On the variations of some physical quantities above the sunspot bands near the equatorial plane

In this work, some solutions of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are searched in order to investigate some large scale physical quantities in the sunspot dominated latitudinal regions near the equatorial plane. Special separation of variables is used to obtain the radial and latitudinal changes in spherical coordinates. Present parametric analysis yields three important parameters which are the sphericity, density and radial components shape parameters in the latitudinal distributions of physical variables. In the region of interest there is a considerable change in physical quantities with respect to regions where sunspots do not appear.     

Measuring α in the Early Universe

We update the bounds on a time-varying fine structure constant α at the time of BBN (z∼10¹⁰) and CMB (z∼10³) and present the current CMB constraints on α, through a combined analysis of the BOOMERanG, MAXIMA and DASI datasets. We also present a discussion of the constraints on α coming from large-scale structure observations, focusing in particular on the power spectrum from the 2dF survey. Finally we provide a analysis of the degeneracies between α and the other cosmological parameters and discuss ways to break these with both existing and/or forthcoming data. Our results are consistent with no variation in α from the epoch of recombination to the present day, and restrict any such variation to be less than about 4%.We show that the forthcoming MAP and Planck experiments will be able to break most of the currently existing degeneracies between α and other parameters, and measure α to better than percent accuracy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Digital Urban Morphometrics: Automatic Extraction and Assessment of Morphological Properties of Buildings

The aim of this article is to present a method to calculate the morphological properties of the built environment using LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data, geographic information systems (GIS) data and three‐dimensional (3D) models of cities as a source of information. A hybrid approach that takes into account different types of inputs and consequently evaluates the accuracy of each type of used data is presented. This work is intended to give a first response to the lack of a comprehensive and accurate procedure that uses LiDAR data in order to automatically derive precise morphological properties, such as volumes and surfaces (façades and roofs) of buildings. The method was tested on two case‐study areas in the Geneva region with different characteristics, one in the old town along the Rhone River and the other on the CERN campus. A statistical analysis that compares the results of the computation with the 3D model of the built environment was used to validate the results, complemented by significance statistical tests. Outcomes showed that the proposed method to derive morphological properties can reach high levels of accuracy, thus enhancing the potential uses of LiDAR data for numerous applications, typically for the assessment of the urban environmental quality (UEQ) at the city and district scale, such as the estimation of the potential deployment of renewable energies in the built environment and the determination and monitoring of several urban indicators.     

Mineralogy and geochemistry of atypical reduction spheroids from the Tumblagooda Sandstone,Western Australia

Reduction spheroids are small-scale, biogenic, redox-controlled, metal enrichments that occur within red beds globally. This study provides the first analysis of the compositionally unique reduction spheroids of the Tumblagooda Sandstone. The work aims to account for their composition and consequently improve existing models for reduction spheroids generally, which presently fail to account for the mineralogy of the Tumblagooda Sandstone reduction spheroids. Interstitial areas between detrital grains contained in the cores of these reduction spheroids are dominated by microplaty haematite, in addition to minor amounts of svanbergite, gorceixite, anatase, uraninite, monazite and illite. The haematite-rich composition, along with an absence of base metal phases and the vanadiferous mica roscoelite, makes these reduction spheroids notable in comparison to other global reduction spheroid occurrences. Analyses of illite crystallinity provide values for samples of the Tumblagooda Sandstone host rock corresponding to heating temperatures of ca 200°C. Consequently, while Tumblagooda Sandstone reduction spheroids formed via the typical metabolic processes of dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria, the combination of a unique mineralogy and illite crystallinity analysis provides evidence of more complex late-stage heating and reoxidation. This has not previously been recognised in other reduction spheroids and therefore expands the existing model for reduction spheroid genesis by also considering the potential for late-stage alteration. As such, future reduction spheroid studies should consider the potential impact of post-formation modification, particularly where they are to be used as evidence of ancient microbial processes; such as in the search for early evidence of life in the geological record on Earth or other planets. Additionally, because of their potential for modification, reduction spheroids serve as a record of the redox history of red beds and their study could provide insights into the evolution of redox conditions within a given red bed during its diagenesis. Finally, this paper also provides insights into the relatively understudied diagenetic history of the Tumblagooda Sandstone; supplying the first reliable and narrow constraints on its thermal history. This has important implications for the thermal history of the Carnarvon Basin and its petroleum prospectivity more broadly.     

