Laboratory culture of Galaxias maculatus and potential applications

Galaxias maculatus has considerable potential as a laboratory animal. Laboratory techniques used to maintain, artificially spawn, hatch, and rear this New Zealand native freshwater fish are described. Potential research applications for the fish, the eggs, and the larvae are outlined. The development of the larvae is described.     

SASS measurements of theKu-band radar signature of the ocean

SeaSat-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS) measurements of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) have been merged with high quality surface-wind fields based on in situ, to create a large data base of NRCS-wind signature data. These data are compared to the existing NRCS-wind model used by the SASS to infer winds. False-color maps of SASS NRCS and ocean winds from multiple orbits show important synoptic trends.     

Arias Intensity Assessment of Liquefaction Test Sites on the East Side of San Francisco Bay Affected by the Loma Prieta,California, Earthquake of 17 October 1989

Uncompacted artificial-fill deposits on the east side of San Francisco Bay suffered severe levels of soil liquefaction during the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October 1989. Damaged areas included maritime-port facilities, office buildings, and shoreline transportation arteries, ranging from 65 to 85 km from the north end of the Loma Prieta rupture zone. Typical of all these sites, which represent occurrences of liquefaction-induced damage farthest from the rupture zone, are low cone penetration test and Standard Penetration Test resistances in zones of cohesionless silty and sandy hydraulic fill, and underlying soft cohesive Holocene and Pleistocene sediment that strongly amplified ground motions. Postearthquake investigations at five study sites using standard penetration tests and cone penetration tests provide a basis for evaluation of the Arias intensity-based methodology for assessment of liquefaction susceptibility.     

Observations of gravity waves in the upper and lower stratosphere by lidar and ozonesondes

Lidar observations of Rayleigh backscatter and temperature profiles measured by ozonesondes have been used to investigate gravity waves in the upper and lower stratosphere, respectively, over Aberystwyth (52.4°N, 4.1°W). Both data sets have been used to investigate the vertical wavenumber spectrum of the wave field at high wavenumbers. Similar analytic techniques applied to each data set enable direct comparison of the spectra. The possibility of laminar structures generated by differential advection contaminating gravity-wave fields deduced from temperature and/or density measurement is discussed and the behaviour of the wave-field mean potential energy reveals a seasonal cycle throughout the stratosphere with a late winter maximum and a summer minimum.     

Multi-fingerprint detection and attribution analysis of greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas-plus-aerosol and solar forced climate change

 A multi-fingerprint analysis is applied to the detection and attribution of anthropogenic climate change. While a single fingerprint is optimal for the detection of climate change, further tests of the statistical consistency of the detected climate change signal with model predictions for different candidate forcing mechanisms require the simultaneous application of several fingerprints. Model-predicted climate change signals are derived from three anthropogenic global warming simulations for the period 1880 to 2049 and two simulations forced by estimated changes in solar radiation from 1700 to 1992. In the first global warming simulation, the forcing is by greenhouse gas only, while in the remaining two simulations the direct influence of sulfate aerosols is also included. From the climate change signals of the greenhouse gas only and the average of the two greenhouse gas-plus-aerosol simulations, two optimized fingerprint patterns are derived by weighting the model-predicted climate change patterns towards low-noise directions. The optimized fingerprint patterns are then applied as a filter to the observed near-surface temperature trend patterns, yielding several detection variables. The space-time structure of natural climate variability needed to determine the optimal fingerprint pattern and the resultant signal-to-noise ratio of the detection variable is estimated from several multi-century control simulations with different CGCMs and from instrumental data over the last 136 y. Applying the combined greenhouse gas-plus-aerosol fingerprint in the same way as the greenhouse gas only fingerprint in a previous work, the recent 30-y trends (1966–1995) of annual mean near surface temperature are again found to represent a significant climate change at the 97.5% confidence level. However, using both the greenhouse gas and the combined forcing fingerprints in a two-pattern analysis, a substantially better agreement between observations and the climate model prediction is found for the combined forcing simulation. Anticipating that the influence of the aerosol forcing is strongest for longer term temperature trends in summer, application of the detection and attribution test to the latest observed 50-y trend pattern of summer temperature yielded statistical consistency with the greenhouse gas-plus-aerosol simulation with respect to both the pattern and amplitude of the signal. In contrast, the observations are inconsistent with the greenhouse-gas only climate change signal at a 95% confidence level for all estimates of climate variability. The observed trend 1943–1992 is furthermore inconsistent with a hypothesized solar radiation change alone at an estimated 90% confidence level. Thus, in contrast to the single pattern analysis, the two pattern analysis is able to discriminate between different forcing hypotheses in the observed climate change signal. The results are subject to uncertainties associated with the forcing history, which is poorly known for the solar and aerosol forcing, the possible omission of other important forcings, and inevitable model errors in the computation of the response to the forcing. Further uncertainties in the estimated significance levels arise from the use of model internal variability simulations and relatively short instrumental observations (after subtraction of an estimated greenhouse gas signal) to estimate the natural climate variability. The resulting confidence limits accordingly vary for different estimates using different variability data. Despite these uncertainties, however, we consider our results sufficiently robust to have some confidence in our finding that the observed climate change is consistent with a combined greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing, but inconsistent with greenhouse gas or solar forcing alone. Received: 28 April 1996 / Accepted: 27 January 1997     

GLORIA image processing: The state of the art

This chapter presents a summary of the image-processing techniques being used at present in the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory's GLORIA long-range sidescan sonar system. It begins with a brief review of the development of GLORIA, and then describes in outline the present shipboard data acquisition, recording and replay system, including simple image-processing techniques that can be used on-board ship. Next, a detailed form of the sonar equation is developed, and this is evaluated factor-by-factor, to demonstrate the effects of beam directivity, refraction and water depth on the form of intensity variation to be expected in the final image. Finally, we discuss recent developments in shore-based image-processing. These include the development of improved radiometric corrections to normalize range-dependent intensity variations, recovery of true backscattering levels and estimation of backscattering coefficients, and combination of GLORIA with other data sets into single, colour digital images. As an example of the last process we show a digital mosaic of sonar data from the Southwest Indian Ridge, coloured as a function of depth derived from Sea Beam data in the same area.     

Discussion on ‘The effect of fresh water flow on siltation in the Humber estuary, Northeast UK’ by Pontee NI, Whitehead PA and Hayes CM (ECSS vol. 60, 241–249)

This discussion identifies and presents recent data which show that suspended sediment concentrations in the macrotidal Humber–Trent–Ouse system are much higher, and extend further upstream, than originally presented. The importance of a link between tidal range, fresh water flow and recorded suspended sediment concentrations, is illustrated by reference to data collected under the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Land–Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS) initiative (1992–1998). Data recorded at Burringham, on the River Trent upstream of Trent Falls show a clear link between tidal range and suspended sediment concentrations which is strongly influenced by the downstream flushing effects of high fresh water flow events. While the arguments presented in this discussion do not contradict the main findings in the original paper it is proposed that a better understanding of siltation in the Humber system may be promoted by understanding the behaviour of the turbidity maximum in this system and its related mobile sediment population. It is suggested that the rapid reduction in suspended sediment concentration brought about by sudden increases in fresh water flow is probably indicative of the highly canalised nature of the tidal reaches of the Trent and Ouse.