The influence of the organic aerosol component on CCN supersaturation spectra for different aerosol types

Abstract This paper describes the effect of the presence of water-soluble organic compounds (WSOC) in aerosol particles on the aerosol critical supersaturation as defined by the Köhler theory and on cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration. Taking into account both the soluble mass increase and the surface tension depression due to WSOC, we calculated a substantial decrease of the aerosol critical supersaturation, which results in a large increase in CCN number concentration. CCN supersaturation spectra were computed for three different aerosol types: marine, rural and urban. The increase of CCN number concentration in the presence of WSOC (with respect to the case when only the inorganic aerosol compounds are considered) varies with aerosol type, with an increase up to 13% in the marine case, up to 97% in the rural case, and up to 110% in the urban case, for the supersaturation range typical of atmospheric conditions.     

Wind sedimentation in the Jafurah sand sea, Saudi Arabia

The Jafurah sand sea of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia extends along the Arabian Gulf coastline from Kuwait in the north to the Rub Al Khali in the south, a distance of about 800 km. Sand drifts southward to south-eastward from regions of high wind energy in the north to low wind energy in the south. The aeolian landscape is zoned, with areas of deflation, transport and deposition from north to south. Drift rates in the zone of transport, near Abqaiq, range from 2 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 on sabkhas, to 29 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 on the crests of dunes. Average drift rates of approximately 18 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 observed during the study can cause about 1 m of accumulation per 5500 yr in a 100 km zone of deposition downwind, not including the bulk transport represented by the forward advance of dunes. Dune advance ranged from 23 m (2.9 m high dune) to 3 m (23 m high dune) during April-October 1980. The study area consists of dune, interdune, sand sheet and siliciclastic sabkha terrains, each of which is characterized by differing drift rates, and differing rates of erosion or deposition. Sedimentation occurs by lateral movement of dunes and interdunes, and vertical accretion by sand sheets and sabkhas.     

Are We There Yet? A Roadmap to Understanding National Park Service Rulemaking

The preproposal stage of the rulemaking process is notoriously understudied, but enormously important in determining regulatory outputs. Recently, Rinfret (2011c Rinfret , S. R. 2011c . Frames of influence: U.S. environmental rulemaking case studies . Rev. Policy Res. 28 ( 3 ): 231 – 245 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) analyzed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) rulemaking process and developed a frame analysis model to interpret stakeholder influence during the preproposal stage. Rinfret argues that stakeholders use three frames to influence agency rulemaking, including an expertise, a fiscal feasibility, and an information frame. This article tests this model to determine whether it is applicable to other federal agencies such as the National Park Service (NPS). Through an analysis of stakeholder framing within the 2012 NPS Yellowstone Winter Use Rule, this research confirms that Rinfret's model is indeed applicable to the NPS process. Therefore, this research suggests that this theoretical model examining stakeholder influence is applicable to other public land agencies, and arguably can be applied across the bureaucracy.     

Assessment of three temperature reconstruction methods in the virtual reality of a climate simulation

The performance of statistical climate reconstruction methods in the pre-instrumental period is uncertain, as they are calibrated in a short instrumental period but applied to much longer reconstructions time spans. Here, the virtual reality created by a climate simulation of the past millennium with the model ECHO-G is used as a test bed of three methods to reconstruct the annual Northern Hemisphere temperature. The methods are Composite plus Scaling, the inverse regression method of Mann et al. (Nature 392:779–787, 1998) and a direct principal-components regression method. The testing methodology is based on the construction of pseudo-proxies derived from the climate model output, the application of each of these methods to pseudo-proxy timeseries, and the comparison of their result with the simulated mean temperature. Different structures of the noise have been used to construct pseudo-proxies, ranging from the simulated grid-point precipitation. Also, one sparse and one denser pseudo-proxy network, co-located with two real networks, have been considered. All three methods underestimate the simulated variations of the Northern Hemisphere temperature, but the Composite plus Scaling method clearly displays a better performance and is robust against the different noise models and network size. The most relevant factor determining the skill of the reconstruction appears to be the network size, whereas the different noise models tend to yield similar results.     

A hydrogeological type section for the Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary

The Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary has an agricultural economy but is plagued by severe problems of soil and wetland salinization despite 200 years of intensive research. The study’s objective was to determine the origin of salts and the mechanisms of salinity distribution. To this end, flow-patterns and chemistry of groundwater were evaluated in a 100 km?×?65 km area, with emphasis on the Kolon- and Kelemenszék Lakes region. The lakes are located 13 km apart and have chemically contrasting water and soil types. Two groundwater flow-domains were identified: a gravity-drive meteoric fresh water and an over-pressured deeper domain of saline water. The waters are channeled by a highly permeable gravel aquifer to the surface and may merge near Kelemenszék Lake, causing it to be saline. Kolon Lake receives meteoric groundwater only, hence its fresh chemical character. The cross-formational ascent of the deep waters, combined with the gravitational systems’ geometry and the flow-channeling effect of the near-surface rocks, explains the contrasting chemistry between lakes, and the origin and pattern of soil salinization. The scheme is proposed as a generally valid hydrogeological profile for the interfluve, and has been named the Duna-Tisza Interfluve Hydrogeological Type Section.     