An improved time series model for monthly stream flows

This study aims to develop an improved time series model to overcome difficulties in modeling monthly short term stream flows. The periodic, serial dependent and independent components of the classical time series models are improved separately by information transfer from a surrounding long term gauging station to the considered flow section having short term records. Eventually, an improved model preserving the mathematical model structure of the classical time series model, while improving general and monthly statistics of the monthly stream flows, is derived by using the improved components instead of the short term model components in the time series modeling. The correlative relationships between the current short term and surrounding long term stations are used to improve periodic and serial dependent behaviors of monthly flows. Independent components (residuals) are improved via the parameters defining their theoretical probability distribution. The improved model approach is tested by using 50 year records of Göksu-Himmetli (1801) and Göksu-Gökdere (1805) flow monitoring stations located on the Ceyhan river basin, in south of Turkey. After 50 year records of the station 1801 are separated into five 10 year sub series, their improved and classical time series models are computed and compared with the real long-term (50 year) time series model of this station to reveal efficiencies of the improved models for each subseries (sub terms with 10 year observation). The comparisons are realized based on the model components, model estimates and general/monthly statistics of model estimates. Finally, some evaluations are made on the results compared to the regression method classically applied in the literature.     

The variability of foF2 in different phases of solar cycle 23

In this paper we examined the variations of the foF2 with solar activity for different local time and different seasons. Beside this we evaluated International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) models at different phases of solar cycle 23, different latitudes and different local time. We studied F2 layer critical frequency (foF2) of the ionosphere by using the flare index calculated by the Kandilli Observatory. For this purpose, we identified the months similar with high flare activity during the solar cycle 23. We chose 6 months which represented the different phases (ascending branch, maximum and descending branch) of the solar cycle. We also took into account the fact that these months were in different seasons. The hourly monthly means of observed foF2 data from four ionosonde stations for 6 months were calculated. On the other hand, the identical foF2 values of the same months were calculated for the year 1996, which is the minimum year of the previous solar activity cycle. We subtracted the foF2 values of 1996 from the values of the selected months of the last solar cycle to obtain the residuals, Δ(foF2). Then the magnitude of the residuals is compared through the cycle. We used IRI-2007 as well as IRI-2001 models to see the degree of deviation of the observed results from the predicted ones. We found that the predicted values of the ΔfoF2, which are calculated by the IRI-2007, fitted well with the observed Δ(foF2) and showed that the Δ(foF2) are dependent on the solar cycle variations in general.     

Geostrophic vs magneto-geostrophic adjustment and nonlinear magneto-inertia-gravity waves in rotating shallow water magnetohydrodynamics

The evolution of localised jets and periodic nonlinear waves in rotating shallow water magnetohydrodynamics (rotating SWMHD) and standard rotating shallow water model (RSW) is compared within the framework of translationally-invariant 1.5-dimensional configurations, which are traditionally used in geophysical fluid dynamics for studying geostrophic adjustment and frontogenesis. Such configurations also allow for exact nonlinear wave solutions in both models. A theory of the magneto-geostrophic adjustment, i.e. adjustment of an arbitrary initial configuration to a state of magneto-geostrophic equilibrium in RSWMHD, is developed and confirmed by numerical simulations with a finite-volume well-balanced code. The code is resolving all kinds of waves in the model and corresponding weak solutions equally well. It is benchmarked by reproducing exact solutions – steady essentially nonlinear Alfvèn and mixed magneto-inertia-gravity waves – and used to demonstrate robustness of these solutions with respect to localised along-wave perturbations. It is also shown how the results on adjustment can be extended to the fully 2-dimensional case.     

