Snow and frost: implications for spatiotemporal infiltration patterns – a review

Vast regions of the northern hemisphere are exposed to snowfall and seasonal frost. This has large effects on spatiotemporal distribution of infiltration and groundwater recharge processes as well as on the fate of pollutants. Therefore, snow and frost need to be central inherent elements of risk assessment and management schemes. However, snow and frost are often neglected or treated summarily or in a simplistic way by groundwater modellers. Snow deposition is uneven, and the snow is likely to sublimate, be redistributed and partly melt during the winter influencing the mass and spatial distribution of snow storage available for infiltration, the presence of ice layers within and under the snowpack and, therefore, also the spatial distribution of depths and permeability of the soil frost. In steep terrain, snowmelt may travel downhill tens of metres in hours along snow layers. The permeability of frozen soil is mainly influenced by soil type, its water and organic matter content, and the timing of the first snow in relation to the timing of sub‐zero temperatures. The aim with this paper is to review the literature on snow and frost processes, modelling approaches with the purpose to visualize and emphasize the need to include these processes when modelling, managing and predicting groundwater recharge for areas exposed to seasonal snow and frost. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The seismotectonics of western Skagerrak

The seismically active Skagerrak region in the border area between Denmark and Norway has traditionally been associated with uncertain earthquake locations due to the limited station coverage in the region. A new seismic station in southern Norway and a recent update of the earthquake database of the Danish National Network have led to a much more complete and homogeneous data coverage of the Skagerrak area, giving the possibility of improved earthquake locations in the region. In this study, we relocate earthquakes in the Skagerrak area to obtain a more exact picture of the seismicity and investigate well-recorded events to determine the depth distribution. Hypocenter depths are found to be generally in the range 11–25 km. Furthermore, new composite focal mechanisms are determined for clusters of events with similar waveforms. Results indicate that the Skagerrak seismicity is associated with shallow, crustal faults oriented in the NS direction south of the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone (STZ) as well as with the STZ itself. Mainly reverse faulting mechanisms along NE–SW oriented faults indicate maximum horizontal compression in the NW–SE direction. This is in agreement with World Stress Map generalizations, most likely associated with ridge push forces from the mid-Atlantic ridge, though modified probably by local crustal weaknesses.     

Effects of stress reduction on geomechanical and acoustic relationship of overconsolidated sands

Relationship between different geomechanical and acoustic properties measured from seven laboratory-tested unconsolidated natural sands with different mineralogical compositions and textures were presented. The samples were compacted in the uniaxial strain configuration from 0.5 to 30 MPa effective stress. Each sand sample was subjected to three loading–unloading cycles to study the influence of stress reduction. Geomechanical, elastic and acoustic parameters are different between normal compaction and overconsolidation (unloaded and reloaded). Stress path (K₀) data differ between normal consolidated and overconsolidated sediments. The K₀ value of approximately 0.5 is founded for most of the normal consolidated sands, but varies during unloading depending on mineral compositions and textural differences. The K₀ and overconsolidation ratio relation can be further simplified and can be influenced by the material compositions. K₀ can be used to estimate horizontal stress for drilling applications. The relationship between acoustic velocity and geomechanical is also found to be different between loading and unloading conditions. The static moduli of the overconsolidated sands are much higher than normal consolidated sands as the deformation is small (small strain). The correlation between dynamic and static elastic moduli is stronger for an overconsolidation stage than for a normal consolidation stage. The results of this study can contribute to geomechanical and acoustic dataset which can be applied for many seismic-geomechanics applications in shallow sands where mechanical compaction is the dominant mechanism.     