The reduction of aliasing in gravity anomalies and geoid heights using digital terrain data

Observations of gravity can be aliased by virtue of the logistics involved in collecting these data in the field. For instance, gravity measurements are often made in more accessible lowland areas where there are roads and tracks, thus omitting areas of higher relief in between. The gravimetric determination of the geoid requires mean terrain-corrected free-air anomalies; however, anomalies based only on the observations in lowland regions are not necessarily representative of the true mean value over the topography. A five-stage approach is taken that uses a digital elevation model, which provides a more accurate representation of the topography than the gravity observation elevations, to reduce the unrepresentative sampling in the gravity observations. When using this approach with the Australian digital elevation model, the terrain-corrected free-air anomalies generated from the Australian gravity data base change by between 77.075 and −84.335 mgal (−0.193 mgal mean and 2.687 mgal standard deviation). Subsequent gravimetric geoid computations are used to illustrate the effect of aliasing in the Australian gravity data upon the geoid. The difference between 'aliased' and 'non-aliased' gravimetric geoid solutions varies by between 0.732 and −1.816 m (−0.058 m mean and 0.122 m standard deviation). Based on these conceptual arguments and numerical results, it is recommended that supplementary digital elevation information be included during the estimation of mean gravity anomalies prior to the computation of a gravimetric geoid model.     

Contrast in life histories of exploited fishes and ecosystem structures in coastal waters off west Canada and east Korea

By reviewing the history of fishery exploitation in the coastal waters of west Canada and east Korea, related with contrasting life history strategies of the dominant species, the fishery management challenges that each country would face in the upcoming decades were outlined. In the ecosystem of the Canadian western coastal waters, the dominant oceanographic feature is the coastal upwelling domain off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the northernmost extent of the California Current System in the eastern North Pacific. In the marine ecosystem of the eastern coasts of Korea (the Japan/East Sea), a major oceanographic feature is the Tsushima Warm Current, a branch of the Kuroshio Current in the western North Pacific. Fishes in the Canadian ecosystem are dominated by demersal, long-lived species such as flatfish, rockfish, sablefish, and halibut. During summer, migratory pelagic species such as Pacific hake, Pacific salmon, and recently Pacific sardine, move into this area to feed. In the late 1970s, Canada declared jurisdiction for 200 miles from their coastline, and major fisheries species in Canadian waters have been managed with a quota system. The overall fishing intensity off the west coast of Vancouver Island has been relatively moderate compared to Korean waters. Fishes in the ecosystem of the eastern Korean waters are dominated by short-lived pelagic and demersal fish. Historically, Korea has shared marine resources in this area with neighbouring countries, but stock assessments and quotas have only recently (since the late-1990s) been implemented for some major species. In the Korean ecosystem, fisheries can be described as intensive, and many stocks have been rated as overfished. The two ecosystems responded differently to climate impacts such as regime shifts under different exploitation histories. In the future, both countries will face the challenge of global warming and subsequent impacts on ecosystems, necessitating developing adaptive fisheries management plans. The challenges will be contrasting for the two countries: Canada will need to conserve fish populations, while Korea will need to focus on rebuilding depleted fish populations.     

Middle Miocene aquatic and wetland vegetation of the paleosinkhole at Tarnów Opolski,SW Poland

I analyzed spores, pollen and organic-walled algal remains in Middle Miocene deposits that filled a paleosinkhole at Tarnów Opolski, in the Upper Silesian Upland, Poland. Middle Triassic limestone bedrock in the study area underwent intense karstification under relatively warm and humid climate, resulting in development of numerous sinkholes. As the corrosion reached non-karstified marls, flowing water in the vadose zone was plugged and meteoric waters thus accumulated, leading to pond development. This palaeobotanical study was undertaken to “reconstruct” the fossil freshwater algae community and vegetation in and around the water body. Chlorophyta such as Botryococcus, filamentous algae from the family Zygnemataceae, mainly Mougeotia, Spirogyra and Zygnema, and desmids were important components of the algal assemblage. Most of the identified algae prefer mesotrophic to eutrophic conditions, and are characteristic of stagnant or slow-flowing shallow water. Among the free-floating and rooted plants were Salviniaceae/Azollaceae (probably Salvinia), Nuphar, Potamogeton, and carnivorous taxa such as Utricularia and probably Aldrovanda. The water body was surrounded by swamp vegetation composed of herbs such as Typha, Sparganium, Alismataceae and others, and riparian forests. The upper portion of the sediment section contains abundant pollen of swamp forest taxa such as Taxodium/Glyptostrobus, Nyssa and Alnus. The paleobotanical remains from the sinkhole at Tarnów Opolski suggest it was a shallow water body that was probably prone to rapid warming. Presence of resting cells, e.g. zygospores of Zygnemataceae and desmids, suggests that the pond may have dried periodically. Presence of Nuphar, Utricularia and Aldrovanda pollen, however, indicates long periods with standing water.     

Segmentation algorithm for long time series analysis

Time series analysis is an important issue in the earth science-related engineering applications such as hydrology, meteorology and environmetrics. Inconsistency and nonhomogeneity that might arise in a time series yield segments with different statistical characteristics. In this study, an algorithm based on the first order statistical moment (average) of a time series is developed and applied on five time series with length ranging from 84 items to nearly 1,300. Comparison to the existing segmentation algorithms proves the applicability and usefulness of the proposed algorithm in long hydrometeorological and geophysical time series analysis.