Engineering aspects of obtaining clear seawater from the muddy shores

On some shores the seawater is muddy, contaminated with fine silt and clay in suspension. If it became necessary to use such seawater it would be essential either to resort to filtration or to allow for settling of soil sediments. The present scheme was undertaken with a view to providing clear seawater for experimentation in growing crops and plants with seawater. The system consisted of a filtration unit embedded in the shore over which the tidal water passes. The clear water is run through a conveying assembly and is stored in a sump for end uses. The design, construction materials and construction operation of such a device on coastal sand dunes has been described in detail. The precautions to be taken under such circumstances are also given.     

Recent Trends of Arctic and Antarctic Summer Sea-Ice Cover Observed from Space-Borne Scatterometer

Long term variations in Sea ice distribution strongly influence the atmosphere and ocean in the polar regions. In the recent period significant variations in sea ice cover have been observed in both the hemispheres. In the past, studies have been carried out that report the trends either at the Arctic/Antarctic level or at sector level. However, only a few studies have concentrated on the investigation of trends at grid level using scatterometer data. The present study focuses on the investigations of the sea ice trend at 1 × 1 degree grid level over the period 2000–2007 using QuickSCAT 0.2-degree resolution Scatterometer data. It was observed that in the Arctic overall monthly trend is negative in all the sectors, with the Arctic level decline of 3.26% per year. In the Antarctic, region-wise different trends have been observed. Negative trend is observed in the Amundsen- Bellingshausen Seas and also in the Indian Ocean sector near the continental Ice shelves. It was highlighted that significant trends exists within the pockets of marginal seas.     

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of superimposed magnetized,rotating fluids with neutral particles and resistivity

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of two superimposed fluids has been studied. One of the fluids is non-conducting and the other is conducting with finite resistivity. The fluids are assumed rotating and slipping past each other with a relative velocity. The neutral particles are also incorporated in one of the fluids of the system. A general dispersion relation has been derived and discussed under different conditions. The effect of rotation and the neutral particles, considering an infinitely-conducting system has also been analyzed and it is observed that small rotation and the presence of neutral particles destabilize the system. The effect of neutral particles is to decrease the effect of magnetic field, angular velocity, and the gravitational field. It has been found that an otherwise stable mode becomes overstable and grows exponentially in the presence of finite resistivity.     

Prioritization of Malesari mini-watersheds through morphometric analysis: a remote sensing and GIS perspective

Geographical information system and remote sensing are proven to be an efficient tool for locating water harvesting structures by prioritization of mini-watersheds through morphometric analysis. In this study, the morphometric analysis and prioritization of ten mini-watersheds of Malesari watershed, situated in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra region of Gujarat state, India, are studied. For prioritization of mini-watersheds, morphometric analysis is utilized by using the linear parameters such as bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, texture ratio, and length of overland flow and shape parameters such as form factor, shape factor, elongation ratio, compactness constant, and circularity ratio. The different prioritization ranks are assigned after evaluation of the compound factor. Digital elevation model from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, digitized contour, and other thematic layers like drainage order, drainage density, and geology are created and analyzed over ArcGIS 9.1 platform. Combining all thematic layers with soil and slope map, the best feasibility of positioning check dams in mini-watershed has been proposed, after validating the sites through the field surveys.     

Nonlinear Kelvin-Helmholtz magnetohydrodynamic instability of a rotating plasma

Nonlinear analysis for Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of an incompressible, inviscid, rotating fluid with infinite conductivity in the presence of gravity and surface tension has been discussed. The unperturbed magnetic field on two sides of the interface is taken to be uniform. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the time variation of amplitude of small perturbations with wave number around the neutral stability is derived. It is found that stability of a magnetised K-H rotating configuration depends on the density ratio, surface tension, and discontinuity of velocity and magnetic field. The effect of an aligned magnetic field and rotation on the non-linear instability of a rotating conducting plasma has been discussed in certain important limiting cases.     

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of composite plasma in an oblique magnetic field with resistivity

Analytic structure of high-density steady isothermal spheres is discussed using the TOV equation of hydrostatic equilibrium which satisfies an equation of state of the kind:P = K _g , = _g c ².Approximate analytical solutions to the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations of hydrostatic equilibrium in (, ), (,U) and (u, v) phase planes in concise and simple form useful for short computer programmes or on small calculator, have been given. In Figures 1, 2, and 3, respectively, we display the qualitative behaviours of the ratio of gas density _g to the central density _gc , _g / _gc ; pressureP to the _gc ,P/ _gc ; and the metric componente ^–, for three representative general relativistic (GR) isothermal configurations =0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. Figure 4 shows the solution curve (, ) for =0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 (=0 represents the classical (Newtonian) curve). Numerical values of physical quantitiesv (=4r ² P ^*(r)), in steps ofu (=M(r)/r)=0.03, and the mass functionU, in steps of =0.2 (dimensionless radial distance), are given, respectively, in Tables I and II. Other interesting features of the configurations, such as ratio of gravitational radius 2GM/c ² to the coordinate radiusR, mass distributionM(r)/M, pressure (or density) distributionP/P _c , binding energy (B.E.), etc., have also been incorporated in the text. It has further been shown that velocity of sound inside the configurations is always less than the velocity of light.Part of the work done at Azerbaijan State University, Baku, U.S.S.R., and Mosul University, Mosul, Iraq, 1985-1986     

National Inventory of Rabi Pulses in India Using Remotely Sensed Data

A scheme called National Food Security Mission was launched by Government of India in 2007 for wheat, rice and pulses crops. At the request of Ministry of Agriculture for monitoring intensification of pulses a project called Pulses Intensification was taken up in Rabi season 2012–2013. Reliable statistics using advanced methods is very important for variety of pulse crops. Remotely sensed data can help in pre-harvest area estimation of pulse crops. Pulses in India are grown as partly scattered and partly contiguous crop. Growth in scattered areas and poor vegetation canopy of some of the pulse crops poses a challenge in its identification and discrimination using remotely sensed data. National Inventory of Rabi pulse crops in major growing regions of northern and southern parts of India was attempted. Multi-date AWiFS data and multi-date NDVI products of AWiFS of Rabi season 2014–2015 were used to study spectral-temporal behavior of pulse crops. Pulse crops accuracies of more than 95 % was observed in contiguous areas and 50–80.77 % in scattered regions. All India area estimate of Rabi pulses for the year 2014–2015 was 8963.327 ‘000 ha.     

Radio and X-ray burst from PSR 0950+08

This article describes in detail a burst from PSR 0950+08 on July 29, 1992. This event was observed by two radio telescopes (separated by ~ 200 km) operating at 103 MHz. There exists a very convincing indirect evidence that at the same time the pulsar also emitted large X-ray flux. The X-ray flux during the event compares with that during a solar X-ray flare. During the event the Sun was extraordinarily quiet as the solar X-ray flux 3 · 10^–7 W/m² only was observed. The cause for the burst is quite unknown and may be complex. However, a possibility of accretion of a comet-like object by pulsar may provide reasonable explanation of the observations. These results open some interesting questions about the pulsar physics.