Application of Normalized Full Gradient Method to Self Potential (SP) Data

Recently, Normalized Full Gradient (NFG) method has widespread applications to natural potential fields, especially in gravity and magnetic. In this study, usage of NFG in Self-Potential (SP) data evaluation is tested. Results are compared to other SP interpretation methods. The NFG method is applied to synthetic and field SP data. As a consequence of application of the method to the anomalies of spherical, cylindrical and vertical sheet models, whose theoretical structures are explicit, the structures were found very close to their actual locations. In order to see the capability of the method in detecting the number of sources, NFG method was applied to different spherical models at different depths and locations. The least-squares inverse solution was applied to the same models and NFG method was found more powerful in detecting model structure. Sensitivity of NFG method for application to noisy data is also tested. An anomaly is generated by adding a random noise to two close sphere SP anomalies. The method seems to work for the two close spheres at high S/N ratio. Then, NFG method was applied to two field examples. The first one is the cross section taken from the SP anomaly map of the Ergani-Süleymanköy (Turkey) copper mine. The depth of the mineral deposit at that site was found about 38 m from the ground level. This result is well matched to previous studies. NFG was also applied to SP data from Seferihisar Izmir (Western Turkey) geothermal field and the location of the point source was determined. The field data of this site have already been modeled by the thermoelectric source (coupling) solution method. When these two methods are compared, they seem to support each other. It is concluded that the NFG method works perfectly when the structure model is simple. It is observed that natural potential sources close to earth’s surface are identified by the method more accurately at greater harmonics, while deep sources are identified at lesser harmonics. It produces reasonable results for noisy multi-source models than the other parameter identification methods (inverse solution, power spectrum, etc.).     

Properties of the Aftershock Sequences of the 2003 Bingöl, M D = 6.4, (Turkey) Earthquake

Aftershock sequences of the magnitude M _{W =}6.4 Bingöl earthquake of 1 May, 2003 (Turkey) are studied to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of seismicity parameters of the b value of the frequency-magnitude distribution and the p value describing the temporal decay rate of aftershocks. The catalog taken from the KOERI contains 516 events and one month’s time interval. The b value is found as 1.49 ± 0.07 with Mc =3.2. Considering the error limits, b value is very close to the maximum b value stated in the literature. This larger value may be caused by the paucity of the larger aftershocks with magnitude M _D ≥ 5.0. Also, the aftershock area is divided into four parts in order to detect the differences in b value and the changes illustrate the heterogeneity of the aftershock region. The p value is calculated as 0.86 ± 0.11, relatively small. This small p value may be a result of the slow decay rate of the aftershock activity and the small number of aftershocks. For the fitting of a suitable model and estimation of correct values of decay parameters, the sequence is also modeled as a background seismicty rate model. Constant background activity does not appear to be important during the first month of the Bingöl aftershock sequences and this result is coherent with an average estimation of pre-existing seismicity. The results show that usage of simple modified Omori law is reasonable for the analysis. The spatial variability in b value is between 1.2 and 1.8 and p value varies from 0.6 to 1.2. Although the physical interpretation of the spatial variability of these seismicity parameters is not straightforward, the variation of b and p values can be related to the stress and slip distribution after the mainshock, respectively. The lower b values are observed in the high stress regions and to a certain extent, the largest b values are related to Holocene alluvium. The larger p values are found in some part of the aftershock area although no slip occurred after the main shock and it is interpreted that this situation may be caused by the alluvium structure of the region. These results indicate that the spatial distribution in b and p values are generally related to the rupture mechanism and material properties of an aftershock area.     

Regional Variation of the ω - Upper Bound Magnitude of GIII Distribution in and Around Turkey: Tectonic Implications for Earthquake Hazards

Complete data set of earthquakes in Turkey and the adjacent areas has been used in order to compute the ω values in 24 seismic regions of Turkey. The parameter is obtained through Gumbel’s third asymptotic distribution of extreme values and is well known as upper bound magnitude. This is an interpretation that no earthquake magnitude greater than ω can occur in a region. The results also estimate the most probable magnitude for a time period of 100 years. The estimates of ω exceed the value of 7.00 in 20 of the 24 seismic regions. An effort is also made to find a relation between the magnitude and the length of a fault in the complicated tectonics of Turkey and the surrounding area. Earthquake hazard revealed as tables and maps are also considered for Turkey and the surrounding area.