A method for improving uncalibrated phase delay estimation and ambiguity-fixing in real-time precise point positioning

In order to improve the performance of precise point positioning (PPP), this paper presents a new data processing scheme to shorten the convergence time and the observation time required for a reliable ambiguity-fixing. In the new scheme, L1 and L2 raw observations are used and the slant ionospheric delays are treated as unknown parameters. The empirical spatial and temporal constraints and the ionospheric delays derived from a real-time available ionospheric model are all considered as pseudo-observations into the estimation for strengthening the solution. Furthermore, we develop a real-time computational procedure for generating uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs) on L1 and L2 frequencies. The PPP solution is first carried out on all reference stations based on the proposed scheme, undifferenced float ambiguities on L1 and L2 frequencies can be directly obtained from the new scheme. The L1 and L2 UPDs are then generated and broadcasted to users in real-time. This data product and also the performance of the new PPP scheme are evaluated. Our results indicate that the new processing scheme considering ionospheric characteristics can reduce the convergence time by about 30 % for float kinematic solutions. The observation time for a reliable ambiguity-fixing is shortened by 25 % compared to that of the traditional ambiguity-fixed kinematic solution. When the new method is used for static reference stations, the observation time for ambiguity-fixing is about 10 min in static mode and only 5  min if the coordinates are fixed to well-known values.     

Global morphology of ionospheric sporadic E layer from the FormoSat-3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation experiment

Ionospheric sporadic-E (Es) activity and global morphology were studied using the 50 Hz signal-to-noise ratio amplitude and excess phase measurements from the FormoSat-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FS3/COSMIC) GPS radio occultation (RO) observations. The results are presented for data collected during the last sunspot cycle from mid-2006 to the end of 2017. The FS3/COSMIC generally performed more than 1000 complete E-region GPS RO observations per day, which were used to retrieve normalized L1-band amplitude standard deviation (SDL1) and relative electron density (N_e) profiles successfully. More or less 31% of those observations were identified as Es events based on SDL1 and peak SDL1 altitude criteria. We found that the peak Es-event i values are approximately proportional to the logarithms of the corresponding peak N_e differences. Five major geographical zones were identified, in which the seasonal and diurnal Es occurrence patterns are markedly different. These five zones include the geomagnetic equatorial zone (??5°?<?magnetic latitude (ML)?<?5°), two extended geomagnetic mid-latitude zones (15°?<?ML?<?55°, and ??55°?<?ML < ??15°), and two auroral zones (70°?<?ML, and ML < ??70°). The Es climatology, namely its variations with each identified zone, altitude, season, and local time has been documented.     

Simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange inter-frequency biases in precise point positioning using undifferenced and uncombined observations

GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP) performance is affected by the inter-frequency biases (IFBs) due to the application of frequency division multiple access technique. In this contribution, the impact of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on convergence performance and positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP based on undifferenced and uncombined observation models is investigated. Through a re-parameterization process, the following four pseudorange IFB handling schemes were proposed: neglecting IFBs, modeling IFBs as a linear or quadratic polynomial function of frequency number, and estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite. One week of GNSS observation data from 132 International GNSS Service stations was selected to investigate the contribution of simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on GLONASS-only and combined GPS + GLONASS PPP in both static and kinematic modes. The results show that considering IFBs can speed up the convergence of PPP using GLONASS observations by more than 20%. Apart from GLONASS-only kinematic PPP, the positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP is comparable among the four schemes. Overall, the scheme of estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite outperforms the other schemes in both convergence time reduction and positioning accuracy improvement, which indicates that the GLONASS IFBs may not strictly obey a linear or quadratic function relationship with the frequency number.     

Least squares inversion of one-dimensional magnetotelluric data: An assessment of procedures employed by Brown University

The pirmary objective of this paper is to review inversion algorithms employed to interpret magnetotelluric data by the geophysical/electromagnetics group at Brown University. Examples are presented from a variety of tectonic regimes — the Rio Grande rift, the Colorado Plateau, and Iceland. Following a brief tutorial in which the basic relations for the inverse prrolem are developed, we discuss the detectability and resolvability of various elements of the models. The correlation between certain model parameters is stressed, a phenomena well-known to interpreters. In this paper we emphasize the importance of identifying the precise range of values for which two or more parameters are coupled — these ranges are defined by what wer term saturation limits. Generalized inverse theory is employed to arrive at optimal models which are evaluated in terms of resolution and information matrices. The degree to which models fit a given dat base can be assessed using several quantitative approaches. We have found that it is impotant not only to determine the best fitting model, but also to identify those marginal solutions which also fall within the range of uncertainty of the data. The results from our direct invverse method agree favorably with those from Monte Carlo methods.     

