Infrared photometry of z ∼ 1 3C quasars

We present JHKL ' photometry of a complete sample of steep-spectrum radio-loud quasars from the revised 3CR catalogue in the redshift range 0.65 z <1.20. After correcting for contributions from emission lines and the host galaxies, we investigate their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) around 1 μm. About 75 per cent of the quasars are tightly grouped in the plane of optical spectral index, α _opt, versus near-infrared spectral index, α _IR, with the median value of α _opt close to the canonical value, and the median α _IR slightly flatter. We conclude that the fraction of moderately obscured, red quasars decreases with increasing radio power, in accordance with the 'receding torus' model which can also explain the relatively flat median near-infrared spectra of the 3CR quasars. Two of the red quasars have inverted infrared spectral indices, and we suggest that their unusual SEDs might result from a combination of dust-scattered and transmitted quasar light.     

Supercritical gas sorption on moist coals

The effect of moisture on the CO₂ and CH₄ sorption capacity of three bituminous coals from Australia and China was investigated at 55 °C and at pressures up to 20 MPa. A gravimetric apparatus was used to measure the gas adsorption isotherms of coal with moisture contents ranging from 0 to about 8%. A modified Dubinin–Radushkevich (DR) adsorption model was found to fit the experimental data under all conditions. Moisture adsorption isotherms of these coals were measured at 21 °C. The Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer (GAB) model was capable of accurately representing the moisture isotherms over the full range of relative pressures.Moist coal had a significantly lower maximum sorption capacity for both CO₂ and CH₄ than dry coal. However, the extent to which the capacity was reduced was dependent upon the rank of the coal. Higher rank coals were less affected by the presence of moisture than low rank coals. All coals exhibited a certain moisture content beyond which further moisture did not affect the sorption capacity. This limiting moisture content was dependent on the rank of the coal and the sorbate gas and, for these coals, corresponded approximately to the equilibrium moisture content that would be attained by exposing the coal to about 40–80% relative humidity. The experimental results indicate that the loss of sorption capacity by the coal in the presence of water can be simply explained by volumetric displacement of the CO₂ and CH₄ by the water. Below the limiting moisture content, the CO₂ sorption capacity reduced by about 7.3 kg t^− 1 for each 1% increase in moisture. For CH₄, sorption capacity was reduced by about 1.8 kg t^− 1 for each 1% increase in moisture.The heat of sorption calculated from the DR model decreased slightly on addition of moisture. One explanation is that water is preferentially attracted to high energy adsorption sites (that have high energy by virtue of their electrostatic nature), expelling CO₂ and CH₄ molecules.     

Changes in Arctic clouds during intervals of rapid sea ice loss

We investigate the behavior of clouds during rapid sea ice loss events (RILEs) in the Arctic, as simulated by multiple ensemble projections of the 21st century in the Community Climate System Model (CCSM3). Trends in cloud properties and sea ice coverage during RILEs are compared with their secular trends between 2000 and 2049 during summer, autumn, and winter. The results suggest that clouds promote abrupt Arctic climate change during RILEs through increased (decreased) cloudiness in autumn (summer) relative to the changes over the first half of the 21st century. The trends in cloud characteristics (cloud amount, water content, and radiative forcing) during RILEs are most strongly and consistently an amplifying effect during autumn, the season in which RILEs account for the majority of the secular trends. The total cloud trends in every season are primarily due to low clouds, which show a more robust response than middle and high clouds across RILEs. Lead-lag correlations of monthly sea ice concentration and cloud cover during autumn reveal that the relationship between less ice and more clouds is enhanced during RILEs, but there is no evidence that either variable is leading the other. Given that Arctic cloud projections in CCSM3 are similar to those from other state-of-the-art GCMs and that observations show increased autumn cloudiness associated with the extreme 2007 and 2008 sea ice minima, this study suggests that the rapidly declining Arctic sea ice will be accentuated by changes in polar clouds.     

Predicted changes in fire weather suggest increases in lightning fire initiation and future area burned in the mixedwood boreal forest

Forecasting future fire activity as a function of climate change is a step towards understanding the future state of the western mixedwood boreal ecosystem. We developed five annual weather indices based on the Daily Severity Rating (DSR) of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System and estimated their relationship with annual, empirical counts of lightning fire initiation for 588 landscapes in the mixedwood boreal forest in central-eastern Alberta, Canada from data collected between 1983 and 2001 using zero-inflated negative binomial regression models. Two indices contributed to a parsimonious model of initiation; these were Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR), and DSR-sequence count. We used parameter estimates from this model to predict lightning fire initiation under weather conditions predicted in 1 × CO₂ (1975–1985), 2 × CO₂ (2040–2049) and 3 × CO₂ (2080–2089) conditions simulated by the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM). We combined predicted initiation rates for these conditions with existing empirical estimates of the number of fire initiations that grow to be large fires (fire escapes) and the fire size distribution for the region, to predict the annual area burned by lightning-caused fires in each of the three climate conditions. We illustrated a 1.5-fold and 1.8-fold increase of lightning fire initiation by 2040–2049 and 2080–2089 relative to 1975–1985 conditions due to changes in fire weather predicted by the CRCM; these increases were calculated independent of changes in lightning activity. Our simulations suggested that weather-mediated increases in initiation frequency could correspond to a substantial increase in future area burned with 1.9-fold and 2.6-fold increases in area burned in 2040–2049 and 2080–2089 relative to 1975–1985 conditions, respectively. We did not include any biotic effects in these estimates, though future patterns of initiation and fire growth will be regulated not only by weather, but also by vegetation and fire management.     

