Some characteristics of the development process of the wind-wave spectrum

The development process of wind-waves of which spectral peak distributes from 0.6 cps to 9.3 cps will be discussed on the basis of the wind tunnel experiments and of the field observations performed at Lake Biwa. The characteristics of power and slope spectra are here presented. The development process of these wind-waves is characterized by three stages;i.e. initial-wavelets, transition stage and sea-waves. In the wind tunnel experiments, the transition from the stage of the initial-wavelets to the transition stage occurs when the wave spectral peak arrives at the line 6.40×10^–4 k ^–2cm²·sec (wherek is wave number) or when the slope spectral density at the frequencyf _max becomes larger than 6.40×10^–4 sec. In the stage of sea-waves, the component wave of a wave-spectral peak is steepest in the component waves. And the wave spectral peak develops along the line 1.02×10² f ^–6 cm²·sec (wheref is the frequency corresponding to the wave numberk) untill it reaches the line 33.3f ^–4cm²·sec, and thereafter develops along the latter line, which indicates the constant density of slope spectrum. It is suggested that the nonlinearity of wind-waves must become stronger as wind-waves develop. The effective momentum flux _ws from the air flow to wind-waves in this stage is evaluated to be about 49% of the total stress ₀.     

Deep convection in a lake triggered by wind: Two-dimensional numerical experiments with a nonhydrostatic model

We have investigated the fundamental processes of deep convection in a lake at high latitudes triggered by wind during spring or autumn and the associated deep water formation, executing vertically two-dimensional numerical experiments with a nonhydrostatic model. The water column in which a relatively cold mixed layer overlies a relatively warm layer becomes unstable, when the Ekman convergence on the shore due to along-shore wind deepens the mixed layer below the compensation depth, where water densities in both layers becomes equal to each other because of the thermobaric effect. At the onset of deep convection, the critical Rayleigh number agrees with that predicted by the linear theory. The onset time of deep convection is inversely proportional to the magnitude of wind stress. On the other hand, the onset time is minimal when water temperature in the mixed layer _m is 3.1°C because a change of _m has two effects oppositely acting on the stability of the water column. After the first onset, deep convection occurs intermittently for a few days. The sinking of the mixed layer water occurs in a thermal-like shape, and its amount is 4184% of the time-integrated Ekman transport when _m 3°C while it decreases to less than 10% for _m lower than 1.5°C. The present process can explain 30% of the amount of deep water renewal which is expected from the observation in Lake Baikal.     

Study on the currents in Lake Biwa (II)

Some numerical experiments are made using a linear barotropic model of Lake Biwa to investigate the current induced by the spatially uniform wind stress. Concerning the phenomena whose time scale is longer than the inertial period, we integrate the non-divergent vorticity equation.It is found that the topographic curl of the wind stress which comes from the bottom topography and the wind stress induces circular currents and that the current, generated by the wind, attenuates gradually accompanying the topographic Rossby wave whose period is about 9 half-pendulum days in Lake Biwa. This mechanism of the barotropic response of the lake water to the wind will explain well the unsteady lake current in Lake Biwa in winter.     

Petrology and trace element geochemistry of Robert Massif 04261 and 04262 meteorites, the first examples of geochemically enriched lherzolitic shergottites

Shergottites sampled two distinct geochemical reservoirs on Mars. Basaltic and olivine-phyric shergottites individually sampled both geochemically enriched and depleted reservoirs, whereas lherzolitic shergottites are previously known only to exhibit a relatively limited intermediate geochemical signature that may have resulted from the mixing of the two geochemical end-member reservoirs. Here we show that recently discovered shergottites Robert Massif (RBT) 04261 and RBT 04262 are the first examples of lherzolitic shergottites originating from the enriched reservoir.RBT 04261 and RBT 04262, initially identified as olivine-phyric shergottites, are actually lherzolitic shergottites. Both meteorites exhibit nearly identical textures and mineral compositions, suggesting that they should be paired. Each consists of two distinct textures: poikilitic and non-poikilitic. The poikilitic areas are composed of pyroxene oikocrysts enclosing olivine grains; all pyroxene oikocrysts have pigeonite cores mantled by augite. The non-poikilitic areas are composed of olivine, pyroxene, maskelynite and minor amounts of merrillite, chromite and ilmenite. Olivine and pyroxene show the lowest Mg-number, and maskelynite has the lowest anorthite component among the lherzolitic shergottites. Moreover, the modal abundances of maskelynite in these two meteorites are distinctly higher than the other lherzolitic shergottites.The rare earth element (REE) budgets of RBT 04261 and RBT 04262 are dominated by merrillite. The slightly light rare earth element (LREE)-enriched pattern of this mineral is similar to that of merrillite in the geochemically enriched basaltic shergottites Shergotty and Zagami, and unlike the LREE-depleted pattern of merrillite in the other lherzolitic shergottites. The REE patterns of both high- and low-Ca pyroxenes are also similar to those in Shergotty and Zagami. The REE pattern of a melt calculated to be in equilibrium with the core of a pyroxene oikocryst is parallel to that of the RBT 04262 whole-rock as well as whole-rock compositions of other geochemically enriched basaltic shergottites. These observations imply that RBT 04262 sampled an enriched and oxidized reservoir similar to that sampled by some of the basaltic shergottites and are consistent with an oxidizing condition for the formation of RBT 04262 (log fO₂ = QFM-1.6).The petrographic and geochemical observations presented here suggest that RBT 04261 and RBT 04262 represent the most evolved magma among the lherzolitic shergottites and that this magma originated from a geochemically enriched reservoir on Mars. Based on an evaluation of the relationship between petrographic, geochemical and chronological signatures for shergottites including RBT 04261 and RBT 04262, we propose that both geochemically enriched and depleted shergottites were ejected from the same launch site on Mars.     

