Empirical models of monthly and annual albedo in managed boreal forests of interior Norway

An 11-year remotely sensed surface albedo dataset coupled with historical meteorological and stand-level forest management data for a variety of stands in Norway’s most productive logging region is used to develop regression models describing temporal changes in forest albedo following clear-cut harvest disturbance events. Datasets are grouped by dominant tree species, and two alternate multiple regression models are developed and tested following a potential-modifier approach. This result in models with statistically significant parameters (p?<?0.05) that explain a large proportion of the observed variation, requiring a single canopy modifier predictor coupled with either monthly or annual mean air temperature as a predictor of a stand’s potential albedo. Models based on annual mean temperature predict annual albedo with errors (RMSE) in the range of 0.025–0.027, while models based on monthly mean temperature predict monthly albedo with errors ranging between of 0.057–0.065 depending on the dominant tree species. While both models have the potential to be transferable to other boreal regions with similar forest management regimes, further validation efforts are required. As active management of boreal forests is increasingly seen as a means to mitigate climate change, the presented models can be used with routine forest inventory and meteorological data to predict albedo evolution in managed forests throughout the region, which, together with carbon cycle modeling, can lead to more holistic climate impact assessments of alternative forest harvest scenarios and forest product systems.     

Assessment of water exchange between a discharge region and the open sea – A comparison of different methodological concepts

Two different methods of estimating the water exchange through the Baltic coastal region of Laxemar have been used, consisting of particle trajectories and passive tracers. Water is traced from and to a small discharge region near the coast. The discharge material in this region is treated as zero-dimensional particles or tracers with neutral buoyancy. The real discharge material could be a leakage of radio-nuclides through the sea floor from an underground repository of nuclear waste.Water exchange rates between the discharge region and the model domain are estimated using both forward and backward trajectories as well as passive tracers. The Lagrangian trajectories can account for the time evolution of the water exchange while the tracers give one average age per model grid box. Water exchange times such as residence time, age and transient times have been calculated with trajectories but only the average age (AvA) for tracers. The trajectory calculations provide a more detailed time evolution than the tracers.On the other hand the tracers are integrated “on-line” simultaneously in the sea circulation model with the same time step while the Lagrangian trajectories are integrated “off-line” from the stored model velocities with its inherent temporal resolution, presently 1 h. The sub-grid turbulence is parameterised as the Laplacian diffusion for the passive tracers and with an extra stochastic velocity for trajectories. The importance of the parameterised sub-grid turbulence for the trajectories is estimated to give an extra diffusion of the same order as the Laplacian diffusion by comparing the Lagrangian dispersions with and without parameterisation. The results of the different methods are similar but depend on the chosen diffusivity coefficient with a slightly higher correlation between trajectories and tracers when integrated with a lower diffusivity coefficient.     

The young star cluster system of the Antennae galaxies

The study of young star cluster (YSC) systems, preferentially in starburst and merging galaxies, has seen great interest in the recent past, as it provides important input to models of star formation. However, even some basic properties (such as the luminosity function; LF) of YSC systems are still being debated. Here, we study the photometric properties of the YSC system in the nearest major merger system, the Antennae galaxies. We find evidence for the existence of a statistically significant turnover in the LF.     

Unequilibrated ordinary chondrites: A tentative subclassification based on volatile-element content

For unequilibrated ordinary chondrites (= UOC), two measures of primitiveness are available: volatile content, in principle reflecting accretion conditions from the solar nebula, and metamorphism, reflecting reheating in the parent bodies. These two measures do not always correlate, and we have therefore developed a tentative classification scheme based on volatile content that complements the Searset al. (1980) scheme based on metamorphism. Like the latter, it subdivides type 3 chondrites on a scale of 3.0 to 3.9; the notation 3.4/0 indicates a meteorite that is subtype 3.4 according to metamorphism and 3.0 according to volatile content.The classification is based mainly on C and Xe—two elements that are little affected by shock-induced reheating—and to a lesser extent on Ar³⁶,Bi,In, and Tl. Of 22 meteorites considered, the majority have concordant classifications (±0.2) on the two scales. However, 5 meteorites are richer in volatiles than their metamorphic grade indicates: Sharps 3.4/0, ALHA 77011 3.5/0, Ngawi 3.6/3, ALHA 77299 3.7/4, and Mezö-Madaras 3.7/3. It remains to be seen whether these differences indeed denote a more primitive nature.Some new clues to the formation of chondrites may eventually come from Xe and C. Their concentrations in UOC's vary by more than 5×, but the $\text{Xe}\text{C}$ ratio remains nearly constant at 3.4 × 10^?3 of the solar-system ratio. Even the ratios for other chondrite classes differ only slightly from that for UOC's, e.g., C3O (1.5×) and E3,4 (0.4×). Either the 4 factors determining this ratio (T, t, P, and internal surface area of the carbon) varied in complementary fashion, or—more probably—they varied only slightly in the entire source region of chondrites.     

