Turbulence characteristics of flow region over a series of 2-D dune shaped structures

This paper addresses the development of a flow region associated with turbulence and stress characteristics over a series of 2-D asymmetric dunes placed successively at the flume surface. Experiments were conducted over twelve asymmetric dunes of mean length 32 cm, crest height 3 cm and the dune width almost as wide as width of the flume, using 3-D Micro-ADV at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. The variations of turbulence statistics along the flow affected by the wavy bottom roughness have been studied. Quadrant decomposition of the instantaneous Reynolds shear stress has been adopted to calculate the contribution of ejection and sweeping events in shear stress generation. The relative dominance of two events are found to contribute in a cyclic manner (spatially) in the near bed region, whereas such phenomenon seems to be disappeared towards the main flow.     

Scale length of the galactic thin disk

This paper presents an analysis of the first 2MASS (The Two Micron All Sky Survey) sampler data as observed at lower Galactic latitude in our Galaxy. These new near-infrared data provide insight into the structure of the thin disk of our Galaxy, The interpretation of star counts and color distributions of stars in the near-infrared with the synthetic stellar population model, gives strong evidence that the Galactic thin disk density scale length,h _R , is rather short (2.7 ± 0.1 kpc).     

Rock physics modeling for assessing gas hydrate and free gas: a case study in the Cascadia accretionary prism

We investigate the estimation of gas hydrate and free gas concentration using various rock physics models in the Cascadia accretionary prism, which is one of the most intensively studied regions of natural gas hydrate occurrences. Surface seismic reflection data is the most useful and cost-effective in deriving seismic velocity, and hence estimating gas hydrate and free gas across a BSR with depth, if a proper background (without gas hydrate and free gas) velocity is chosen. We have used effective medium theory of Helgerud et al. (EMTH) and, a combination of self-consistent approximation and differential effective medium (SCA-DEM) theory coupled with smoothing approximation for crystalline aggregate. Using the SCA-DEM (non-load-bearing) and EMTH (load-bearing) modeling, we calculate the average saturations of gas hydrate as 17 and 19%, respectively within ~100 m thick sedimentary column using velocity, derived from the surface seismic data. The saturations of gas hydrate are estimated as 15 and 18% using the SCA-DEM, and 20 and 25% using EMTH from the logging-while-drilling and wire-line sonic velocities, respectively. Estimations of gas hydrate from Poisson’s ratio are in average 50% for EMTH and 10% for SCA-DEM theory. We obtain the maximum saturation of free gas as 1–2% by employing the SCA-DEM theory either to seismic or sonic velocities, whereas the free-gas saturation varies between 0.1 and 0.4% for EMTH model. The gas hydrate saturation estimated from the sonic velocity and the free gas saturation derived from both the seismic and sonic velocities using the SCA-DEM modeling match quite well with those determined from the pressure core data in the study region.     

Study of the filamentary infrared dark cloud G192.76+00.10 in the S254–S258 OB complex

We present results of a high resolution study of the filamentary infrared dark cloud G192.76+00.10 in the S254-S258 OB complex in several molecular species tracing different physical conditions. These include three isotopologues of carbon monoxide(CO), ammonia(NH3) and carbon monosulfide(CS). The aim of this work is to study the general structure and kinematics of the filamentary cloud, and its fragmentation and physical parameters. The gas temperature is derived from the NH3(J, K) =(1,1),(2, 2) and ~(12)CO(2-1) lines, and the ~(13)CO(1-0), ~(13)CO(2-1) emission is used to investigate the overall gas distribution and kinematics. Several dense clumps are identified from the CS(2-1)data. Values of the gas temperature lie in the range 10-35 K, and column density N(H2) reaches the value 5.1 x 10~(22) cm~(-2). The width of the filament is of order 1 pc. The masses of the dense clumps range from ～ 30 M_☉ to ～ 160 M_☉. They appear to be gravitationally unstable. The molecular emission shows a gas dynamical coherence along the filament. The velocity pattern may indicate longitudinal collapse.     

Evaluation of linear regression methods as downscaling tools in temperature projections over the Pichola Lake Basin in India

In this paper, downscaling models are developed using various linear regression approaches, namely direct, forward, backward and stepwise regression, for obtaining projections of mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmax and Tmin) to lake‐basin scale in an arid region in India. The effectiveness of these regression approaches is evaluated through application to downscale the predictands for the Pichola lake region in the state of Rajasthan in India, which is considered to be a climatically sensitive region. The predictor variables are extracted from (i) the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis dataset for the period 1948–2000 and (ii) the simulations from the third‐generation Canadian Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM3) for emission scenarios A1B, A2, B1 and COMMIT for the period 2001–2100. The selection of important predictor variables becomes a crucial issue for developing downscaling models as reanalysis data are based on a wide range of meteorological measurements and observations. A simple multiplicative shift was used for correcting predictand values. Direct regression was found to yield better performance among all other regression techniques for the training data set, while the forward regression technique performed better in the validation data set, explored in the present study. For trend analysis, the Mann–Kendall non‐parametric test was performed. The results of downscaling models show that an increasing trend is observed for Tmax and Tmin for A1B, A2 and B1 scenarios, whereas no trend is discerned with the COMMIT scenario by using predictors. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-similar MHD shock waves for a rotating atmosphere under the force of gravitation

A study has been made of self-similar magnetohydrodynamic spherical shock waves for a rotating atmosphere taking into account the effect of self-gravitation. The energy is assumed to vary with some power of time. A study has been made to investigate the effects of magnetic field in the presence and absence of gravitation. The variation of flow variables is shown in tables for several different cases of physical interest.