) were highest with moderate grazing and lowest in the absence of grazing. A limited effect of grazing on microbial respiration is consistent with a lack of significant differences in SOC quantity and quality. NMR data show that the composition of A-horizon SOC is dominated by O-N-alkyl C and alkyl C groups, and less by carboxyl C and aromatic C groups: but again no marked variation in response to grazing was evident. It can be concluded that two years after a goose grazing experiment, SOC cycling was less than the natural variation within contrasting vegetation types.     

Monte Carlo method applied to modeling copper transport in river sediments

Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) methodology has been applied to explain the variability of parameters for pollutant transport and fate modeling. In this study, the MCS method was used to evaluate the transport and fate of copper in the sediment of the Tibagi River sub-basin tributaries, Southern Brazil. The statistical distribution of the variables was described by a dataset obtained for copper concentration using sequential extraction, organic matter (OM) amount, and pH. The proposed stochastic spatial model for the copper transport in the river sediment was discussed and implemented by the MCS technique using the MatLab 7.3? mathematical software tool. In order to test some hypotheses, the sediment and the water column in the river ecosystem were considered as compartments. The proposed stochastic spatial model makes it possible to predict copper mobility and associated risks as a function of the organic matter input into aquatic systems. The metal mobility can increase with the OM posing a rising environmental risk.