How well do we know “Cosmic” abundances?

Five lines of evidence suggest that Cl chondrites closely approximate the condensable fraction of primordial solar-system matter: continuity of isotopic and elemental abundance trends, agreement with solar and cosmic-ray abundances, fractionation patterns among chondrites, and absence of chondrules. Maximum differences between Cl abundances and true solar-system abundances are estimated as factors of 2–5 for individual elements and a factor of 1.5 or less for groups of 10 or more elements.     

Propagation of the Storegga tsunami into ice‐free lakes along the southern shores of the Barents Sea

Deposits in coastal lakes in northernmost Norway reveal that the Storegga tsunami propagated well into the Barents Sea ca. 8100–8200 years ago. A tsunami deposit – found in cores from five coastal lakes located near the North Cape in Finnmark – rests on an erosional unconformity and consists of graded sand layers and re‐deposited organic remains. Rip‐up clasts of lake mud, peat and soil suggest strong erosion of the lake floor and neighbouring land. Inundation reached at least 500 m inland and minimum vertical run‐up has been reconstructed to 3–4 m. In this part of the Arctic coastal lakes are usually covered by >1 m of solid lake ice in winter. The significant erosion and deposition of rip‐up clasts indicate that the lakes were ice free and that the ground was probably not frozen. We suggest that the Storegga slide and ensuing tsunami happened sometime in the summer season, between April and October. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于多期DEM和滑坡强度的滑坡风险评估

滑坡危险性定量评估是滑坡风险评估中的关键和难点,也是当前国际风险管理研究中的热点问题.以滑坡密集分布的黑方台南塬为研究区,以32处典型滑坡为研究对象,依据多期三维数字高程模型(DEM),提出了一种基于强度的滑坡危险性定量评估技术方法.根据多期三维地形信息的解译及野外调查,编制多期滑坡分布图,计算滑坡活动的频率.利用GIS技术,利用滑坡体积与速度的乘积计算滑坡强度.将滑坡危险性定义为滑坡频率和滑坡强度的乘积,同时调查和分析了黑方台地区各类承灾体的类型、价值及其在相应滑坡强度下的易损性,在此基础上开展了单体滑坡风险评估和黑方台南塬滑坡风险区划.     

Lunar crater Copernicus: search for debris of impacting body at Apollo 12 site

In an attempt to characterize meteoritic material at the Apollo 12 site, 4 KREEP concentrates from soil 12033 have been analyzed by neutron activation analysis. These contain a meteoritic component in which siderophile Ir, Re and Sb are depleted by about a factor of 2, while volatile Se, Zn, Ag and Bi are depleted by a factor of more than 5 relative to Au. This pattern does not closely resemble any major chondrite or iron meteorite group, but is very similar to that observed in high-alkali samples from Apollo 14. The meteoritic component in KREEP at both sites is therefore predominantly derived from Imbrian ejecta. However, a second, small component of primitive composition seems to be present in Apollo 12 KREEP, judging from the slight, uniform enrichments in Ir, Re, Sb, Se and Zn relative to Au. This component does not seem to be due to micrometeorites. If it is attributed to the Copernican projectile, the crater Copernicus may have been formed by a cometary nucleus, 4 km in diameter, with an impact velocity of 30–40 km/sec. These conclusions depend critically on the assumption that the meteoritic component in Apollo 12 KREEP is representative of the entire impact.     

“Mysterite” : a late condensate from the solar nebula

We have attempted to clarify the nature of “mysterite”, a material that had been postulated to explain the overabundance of Tl, Bi and Ag in certain chondrites. Four dark clasts and a vein sample from the H6 chondrite Supuhee were analyzed by radiochemical neutron activation analysis for Ag, Au, Bi, Br, Cd, Cs, Ge, In, Ir, Ni, Os, Rb, Re, Sb, Se, Te, Tl and Zn. One of the clasts is enriched in all volatile elements, while the other 4 samples are enriched only in the siderophile volatiles Ag, Bi and Tl. The enrichments range up to 100 times typical H6 chondrite abundances. The proportions of Ag, Bi, Tl suggest the presence of at least two, Tl-rich and Tl-poor, varieties of mysterite ($\text{Tl}\text{Bi}\text{= 7.2}$ and <0.1). The former seems to dominate in Supuhee and Krymka, and the latter in Mezö-Madaras. Apparently mysterite is a late condensate from the solar nebula that collected volatiles left behind by earlier generations of chondrites. It was incorporated in Supuhee and perhaps in other chondrites (mainly of low petrologic types) during brecciation events.