Short-range prediction experiments of the Kuroshio path variabilities south of Japan

Assimilation and prediction experiments of the Kuroshio path variability south of Japan were conducted to investigate the predictability of the Kuroshio path. The assimilation and prediction system is composed of an eddy-resolving model and a three-dimensional variational analysis scheme with vertical coupled temperature–salinity empirical orthogonal function modes. The sea surface height (SSH) variability and the variations of the Kuroshio path of the assimilation fields are in good agreement with those observed. The results of the assimilation are then used as the initial conditions for 138 cases of 90-day prediction experiments conducted from 1993 to 2004. The predictive limit of our system is assessed by the SSH anomaly in the assimilation field and is found to be around 40–60 days, which is much longer than that of the persistence. The prediction results show good performance in the transition stage from a straight to a meandering path. For example, a large meandering event that occurred in August 2004 is successfully predicted in a 2-month forecast. Two types of failure cases are investigated. One is a case where the eastward propagation speed of the meander is faster than a real state. The dynamical response of the model to the assimilation revealed that an initial shock, caused by the dynamically unbalanced initial condition, induces the fast eastward propagation of the meander. The other case exhibits an unrealistic meander. In this case, a cold anomaly at an intermediate layer in the initial condition grows rapidly and results in the unrealistic meander. This implies that the Kuroshio path south of Japan has a chaotic nature. These facts revealed by the failure cases give us some insight for improving the predictive skill of the Kuroshio path variability.     

Seasonal barotropic sea surface height fluctuation in relation to regional ocean mass variation

A consistency between seasonal fluctuation of actual sea surface height (SSH) and those caused by mass and density variations in gyre-scale regions is examined. The SSH obtained from satellite altimetry (altimetric SSH) is adopted as the actual SSH. SSH caused by mass variation (mass-related SSH) is simulated using a barotropic global ocean model forced by water flux, wind stress and surface pressure. SSH caused by density variation (steric SSH) is calculated from water density profile, i.e. temperature and salinity profiles. The model SSH well represents mass-related SSH for gyre-scale regional means, and seasonal fluctuation of the altimetric SSH corrected for the model SSH is similar to that of steric SSH above a pressure level larger than 300 dbar. The results indicate that the mass-related SSH does not much respond to the baroclinic adjustment to the seasonally varying wind stress curl. The mass-related SSH forced by wind stress and surface pressure should be accounted for regional evaluation, though it is not necessary for global mean evaluation. Detection of steric SSH from altimetric SSH would be useful for assimilation approaches in which the altimetric SSH is treated as the variable reflecting subsurface temperature and salinity.     

The influence of the brightness of the asteroidal dust bands on the gegenschein

The position and shape of the Gegenschein’s maximum brightness provide information on the structure of the interplanetary dust cloud. We show that the asteroidal dust bands, extended near the anti-solar point, play an important role in determining both the position of the maximum brightness and the shape of the Gegenschein. After removing the asteroidal dust bands from an observation of the Gegenschein on November 2, 1997, it was found that the maximum brightness point shifted −0.4° in ecliptic latitude, i.e., to the south of the ecliptic plane, at an ecliptic longitude of 180°, in contrast to a latitude value of +0.1° when the dust bands were included. Furthermore, the part of the Gegenschein to the south of the ecliptic plane was brighter than the northern part at the time of observation. Referring to the cloud model of T. Kelsall et al. (1998, Astrophy. J. 508, 44-73), it can be estimated that the ascending node of the symmetry plane of the dust cloud is 57°^−3°_+7° when its inclination is 2.03° ? 0.50°.     

Statistical distribution of building lot frontage: application for Tokyo downtown districts

The frontage of a building lot is the determinant factor of the residential environment. The statistical distribution of building lot frontages shows how the perimeters of urban blocks are shared by building lots for a given density of buildings and roads. For practitioners in urban planning, this is indispensable to identify potential districts which comprise a high percentage of building lots with narrow frontage after subdivision and to reconsider the appropriate criteria for the density of buildings and roads as residential environment indices. In the literature, however, the statistical distribution of building lot frontages and the density of buildings and roads has not been fully researched. In this paper, based on the empirical study in the downtown districts of Tokyo, it is found that (1) a log-normal distribution fits the observed distribution of building lot frontages better than a gamma distribution, which is the model of the size distribution of Poisson Voronoi cells on closed curves; (2) the statistical distribution of building lot frontages statistically follows a log-normal distribution, whose parameters are the gross building density, road density, average road width, the coefficient of variation of building lot frontage, and the ratio of the number of building lot frontages to the number of buildings; and (3) the values of the coefficient of variation of building lot frontages, and that of the ratio of the number of building lot frontages to that of buildings are approximately equal to 0.60 and 1.19, respectively.