Rough seas and time-lapse seismic

Time‐lapse seismic surveying has become an accepted tool for reservoir monitoring applications, thus placing a high premium on data repeatability. One factor affecting data repeatability is the influence of the rough sea‐surface on the ghost reflection and the resulting seismic wavelets of the sources and receivers. During data analysis, the sea‐surface is normally assumed to be stationary and, indeed, to be flat. The non‐flatness of the sea‐surface introduces amplitude and phase perturbations to the source and receiver responses and these can affect the time‐lapse image. We simulated the influence of rough sea‐surfaces on seismic data acquisition. For a typical seismic line with a 48‐fold stack, a 2‐m significant‐wave‐height sea introduces RMS errors of about 5–10% into the stacked data. This level of error is probably not important for structural imaging but could be significant for time‐lapse surveying when the expected difference anomaly is small. The errors are distributed differently for sources and receivers because of the different ways they are towed. Furthermore, the source wavelet is determined by the sea shape at the moment the shot is fired, whereas the receiver wavelet is time‐varying because the sea moves significantly during the seismic record.     

Seismic response and energy dissipation of 3D complex steel buildings considering the influence of interior semi-rigid connections: low- medium- and high-rise

A numerical investigation regarding the seismic behavior of complex-3D steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames (PMRF) and interior gravity frames (GF) is conducted. The interior connections are assumed to be first perfectly pinned (PP) and then semi-rigid (SR); the two model responses are compared. Three steel building models representing low-, medium- and high-rise buildings, and several strong motions are used. The relative stiffness of SR connections is calculated according to the Richard Model and the Beam Line Theory. The Ruaumoko Computer Program is used to perform the required step-by-step nonlinear seismic analysis. Results indicate that interstory shears and interstory displacements at PMRF may be significantly reduced when interior connections are modeled as SR. Average reductions of up to 20, 46 and 11% are observed for interstory shears, for low-, medium-, and high-rise buildings, respectively. The corresponding reductions for interstory displacements are about 14, 44 and 15%. The contribution of GF to the lateral resistance is considerable, which significantly increases when the connections are modeled as SR; relative contributions larger than 80% are observed. The dissipated energy (DE) at PMRF is larger for the buildings with PP than for the buildings with SR connections indicating that damage at PMRF is reduced. Thus, the effect of the stiffness and the DE at interior connections should not be ignored. However, the design of some elements, particularly columns of the GF, has to be revised; these members may not be able to support the loads produced by the neglected lateral contribution if they are not properly designed.     

Multi‐transient electromagnetic repeatability experiment over the North Sea Harding field‡

We present results of synthetic time‐lapse and real repeatability multi‐transient electromagnetic surveys over the North Sea Harding field. Using Archie's law to convert porosity and fluid saturation to resistivity we created 3D isotropic models of the reservoir resistivity at different stages of production from the initial state in 1996 through to complete hydrocarbon production by 2016 and, for each stage, we simulated an east‐west transient electromagnetic survey line across Harding. Unconstrained 1D full‐waveform Occam inversions of these synthetic data show that Harding should be detectable and its lateral extent reasonably well‐defined. Resistivity changes caused by hydrocarbon production from initial pre‐production state to production of the oil rim in 2011 are discernible as are significant changes from 2011–2016 during the modelled gas blowdown phase. The 2D repeatability surveys of 2007 and 2008 tied two wells: one on and the other off the structure. Between the two surveys the segment of the field under investigation produced 3.9 million barrels of oil – not enough to generate an observable time‐lapse electromagnetic anomaly with a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 40 dB. Processing of the 2007 and 2008 data included deconvolution for the measured source current and removal of spatially‐correlated noise, which increased the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the recovered impulse responses by about 20 dB and resulted in a normalized root‐mean‐square difference of 3.9% between the data sets. 1D full‐waveform Occam inversions of the real data showed that Harding was detectable and its lateral extent was also reasonably well‐defined. The results indicate that the multi‐transient electromagnetic method is suitable for exploration, appraisal and monitoring hydrocarbon production.     