Consequences of change and variability in sea ice on marine ecosystem and biogeochemical processes during the 2007–2008 Canadian International Polar Year program

Change and variability in the timing and magnitude of sea ice geophysical and thermodynamic state have consequences on many aspects of the arctic marine system. The changes in both the geophysical and thermodynamic state, and in particular the timing of the development of these states, have consequences throughout the marine system. In this paper we review the ??consequences?? of change in sea ice state on primary productivity, marine mammal habitats, and sea ice as a medium for storage and transport of contaminants and carbon exchange across the ocean-sea-ice-atmosphere interface based upon results from the International Polar Year. Pertinent results include: 1) conditions along ice edges can bring deep nutrient-rich ??pacific?? waters into nutrient-poor surface waters along the arctic coast, affecting local food webs; 2) both sea ice thermodynamic and dynamic processes ultimately affect ringed seal/polar bear habitats by controlling the timing, location and amount of surface deformation required for ringed seal and polar bear preferred habitat 3) the ice edges bordering open waters of flaw leads are areas of high biological production and are observed to be important beluga habitat. 4) exchange of climate-active gases, including CO₂, is extremely active in sea ice environments, and the overall question of whether the Arctic Ocean is (or will be) a source or sink for CO₂ will be dependent on the balance of competing climate-change feedbacks.     

Supersonic meteorology of Io: Sublimation-driven flow of SO2

The horizontal flow of SO₂ gas from day side to night side of Io is calculated. The surface is assumed to be covered by a frost whose vapor pressure at the subsolar point is orders of magnitude larger than that on the night side. Temperature of the frost is controlled by radiation. The flow is hydrostatic and turbulent, with velocity and entropy per particle independent of height. The vertically integrated conservation equations for mass, momentum, and energy are solved for atmospheric pressure, temperature, and horizontal velocity as functions of solar zenith angle. Formulas from boundary layer theory govern the interaction between atmosphere and surface. The flow becomes supersonic as it expands away from the subsolar point, as in the theory of rocket nozzles and the solar wind. Within 35° of the subsolar point atmospheric pressureis less than the frost vapor pressure, and the frost sublimes. Elsewhere, atmospheric pressure is greater than the frost vapor pressure, and the frost condenses. The two pressures seldom differ by more than a factor of 2. The sublimation rate at the subsolar point is proportional to the frost vapor pressure, which is a sensitive function of temperature. For a subsolar temperature of 130°K, the sublimation rate is 10¹⁵ molecules/cm²/sec. Diurnally averaged sublimation rates at the equator are comparable to the 0.1 cm/year resurfacing rate required for burial of impact craters. At the poles where both the vapor pressures and atmospheric pressures are low, the condensation rates are 100 times smaller. Surface pressures near the terminator are generally too low to account for the ionosphere discovered by Pioneer 10. The possibility of a noncondensable gas in addition to SO₂ must be seriously considered.     

gLucifer: next generation visualization framework for high-performance computational geodynamics

High-performance computing provides unprecedented capabilities to produce higher resolution 4-D models in a fraction of time. Thus, the need exists for a new generation of visualization systems able to maintain parity with the enormous volume of data generated. In attempting to write this much data to disk, each computational step introduces a significant performance bottleneck, yet most existing visualization software packages inherently rely on reading data in from a dump file. Available packages make this assumption of postprocessing at quite a fundamental level and are not very well suited for plotting very large numbers of specialized particles. This necessitates the creation of a new visualization system that meets the needs of large-scale geodynamic modeling. We have developed such a system, gLucifer, using a software framework approach that allows efficient reuse of our efforts in other areas of research. gLucifer is capable of producing movies of a 4-D data set “on the fly” (simultaneously with running the parallel scientific application) without creating a performance bottleneck. By eliminating most of the human efforts involved in visualizing results through postprocessing, gLucifer reconnects the scientist to the numerical experiment as it unfolds. Data sets that were previously very difficult to even manage may be efficiently explored and interrogated without writing to disk, and because this approach is based entirely on memory distributed across as many processors as are being utilized by the scientific application, the visualization solution is scalable into terabytes of data being rendered in real time.     

Mercury emission from terrestrial background surfaces in the eastern USA. Part I: Air/surface exchange of mercury within a southeastern deciduous forest (Tennessee) over one year

This study focused on the development of a seasonal data set of the Hg air/surface exchange over soils associated with low Hg containing surfaces in a deciduous forest in the southern USA. Data were collected every month for 11 months in 2004 within Standing Stone State Forest in Tennessee using the dynamic flux chamber method. Mercury air/surface exchange associated with the litter covered forest floor was very low with the annual mean daytime flux being 0.4 ± 0.5 ng m⁻² h⁻¹ (n = 301). The daytime Hg air/surface exchange over the year oscillated between emission (81% of samples with positive flux) and deposition (19% of samples with negative flux). A seasonal trend of lower emission in the spring and summer (closed canopy) relative to the fall and winter (open canopy) was observed. Correlations were found between the air/surface exchange and certain environmental factors on specific days sampled but not collectively over the entire year. The very low magnitude of Hg air/surface exchange as observed in this study suggests that an improved methodology for determining and reporting emission fluxes is needed when the values of fluxes and chamber blanks are both very low and comparable. This study raises questions and points to a need for more research regarding how to scale the Hg air/surface exchange for surfaces with very low emissions.