Formation and age of sphalerite mineralization in carbonate rocks of Bajocian age in the Swiss Jura Mountains: evidence of Mesozoic hydrothermal activity

A combination of petrographic and geochemical techniques was applied to better constrain the origin and evolution of the fluid systems responsible for the formation of disseminated, Cd-rich (up to 0.6 wt%), sphalerite (ZnS) mineralization in the northeastern part of the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. The Rb–Sr ages of sphalerite samples indicate that a main phase of sphalerite formation occurred near the boundary between the late Middle and early Late Jurassic, at around 162 Ma. The negative δ³⁴S values (?22.3 to ?5.3 ‰) suggest that biogenic sulfide sulfur was involved in ZnS precipitation. The strontium isotope composition is more radiogenic than that of contemporaneous seawater, reflecting the interaction of mineralizing fluids with silicate rocks. Lead isotope signatures are very uniform (²⁰⁶Pb^/204Pb = 18.63–18.67, ²⁰⁷Pb^/204Pb = 15.63–15.64, ²⁰⁸Pb^/204Pb = 38.51–38.63), indicating an isotopically well-homogenized fluid system. The basement rocks underlying the Jurassic strata are considered to be the main source of metals for the sphalerite mineralization. The migration of deep-sourced hydrothermal saline metal-bearing fluids into the Bajocian host carbonates containing sedimentary reduced sulfur resulted in the precipitation of sulfides. The period of sphalerite formation near the Middle–Late Jurassic boundary is characterized by enhanced tectonic and hydrothermal activity in Europe, related to the opening of the Central Atlantic and tectonic/thermal subsidence during spreading of the Alpine Tethys. Our study provides evidence that the Bajocian carbonate rocks in the Jura Mountains area were affected by the circulation of deep-sourced metal-bearing hydrothermal fluids in response to these continent-wide tectonothermal events. The presence of sphalerite mineralization and associated geochemical anomalies in Zn and Cd contents in carbonate rocks may also be used to trace basement features.     

Crustal attenuation for Jamaica, West Indies

The S and coda wave spectra of small earthquakes on the island of Jamaica were used to determine the near surface and coda Q attenuation, and Q _c,respectively. Q _c determined by the single-station method was found in the range of 1 to 10 Hertz to be given by the relationship, Q _c= 60 ± 5f ^0.87±0.05. This suggests that the Jamaican crust is highly attenuating which is further supported by the observation of rapid intensity fall-off with distance for earthquakes that have affected the island in the past. , determined from S-wave spectra with short travel times was found to be 0.058 ± 0.012 on the central crustal block, which makes up nearly two-thirds of the island, and 0.080 ± 0.014 in surrounding belt sub-regions. The pattern of values seems to fit with the surface geology in that the central block has areas of exposed outcrops of older and harder rock than the belts, which are characterized by thicker sedimentary sequences as well as intense fracturing and faulting.Atkinson and Boore (1998) and Atkinson(2001) presented an alternative method to stochastic modelling for ground motion in Eastern North America, whereby California attenuation relationships were modified to account for crustal differences invelocity-depth profile, Q and between both regions. Following their example, the California spectral attenuation relation of Boore, Joyner and Fumal (1997) was modified to account for differences between the California and Jamaica crust, resulting in an attenuation relation that is deemed to be more appropriate for Jamaica. Spectral accelerations for Jamaica when compared to California, are especially reduced beyond 20 km from the source and at high frequencies, f 1 hertz.The study concludes that the Jamaican crust, although having an oceanic composition is highly attenuating, which may be a result of intensive tectonic processes, whereas is consistent with near-rock conditions on the central block and soft rock conditions elsewhere on the island.