Pole orientation of 16 psyche by two independent methods

Nineteen new lightcurves of 16 Psyche are presented along with a pole orientation derived using two independent methods, namely, photometric astrometry (PA) and magnitude-amplitude-shape-aspect (MASA). The pole orientations found using these two methods agree to within 4°. The results from applying photometric astrometry were prograde rotation, a sidereal period of $\text{0}\text{d}\text{dot}\text{1748143 ± 0}\text{d}\text{dot}\text{0000003}$, and a pole at longitude 223° and latitude +37°, with an uncertainty of 10°; and, from applying magnitude-amplitude-shape-aspect a pole at 220 ± 1°, +40 ± 4°, and a modeled triaxial ellipsoid shape (a > b > c) with a/b = 1.33 ± 0.02 and b/c = 1.33 ± 0.07. The discrepancy between the high pole latitude found here and the low latitudes reported by others is discussed.     

RXTE spectroscopy of GRS 1915+105

The galactic superluminal motion source GRS 1915+105 has been extensively observed with the RXTE satellite over the last two years. More than 250 RXTE pointings have been performed until mid-May 1998 with more than 1.5 Msec exposure time on roughly a weekly basis. Here we report on first results of our spectral analysis of a major part of these pointed RXTE observations. We establish the existence of at least 5 spectral components and present the changes of these components over the last two years.     

The planet formation imager

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI, www.planetformationimager.org) is a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet formation in nearby star forming regions. PFI will be sensitive to warm dust emission using mid-infrared capabilities made possible by precise fringe tracking in the near-infrared. An L/M band combiner will be especially sensitive to thermal emission from young exoplanets (and their disks) with a high spectral resolution mode to probe the kinematics of CO and H₂O gas. In this paper, we give an overview of the main science goals of PFI, define a baseline PFI architecture that can achieve those goals, point at remaining technical challenges, and suggest activities today that will help make the Planet Formation Imager facility a reality.     

A test of the plausibility of eclipsing binary asteroids

We present an analytic method for producing the lightcurve of a system of spherical bodies in circular orbit about their common center of mass and then use it to model a lightcurve of 171 Ophelia. We find that a model in which the components have a diameter ratio of 1:2.96, have equal albedos, and circle one another in a synchronous orbit (period = 13.146 hr) inclined by 15° to our line of sight provides a reasonable fit to the observed lightcurve. An expression is given for the density in terms of the model parameters. If this lightcurve of Ophelia is produced by mutual eclipses of spherical components the mean density of the system can not exceed 1.7 g cm^?3. In view of these results we conclude that it is possible for Ophelia to be a binary.     

Separating contributions from natural and anthropogenic sources in atmospheric methane from the Black Sea region,Romania

The Danube Delta-Black Sea region of Romania is an important wetland, and this preliminary study evaluates the significance of this region as a source of atmospheric CH₄. Measurements of the mixing ratio and δ¹³C in CH₄ are reported from air and water samples collected at eight sites in the Danube Delta. High mixing ratios of CH₄ were found in air (2500–14,000 ppb) and dissolved in water samples (∼1–10 μmol L⁻¹), demonstrating that the Danube Delta is an important natural source of CH₄. The intercepts on Keeling plots of about −62‰ show that the main source of CH₄ in this region is microbial, probably resulting primarily from acetate fermentation. Atmospheric CH₄ and CO data from the NOAA/ESRL (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory) were used to make a preliminary estimate of biogenic CH₄ at the Black Sea sampling site at Constanta (BSC). These data were used to calculate ratios of CH₄/CO in air samples, and using an assumed CH₄/CO anthropogenic emissions ratio of 0.6, fossil fuel emissions at BSC were estimated. Biogenic CH₄ emissions were then estimated by a simple mass balance approach. Keeling plots of well-mixed air from the BSC site suggested a stronger wetland source in summer and a stronger fossil fuel source in winter.     

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and spectral type

We investigate the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and spectral type using the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). Spectral types are assigned using the principal-component analysis of Madgwick et al. We divide the sample into two broad spectral classes: galaxies with strong emission lines ('late types') and more quiescent galaxies ('early types'). We measure the clustering in real space, free from any distortion of the clustering pattern owing to peculiar velocities, for a series of volume-limited samples. The projected correlation functions of both spectral types are well described by a power law for transverse separations in the range  2<( σ / h ^-1 Mpc)<15  , with a marginally steeper slope for early types than late types. Both early and late types have approximately the same dependence of clustering strength on luminosity, with the clustering amplitude increasing by a factor of ∼2.5 between L * and 4 L *. At all luminosities, however, the correlation function amplitude for the early types is ∼50 per cent higher than that of the late types. These results support the view that luminosity, and not type, is the dominant factor in determining how the clustering strength of the whole galaxy population varies with luminosity.