Persistent organic pollutants and histological lesions in Mayan catfish Ariopsis assimilis from the Bay of Chetumal, Mexico

Livers of catfish (Ariopsis assimilis) from the Bay of Chetumal were analyzed for organochlorine compounds and hydrocarbons as part of a study to diagnose the environmental health of the Bay after a catfish mass mortality that occurred in 1996. The presence of histological lesions in several organs of the fish as result of chemical exposure was also evaluated. The concentrations of organic pollutants found in the Bay may be considered high if compared to the levels reported for sites affected by chemical pollution. High prevalences of cellular alteration histopathologies were found in liver, including hepatic tumors. The presence of some lesions may be related statistically to environmental pollution in the Bay, specially with chlorinated compounds.     

Applying essentially non‐oscillatory interpolation to controlled‐source electromagnetic modelling*

Modelling and inversion of controlled‐source electromagnetic (CSEM) fields requires accurate interpolation of modelled results near strong resistivity contrasts. There, simple linear interpolation may produce large errors, whereas higher‐order interpolation may lead to oscillatory behaviour in the interpolated result. We propose to use the essentially non‐oscillatory, piecewise polynomial interpolation scheme designed for piecewise smooth functions that contains discontinuities in the function itself or in its first or higher derivatives. The scheme uses a non‐linear adaptive algorithm to select a set of interpolation points that represent the smoothest part of the function among the sets of neighbouring points. We present numerical examples to demonstrate the usefulness of the scheme. The first example shows that the essentially non‐oscillatory interpolation (ENO) scheme better captures an isolated discontinuity. In the second example, we consider the case of sampling the electric field computed by a finite‐volume CSEM code at a receiver location. In this example, the ENO interpolation performs quite well. However, the overall error is dominated by the discretization error. The other examples consider the comparison between sampling with essentially non‐oscillatory interpolation and existing interpolation schemes. In these examples, essentially non‐oscillatory interpolation provides more accurate results than standard interpolation, especially near discontinuities.     

Estimation of the effect of protective piers on wind wave parameters in the Sevastopol Bay

An effectiveness of the storm wave attenuation by protective piers in the Sevastopol Bay of the Black Sea is studied on the basis of numerical simulation using the SWAN spectral model. Analyzed are the parameters of waves generated by winds of four main directions as well as by the southern cyclone during the storm on November 11, 2007. It is obtained that waves from the northwest part of the Black Sea penetrate most intensively into the Sevastopol Bay in case of western wind and, to a lesser degree, in case of northern and southern winds. A protective effect of the piers is observed in the west part of the bay only and the wave attenuation near the southern coast is more significant than near the northern one. The area of the southern coast directly behind the southern pier is completely protected from the storm waves and, as moving away from the pier, the danger of intensive wave effect on the coast is kept.     

The biogeochemical sulfur cycle in the marine boundary layer over the Northeast Pacific Ocean

The major components of the marine boundary layer biogeochemical sulfur cycle were measured simultaneously onshore and off the coast of Washington State, U.S.A. during May 1987. Seawater dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations on the continental shelf were strongly influenced by coastal upwelling. Concentration further offshore were typical of summer values (2.2 nmol/L) at this latitude. Although seawater DMS concentrations were high on the biologically productive continental shelf (2–12 nmol/L), this region had no measurable effect on atmospheric DMS concentrations. Atmospheric DMS concentrations (0.1–12 nmol/m³), however, were extremely dependent upon wind speed and boundary layer height. Although there appeared to be an appreciable input of non-sea-salt sulfate to the marine boundary layer from the free troposphere, the local flux of DMS from the ocean to the atmosphere was sufficient to balance the remainder of the sulfur budget.     

The gravitational field of topographic-isostatic masses and the hypothesis of mass condensation II-the topographic-isostatic geoid

In Part I we focussed on a convergent representation of the gravitational potential generated bytopographic masses on top of the equipotential surface atMean Sea Level, thegeoid, and by those masses which compensate topography. Topographic masses have also been condensated, namely represented by a single layer. Part II extends the computation of the gravitational field of topographic-isostatic masses by a detailed analysis of itsforce field in terms ofvector-spherical harmonic functions. In addition, the discontinuous mass-condensated topographic gravitational force vector (head force) is given. Once we identify theMoho discontinuity asone interface of isostatically compensated topographical masses, we have computed the topographic potential and the gravitational potential which is generated by isostatically compensated masses atMean Sea Level, the geoid, and illustrated by various figures of geoidal undulations. In comparison to a data oriented global geoid computation ofJ. Engels (1991) the conclusion can be made that the assumption of aconstant crustal mass density, the basic condition for isostatic modeling, does not apply. Insteaddensity variations in the crust, e.g. betweenoceanic and continental crust densities, have to be introduced in order to match the global real geoid and its topographic-isostatic model. The performed analysis documents that thestandard isostatic models based upon aconstant crustal density areunreal.     

A comparison of the photospheric and interplanetary magnetic fields during the flight of Mariner IV

The polarity of the interplanetary magnetic field observed by the Mariner IV spacecraft is compared to the polarity of the photospheric magnetic field observed with the solar magnetograph at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Unlike the results obtained from observations during the flight of IMP-I, these polarities are not well correlated when the photospheric polarity is determined from data along a narrow latitudinal strip. It is suggested that the structure of the interplanetary field is often related to major features in the photospheric field that are observed over a broad range of solar latitudes.     

Time–space continuity of daily maps of fractional snow cover and albedo from MODIS

Using reflectance values from the seven MODIS “land” bands with 250 or 500 m resolution, along with a corresponding cloud product, we estimate the fraction of each 500 m pixel that snow covers, along with the albedo of that snow. The daily products have data gaps and errors because of cloud cover and sensor viewing geometry. Rather than make users interpolate and filter these patchy daily maps without completely understanding the retrieval algorithm and instrument properties, we use the daily time series to improve the estimate of the measured snow properties for a particular day. We use a combination of noise filtering, snow/cloud discrimination, and interpolation and smoothing to produce our best estimate of the daily snow cover and albedo. We consider two modes: one is the “predictive” mode, whereby we estimate the snow-covered area and albedo on that day using only the data up to that day; the other is the “retrospective” mode, whereby we reconstruct the history of the snow properties for a previous period.     

Variations in exospheric density at heights near 1100km, derived from satellite orbits

In an earlier paper, values of exospheric density were obtained from the orbit of Echo 2 for the years 1964–1965. The results indicated a semi-annual variation in density by a factor of between 2 and 3, considerably larger than predicted by existing atmospheric models.

These studies have now been extended to the beginning of 1967, using both Echo 2 and Calsphere 1, to show how the density is responding to increasing solar activity. Variations in density during 1964 have been analysed in more detail. The long-term variation associated with the solar cycle and the short-term variations associated with magnetic and solar disturbances agree with the variations expected on the basis of current models. The semi-annual variation is persisting to higher levels of solar activity, and although its amplitude is diminishing the factor of variation was still 1.6 in 1966.